Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-11-28
THE REPUBLICAN,.
The Western CiR.Dwellers.


OF late. blown over the plains,
come stories OF strange newly dis
covered cities OF the far southwest;
picturesque piles Of masonry, OF an
age unknown TO tradition. These
ruins mark an era among antiquar-
Ians. The mysterious mound bull
ders fade into comparative insig--
nificance before the grander and
more ancient cliff jewellers, whose
castles lift their towers amid the
sands Of Arizona and crown the ter
raced slopes ofthe Rio Mancos and
the Hovenweep.
A ruin, accidentally discovered by
A. D. Wilson, of the Hayden Survey
several years ago, while he was pur-
suing his labors as chief OF the to-
biographical corps in southern Color
ado, is described to me by Mr.. Will
son as a stone building, about the
size OF the patent Office, 1t stood
upon the bank of the Animas, in the
San Juan country, and contained
perhaps five hundred rooms. The
roof and portions Of the walls had
fallen, but the part standing indica-
ted height OF four stories. A num-
Der OF the looms were fairly pre-
served. had small -loop-hole windows,
but no outer doors. The building
had doubtless been entered original
~ by means of ladders resting on
inches, and drawn in after the occu-
pants. The floors were Of cedar,
each log as large around as a mans
head, the spaces filled neatly by
smaller poles and twigs, covered by
carpet Of cedar-bark. The ends OF
the timber were bruised and frayed,
as II severed by a dull instrument;
Ia the vicinity were stone hatchets,
and saws made OF sandstone slivers
about two feet long, worn to a smooth
edge. A few hundred yards from the
mammoth building was a second
large house in ruins. AID between the
two strongholds rows of small dwell
iDgs, built Of cobble-stones laid In
-aeote, and arranged along streets,
after the style OF the village of to-
day. The smaller houses were IN a
more advanced state OF ruin, on ac-
count OF the round stones being more
readily disintegrated by the elements
than the heavy masonry, The streets
and houses OF this deserted town are
overgrown by juniper and pinon,-
the latter a dwarf wide spread ding
pine which bears beneath the scales
OF its cones delicious and nutritious
NUTS. From the size OF the dead, as
well as the living. trees, and from
their position on the heaps of crumb-
ling stone, Mr.. Wilson concludes that
a great period OF time has elapsed
since the buildings fell. How many
hundred yc ars they stood after de.
sertion before yielding to the inroads
OF time cannot be certainly known.
The presence OF sound wood in the
houses does not set aside their an
fiquity. In the dry. pure air of
southern Colorado, wood fairly pro-
tected will last for centuries. In
Asia cedarwood is known to have
been kept two thousand years after
IT left the forest. The cedars through
out the territories OF the south west
do not rot, even in the groves. They
die, and stand erect, solid and sep
less. The winds and whirling sands
carve the dead trees into forms OF
fantastic beauty, drill holes through
the trunks. and play at hide-and-go-
seek in the perforated limbs. until, al
ter ages OF resistance, they literally
blow away In atoms OF fine, clean
dust
On the Rio San Juan, about TWEEN
ty-five miles distant from the city OF
the Animas, Mr.. Wilson discovered
the following evening a similar pile,
looming solemnly ia the twilight near
their camping place. The scene as
described was weird in the extreme.
As the moon arose, the shadows OF
the phantom buildings were thrown
darkly across the silvery plain. The
blaze OF camp-fires. the tiny tents,
the negro cook, the men in buckskin
hunting garb, and the picketed mules,
made q strange picture of the sum-
mer's night, with background OF
moonlit desert and crumbling ruins
On whose ramparts lowered dead,
gaunt cedars, fling their bleached
skeletons like sheeted ghosts within
the silent watch towers OF the murky
past.-From an illustrated article iII
H.