Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-07-06
AZTEC RUINS.
Traces of the old Races in southwest
ern COIOradO-DweIIIngs of our PrI-
meVal Predecessors.

mevaI Predecessors.
The ancient ruins which are scat
tered all over this country are some
of the strangest unwritten pages of
history. Our fertile valleys have
been densely inhabited and highly
cultivated by an enlightened race of
people centuries ago, while the ru-
ins of the houses, corals, towns, for
tifcations, bitches, pottery-ware,
drawings, non-interpretable writings,
etc, 90 to show there have been
many arts cultivated in those days
which are now entirely lost to the
human race. Their houses have been
built of almost every kind of rock,
from small boulders to the finest
sandstone. Some of the finest of
these ruins, and the most perfect,
are located fifteen miles up the Ami
mas River, or about thirty-fve miles
below Animas City, in large val
ley fifteen miles long by seven wide,
on the west side of the river. This
valley has been covered with build
ings of every size, the two largest
ones being 3OOx6 900 feet, and about
800 feet apart. They are built of
small sandstone laid in adobe mud,
the outside walls being 4 feet and
the inside walls from Il to 8 feet.
In the lower story port holes foot
square have been built for defense.
There are rooms now left and walls
for about four stories high still stand
ing. About the second story, on the
west side, there has been a balcony
along the entire length of the build
ing. No signs of a door are visible
in the outer walls, and the ingress
must have been from the top, in the
inside there being passages from
room to room. Most Of them are
small, from 8x1O to 12xl4 feet, the
doors being 2x4 feet. The arches
over the doors and portfolios are
made of small cedar poles two inches
wide, placed across, on which the
masonry is placed. The sleepers sup
porting the floors are of cedar, about
8 inches through and from 20 to so
feet long, and about feet apart. A
layer of small round poles is then
placed across the sleepers, then a
layer of thinly split cedar sticks,
then about inches of dirt, then a
layer of cedar bark, then another
layer of dirt, then a carpet of some
kind of coarse grass, which forms
the floors. The rooms that have
been protected from exposure are
whitewashed, and are ornamented
by drawings and writings. In one
of these rooms the impression of
hand dipped in whitewash, on a
joist, is as plain as if it had been
done only few days ago. In anoth-
er room there are drawings of taran-
tulas, centipedes, horses and men.
One room in the eastern portion is
quite a curiosity, it being perfectly
round and must have been used for
a hall. 1t is about 20 feet across.
In some of these rooms have been
found human bones, bones of sheep,
cOrn-cobs, goods, raw hides, and all
eolors and varieties OF pottery-ware
These two large buildings are exact
ly the same in every respect. Por-
tions of the building plainly show
that it has been destroyed by fire
the timbers being burned off and the
roofs caving in, leaving the lower
rooms entirely protected. The rock
these buildings have been built Of
must have been brought long way,
as nothing to compare with it can be
found within 20 miles. All the tim
Der used is cedar, and has at least
been brought 25 miles. Old bitches
and roads are to be seen in every
direction.
In conversation with the Nava-
joes in regard to these ruins. they
say their forefathers came there five
old mems ages ago $500 years., and
these ruins were here, and the same
then as now, and that they have no
record of it whatever.