Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-05-21
Ancient Ruins In 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, on Gila river, has been made.
Lieutenant Ward was the first explorer
who came upon the desolate remains of
a once imposing architectural pile. It
has been deserted perhaps for more than
o thousand years; and has been crum-
bling away in the wilderness. The Ap-
ache even never pitched his tent upon
the spot SO thickly strewn with frag-
ments of the work Of a perished race.
The principal ruin is parallelogram
fortitication, six hundred feet in width
by sixteen hundred feet in length. The
walls, which were built of stone, have
long been overthrown and are over
grown by trees and wild vines. In
many places 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 26O
feet, constructed of roughly-hewn stone.
In some places the walls remain almost
perfect to the heig ght of some twelve
feet above the surface. On the east
side of the granda casa there are two
openings of nm oval shape which doubt
less served the purpose of windows.
On the inner sides of the walls of the
palace, for such it 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 ornaments-one being an image
Of the sun with q perforation in the
middle-and some stone utensils, and
two rudely-carved 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 ma,lc 81; yet to determine
fully the extent and character of these
ruins.
"The ruins are situated in small
plain, elevated nearly two hundred feet
above the bed of the Gila. just west
of the walls of the fortifcation there is
q beautiful stream of water having its
source in the mountains, which crosses
the plain, and by a series of cataracts
falls into the Gila 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 desolate. 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 by a race having hi CHER 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 tho Gila are another un-
covered Palenque, another Copan, an
Allan exposed at last to bewilder and
confound. It is understood that these
extensive ruins will be thoroughly ex-
plored during the present year