Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-03-13
4 Pre- HISTORIC 7hCG.


Interesting Rutns Tint May Br %rcu in tx
Nair,a ~ Ncw Mc>ivp.
'N,wiu.r,Ic n. DID, L,''rri
Forty miles from Sabinal. on thc east
ern side of the 10 Crande. lie the rur.
of Il large town now called Gran guerrero
The foundations made of stone, are a..
that remain of the houses. The room
were generally small, about ldNli fee.
although II few were much larger, ana
were evidently used for religious purposes.
The stones are not hcwn, but are laid u
in good shape. The land in the vicinity
shows evidence of cultivation. At many
places along the lilo GraudG the ruins OF
these stone houses can be seen. often nc.
companlcd by evidences of cultivation Of
the so !.
The houses were always built on IA knoll
or point commanding Il view OF the sur
rounding country, and where there were
many of them they joined one another SO
that the whole would form fort afford
ing protection against ncighboring
savagcs Almost every water. course and
hundreds of guChcs and valleys where
there is no water contain the ruins of
these houses and villages The rock used
is always malpcris or IA kind of hard
sandstone. y large hole was dug in the
center of every village. perhaps to hold
is more likely that they were used in re-
ligious rites Large quantities of broken
pottery are found about these villages
and in the few places where excavations
have been made many curious articles
have been found, and entire skeletons,
with protubcranCcs two inches in dame
ter at the base of the skull The Nava-
ioes now, and generally all the Indians of
this section, when disposing of their dead,
hide the skulls where they are never found
by Americans
Excavations in the Tulerosa valley have
revealed stone walls to the depth of six
feet The same may be said of the Pccos.
Thirty miles northeast of Fort Wingate
are the ruins of one house built almost
round, of rough sandstone The diam
etcr was fifty feet. enc corner of it is
now standing nearly fifty feet high Logs
of wood are placed at intervals of about
seven feet, showing that there were seven
stories The building was five miles
from "A mountain where there is spring
of water. quite Il large valley runs north
from the mountain, but there is no water
in it. a great deal Of broken pottery is
scattered over the hills near this building,
which appears to have been the only one
in that section. Ten miles south, on the
divide, wagon-lOad Of pctrlied oyster
shells could he picked up. That part Of
New Mexico abounds in pctrifactions of
various kinds it is no uncommon SIGHT
to see trees three feet in diameter and
fifty feet long petri.ied and often crystal
lied. The crystals-rcd, yellow, black
or whitc-are often very beautiful, and
would make handsome ornaments for
eastern parlors The petriicd forest on
Rhododcndron creek, in Arizona has
been written about so much that many
have the mistaken idea that all the petri-
factions are contained in this forest
Pctrilied trees are found for go miles east
of Sunset, Arizona
Mai Stevenson, of the United States
geological survey has done good work
here for the past two years in developing
the history of the Pueblo Indians He
has just shipped five carloads of pottery,
blankets, weapons, agricultural nipple
ments, etc, etc, illustrative OF the man
ners, customs. and general civilization of
these people, but this work docs not tell
/ us of the people who swarned over this
! country before the time of the PucbloS,
/ who do not number over 1900, while
| the former people must haze NUMBERED
| hundreds OF thousands, and were proba
| bly, identical with the noun builders OF
| the western prairies and the cave jewellers
| of Arizona