The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-07-06
ONROE LOUISIANA FRIDAY. JULY g. 1877 ~.
JOURNEYlNG IN THE DESERT. !.

JOURNEYING IN THE DESERT. a.i
DENVER, COL, June 7.-For two
years have dwelt In the very centre
of what Is known as the San Juan
country, and have travelled its length
and BREADTH visiting and exploring
sections never before trodden by the
foot of a white man. indefinitely
speaking, the San Juan region may be
designated as tract Of mountainous
country about $50 miles square, situa-
ted chiefly in the southwestern part of
Colorado, but bordering to some extent
upon New Mexico on the south, Utah
on the west, and Arizona on the south
west, the entire tract of country drain
ed through its tributaries by the San
Juan river. More definitely denomi-
mated, however, the geographical Sec
tion recognized rs San Juan is situated
in Southwestern Colorado only, and
embraces the counties of Hinsdale, La |
Plata, San Juan, Ovray, and parts OF
Rio Grande, .Connejos, and Saguache, |
having an area of more than $4,000
square miles. . ..-r, t..i 81.
The appelIation ssSan Juan" is taken
from the river of that name, whose
source is in the snow-capped range that
on the east cuts off this region from all
Communication with the main conti-
uent, except through the few and haz-
ardous and almost inaccessible passes
(but now, thanks to the triumphs of
modern engineering, made safe and
busy thoroughfares), and flows south
ward Il few miles into New Mexico
then, turning westward, catching, on
its way the waters of the La Plata, the
Rio Las Aniu.as, the Rio La Mancos,
and others of its tributaries from the
north, courses onward until its flood,
rich with a wealth Of golden sands, en-
ters the Grand River, and IS finally
lost in the Gulf of California. The old
Spaniards, with prudent piety, dedicat-
ed the stream to and named itin honor
| of st. John. .....,.t;,... ...'
This land of the disciple Of love and
peace has had a tempestuous history
under the successive domination Of the
Spaniard, the Apache, the Navajo, the
tComanct,e, the Ute, and other Indian
tribes. Many centuries previous to the
conquest of the country by the Span.
iards, it was the land Of the Toltec and
the Aztec. It was the Aztecs WHO, In
the year 1925, founded the City OF
,Tenuchitian, afterWard named Mexico,
from Mexitli, the Aztec name of the
God of War. These people built large
cities, long aqueducts, lofty citadels,
massive fortresses, and towering pyra-
mids, whose ruins are still seen in a re-
markable state Of preservation. His
tory tells us that they had a calendar
more accurate than that of the Greeks
, and the Romans. They recorded
events by drawings of a peculiar char
acter, but little inferior to the hierog.
!, lyphics of the Egyptians. These
hieroglyphics may yet be seen carved
: on the solid mountain side, hundreds
of feet above the reach OF human hand
!, 1t is mystery yet unsolved how th'
artist sculptor reached the elevated pos
itiOn he must at one time have occu
, pied.
On the banks of the Rio las Animas
. the La Plata, the Dolores, the Mancos
= San Juan, and the Grand River, ant
indeed of every stream of any magni
tude in this vast country, may be seer
: the ruins of the cities, the temples, thu
: citadels, and towers Of this once power
full people, who have disappeared from
off the face of the earth. On the side
of the mountains, towering Thousands
. of feet in the clouds, seemingly accessf
BILE only to the eagles, stand their watcl
u towers, cut as it were from out th'
u solid granite and as enduring as th'
8 rugged mountain itself. I do not eX
z laggerate when say that the now bar
+ rem plains near these rivers are literal
J ly strewn with the ruins Of the dwell
lings and fragments of the broken pot
terry Of this wonderful people.
These valleys were once fertile-na.
be made SO even now by irrigation
and must at one time have been popu
lated by many thousands Of this pee
pie. Where all is now a barren vast
and desoIation were 1uxuriant garden
land Hourishing fields and farms. Bu
the cupidity Of the Spaniard long ag
Il worked the destruction Of this people
50 that in our day even the descend
ants of the once proud and powerft
re nation are scarcely known. -,
l. MIR. TRAIN ON HAND SHAKING !,