River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1874-05-22
Ancient Ruins i'm Arizona:

A letter to the st. Louis Republican
gives the following interesting account
of some ruins recently discovered in
Arizona:
"a careful examination of some
ruins, found some miles east Of Flor,
ence, 81 ella liver, has been made.
Lieutenant Ward was the first explorer
who came nn ,1o+. .ne ucsoIate remains of
a once imposing architectural pile. 1t
has been deserted perhaps for more thar
= thousand YEARS; and has bern trums
Bling away III the Wilderness. The APP
ache even never pitched his tent upon
the spot SO thickly stfewi with flag
ments of the work of a persisted race.
The principal ruin is parallelogram
fortihcation, six hundred feet i'll width
by sixteen hundred feet in length. The
walls, which were built of stone, have
long been oyerthrown and are over
grown by trees and wild vines. LII
many places a mere ridge indicates the
line of the wall, the stone wall having
disappeared beneath the surface.
Within the enclosed area are the re-
mains of a greater structure 200 by 260
feet, constructed of roughly-hewn stone.
In some places the walls remain almost
perfect TO the height of some twelve
feet above the surface. On the east
side of the grdadd casa there are tI.0
openings of an oval shape which doubt
less served the purpose of windows.
On the inner sides of the walls of the
palace, for such IL doubtless was, there
are yet perfectly distinct tracings
of the image of the sun. There are
two towers, at the southeast and south
west corners OF the great enclosures,
still standing, one of which is twenty
six, and the other thirty -one feet high.
These have evidently been much high
er, as the broken tops and the amount
of debris near their base indicate. A
few copper implements, some small
golden onaments-olle being an image
of the sun with a perforation in the
middle-and some stone utensils, and
two rudely-calved stone vases, much
like those found at Zupetaro and Copan,
in Central America, are all the works of
art yet discovered. No excavations
have been made us vet to determine
fully the extent and character Of these
ruins.
The RUNS are situated IN a small
plain, elevated nearly two hundred feet
above the bed OF the ella. just west
of the walls of the fortitication there is
n beautiful stream of water having its
source in the mountains, which crosses
the plain, and by a series Of cataracts
falls into the ella about two miles be-
low. The fragments Of pottery and
polished stone reveal condition of
civilization among the builders Of these
ruins analogous to that of the ancient
Peruvian, Central American and Mexi-
can nations. The country in the vicin-
ity of this buried palace is particularly
wild, and unusually desolale. No clue
to the builder Of this great fortified
palace, with its towers and moat, has
been or is likely ever to be discov-
cred. One thing, however. is appa-
rent, that this whole country was once
peopled bya race having a higher grade
of civilization than is found among any
of the native tribes Of the later ages.
But whether this race were the ances-
tors of pimos, or some extinct people,
Is not, and cannot certainly be known,
The ruins on the ella are another I'M
covered Palcnque, another Copan, an
Allan exposed ut last 81 bewilder and
eonfound. II is understood that these
extensive ruins will be thoroughly ex.
plored during the present year