The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-26
ARIzoNA,s oLIrF pwnIL1Nas.
me Mysterious Remains Of Ancient Town
and Notifications.


The Mysterious Remains Of Ancient Towns
and Forti6caticus.
Rev. r. T. Cross, in the Advance.
Scattered shickly over southern Colorado and
northern New Mexico and Arizona are the re-
mains of ancient towns and Notifications that
were built and inhabited by race Of people
whose history is shrolded in mystery. They
we're standing there silent and empty when the
Spanish came to the country, three and half
centuries ago. In all probability they were
built by the ancestors of the present Pueblo In
dams. After spending day in one of the larg-
est of the pueblos, and then day among the
cliff dwellings, this theory seems entirely reason
able
On OR return from visit to the Grand Can
yon OF the Colorado over the Atlantic 8 Pacific
railroad my friend and myself stopped of for
day 10 visit some of the most interesting of
these ancient ruins. l know of no other SO near
the railroad and hence so accessible to the tour
list They are eight miles from Flagstaff. Arizo-
ma from which plase teams and guides can read
lily be secured They are only three miles away,
however. from Casnino. a flag station, from
which we walked to the ruins.
The canyon in which they are found runs
through comparatively level region, covered
with pines and cedars The locality itself would
be difficult for an enemy to lind. Our walk is
o warm one, for it is midday of midsummer in
Arizona but through the evergreen trees we
catch frequent cooling glimpses of vast beds of
snow, that cover the extinct volcano of the San
Francisco mountains.
Suddenly we come to the edge Of canyon
800 feet deep. and with great difficulty scram-
hled down into it. About half way down we
find thick layer of rock that has worn away
much more rapidly than the formation Just
above it. The result is that on that level for
miles on both sides OF the canyon, there are
open caves. from five to ten feet high, and FROM
Ave to twenty feet deep. and sometimes 100
or 200 feet long The ancient cliff oWellers IN
closed those spaces in front with walls two feet
thick and divided them into separate rooms by
walls equally thick Usually narrow shelf of
rock was left ia front of the dwellings on which
they could pass from room to room and from
dwelling to dwelling. In front there was sue
cession of sheer preeipices and steep slopes un-
til the bottom of the canyon was reached
Trails, of which there is now NO trace. led down
to the large. clear pools Of water which aboRnd
in the canyon at this season of the year.
The point of the canyon which we visited was
admirably adapted for defense. The caynon
swept around IN q large circle, and came almost
back upon itself, leaving only marrow. preeip-
itous strip of land running out to the peninsula
which came so near being an island. On the
highest point OF that peninsula are rude fDrtif-
cations. Undoubtedly 1T was the clif-dwelsers'
lookout. The approach of an enemy could be
Immediately signaled from that point to the
dwellings on both sides for long distance. 1t
would be serious task for a large army to drive
few hundred people out of q piaceso strongly
fortified by nature.
cliff dwellings,. The Number of rooms III each
varied from two to ten. Tho rooms varied in
size and height according to the size Of the nat
ural cave Some of them were open, the walls
having fallen down, while some were perfectly
preserved, having very marrow door, or per
hans only a window two feet square
Sometimes there was q small opening
above the door, through which the smoke
escaped In one dwelling there were
inner rooms, reached from the outer by climb
ing over high wall. Frequently the back part
of the floor was raised a foot or so, making
stone bed on which q whole family could sleep
In almost every case the walls had settled away
several inches from the over hanging cliff, mp TO
which they were originally bnilt
The floors of most of the rooms are covered
with deep layer of dust. ashes and debris. As
they are protected from the rain and snow il is
very dusty work to dig for relics, especially if
the room has only slight opening. If it was
not for this dryness, however the relics would
not have been SO well preserved
In one of the first dwellings, that we visited we
struck bonanza. We knew thattberuins least
visited by tourists were on the opposite side of
the canyon. as most visitors would not take the
pains to descend to the bottom and then ascend
the other side, 1t Is only in certain spots that
this descent and ascent can be made. Reach
ing the first ruin, one that evidently no
one had visited, ! noticed that one
room was only about four feet wide lat once
concluded that this must have been the store
room, and began to dig in the debris, after 70
moving the heavy stones that had fallen upon it
from the walls. And, sure enough, it proved to
hs the at0reroom, garnet, cellar and dnmpheap
for that whole row of dwellings We dug for an
hour and more and found, among other things,
an old stone mill lmetate and manol with which
the Indians gpepnd their cora, and which was
worn so thin that doubtless it had been used by
several generations just such mill as we saw
living Indians using the week bsfarer-corn-
stalks corn7eobs in abundance, beans, gopfds,
nneracked nuts, reeds arrpWs, bow strings,
ctaa nl0kl
at regular intervals, amaothlyWnrn sticks of
hard wood bone nesdles 6sh-line, saap-weed
needles, broken pottery. etc. In visiting other
dwellings we added to these relics and came
away heavily laden.