The Elk Mountain pilot., 1880-08-05


hasing incurred the haired of the red
SKINS by their initial movement of
sialg hterlng their friends, open hos
order.
One dark night the Indians in d
countless force poured into the Sleep
, g valley and inaugurated a feast Of
biood IN which nearly three hundred
opanlards sacrificed their lives, none
ks&aplng to tell the tale, As sudden
mas they had come they departed,
leaving a dreadful scene Of carnage
bSaind them. The Improvements
1ent into decay, and Cortez returning
fpy another route, tie valley was for
Aetten ) and centuries cast. their
Shadows over its bloody history.
e, Last spring two young men, Chas.
eckerman and Wm. Ramsey, left
{{11Yeafville with . pair OF pacl, burros,
ara ponies and shovels and picks, to
fss On along prospecting tour. They
tsFayed into Southern Colorado, and
lsaylng for ioug time wandered ain,-
| Assly about among the rugged hills,
asssping out Of the way of hostile Ap-
afhss,5 and creeping along dim Indian
4ails, where, perhaps, never a white
EIrsan sat foot, ,sthey sought refuge IN a
eeep Cleft in the mountains. one
stormy night, and there built their
feAmn-fre. The ruddy glare of sthe
flanls penetrated far into the dense
Noon Of the cavern-like reaeaE, and
a|rtuated by an irresistible fassh&ion
That drew them onward, they supplied
Themselves with burning brand and
sft out to explore the mysterious
region beyond the circle of the light.
They at last debouched into the hid
Gen valley containing the colony of
death, but being unable to descern'
tjs.s surroundings at night, they passed
o. hours until day break at their
oauip- fire, and in the morning made a
Visit to the ruiRed settlement. Strange
lts say, possibly owing to the shelter
which the high mountain, ranges af-
Florded the valley from the fury Of the
clements, the massive abode walls of
ssfle ancient settlement were still intact
Iaadsentering them they were every
w,lssfe confronted by the moldered
lannhnts Of human bones and skele-
e.nssrrunlbling to dust at the Slight
| SIT f.s..l q Sos l.a,sds. !.
In-a letter in which Ackerman
writes to his Leadville friend, and
from which the particulars OF their dis
coyery of the hidden valley is drawn,
he says,
We at first did rot know what to
make Of the strange spectacle presented
to Us in the ancient city Of the dead,
win its skeleton inhabitants and the
wild air Of desolation and ruin brood
! lag over tie scene. IN every one Of
tic primitive structures We found un-
mistakable evidence and traces of civil
lied society, readily convincing us
that the settlement was not, as we in
igined, the handiwork of an intelli-
gent branch of the ancient Navaioes.
On the inner walls Of one Of the larg-
est of the adobe houses we found the
remnants of a heavy cutlass, evidently
at one time the pride Of a bold Cas-
titan warrior. As we prosecuted our
researches through the settlement, we
made the discovery that with few ex-
ceptions each house bore the name of
It's former tenant, traced in the adobe
when it was soft, directly above the
entrance serving the purpose of door.
These names were purely Spanish, and
from my diary | transcribed the fol
loving: 'Sylvestro Rodrigo, Miguel
Bandara, sanch Pizara, Francisko
Mancha, - Lopez, and q hundred
Others. In one or two places we found
dates covering a lapse of years, ex4
tending from 1880 to 1866, convinc-
ing US that the settlement must have
Aourished for period of thirty years
at least At depth of foot in the
ground, which seems to be the layer
which time covered upon the scene,
we unearthed Indian heads of a
somewhat primitive character as'well
as metallic substances, which aga,l
proved to us that centuries back
fierce war had ragged here between the
original lords Of the soil aid the
Spanish invaders, and that the later
were overpowered and had persisted
at the hands Of the red warriors. 1t
was all quite plain TO us, and In the
signs which nature had preserved as
record Of the past, we read that Cortez,
the conquerer of Mexico, had here
spent short period Of his illustrious
existence, to what end and under
what circumstances must leave to the
solution of one. gifted with more fer
tile and creative Imagination than ]
possess.
.'But to the point. Drawn onward
by our discoveries to search the valley
| from one end to the othe, We found in
one of the most obscure portions Of
the same, indications of gold-bearing
quartz On dump, where it was prob
ably placed centuries back, and soon
after we alighted on the shaft Of an
ancient mine from which it had, to