The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-02-26
TRAVELS IN WONDERLAND.
Description Of Ancient Dwellings,.
BY PLUS ULTRA.

Passing around the eastern base
OF the Sierra Abajo, we then turned
westward until we reached the Re-
capture Greek. This, like all other
streams in northeastern Arizona,
Immediately it leaves the mountain,
where it has its source, runs through
boxed canyon. Once in these can
yons the traveller, owing to the i'm
passable wall on either side, finds it
matter of impoSsibility to get out,
except by following the stream to
its junction with some other and
larger stream, or by retracing his
steps to its source. Recapture Greek
is no exception to the rule, and al
though we wished to go further
westward and by so doing make
straight course to the Navajo Noun
tains, at the junction of the San
Juan and Colorado Rivers, we were
compelled, having once started down
the canyon, to follow the stream I'M
til we reached the San Juan, of
which it is an affluent.
Soon after entering the cam
yon we discovered clusters of
ancient buildings, situated on
the shelves or projecting
lodges in the cliffs on both sides of
the stream, while the bottom land
over which we were travelling, was
literally covered with the debris of
ruined houses and broken pottery.
AS we proceeded down the canyon
the cliff houses became more nU-
merous. Every nook, crevice and
shelf in the precipitOus cliffs, which
formed the walls of the canyon,
had been utilized for the purpose of
building what seems to the beholder
inaccessible dwellings, and the con-
slant exclamation could be heard,
coming from some Of the party, at
each succeeding discovery of houses
perched like eagle nests, high up in
the rocky wall, Look, look! How
ever did those fellows get rock and
mortar up there to build those
places,..let alone live in them?" An
Irishman, the only one in the party,
expressed the opinion that there
were "'Pollanders' amongst the
builders, and mOity foin ho6-carriers
they wur, shure."
AS the bottoms along the creek
were covered with rich grasses and
offered a fine pasture for our now
faded animals, the party voted
unanimously ia favor Of going into
camp for one day, thereby giving
our four-footed beasts q much
needed rest, and the two legged
animals a chance to explore these
ancient dwellings of an extinct and
mysterious race.
The afternoon Of the same day
was spent in searching up and down
the creek for relics, and in examin-
ing the ruins of innumerable houses
which had once occupied the level
ground. The next day we climbed
the cliff and measured and explored
the largest and best p1 eserved of the
cliff dwellings. These show a
marked difference from those visited
the previous day, being rudely built,
irregular in shape and small in di-
mansions, as compared with those
on the lower land. Some Of the
rooms did not measure over five feet
square, and very few of them ex-
ceeded eight feet. On the contrary,
those visited the first day, so far as
we could determine in their ruined
state, had been Of a better build and
more commodious in their dimen-
sions, the rooms varying in size
from eight to twenty feet square,
and some buildings showing traces
of having contained as many as
twenty rooms on the ground floor.
Some of the houses were square,
some round, and one was perfect
octagon in shape. The theory was
advanced by some of the party that
these houses on the cliff
were nothing but granaries or
store-houses; but the theory