Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-08-01
A. BURIED CITY IN TEXAS
THE GREAT SOUTHWEST A LAND
OF MARVELS.
A Dazzling White Lake Suddenly
Formed in New Mexico - The
ChaIcedony Park of Arizona.

Formed in New Mexico The
ChaIcedony Park of Arizona.
Arizona, New Mexico, and North
western Texas have many surprises in
store for sightseeing travellers. Ruins
Of lost cities, cave dwellings, cliff houses,
and other abodes of extinct man are now
being uncovered to the light of day,
showing that a great and industrious
people once inhabited the land, who |
understood something of the arts and
sciences, and who cultivated the
ields, and plowed the ground at some
distant epoch of time much the same as
He do to-day. @
A few months ago at Cochite, on the |
American side of the Rio Grande, says a
Fort Davis (Texas) letter to the New |
York Times, Amanda Chavez discovered |
:he ruins of an extensive city, the exist
.nce of which had never been suspected |
before. The place where this hidden |
:ity lies has hitherto had the general ap- |
peaTance of a huge swell or rise in the |
prairie, perfect. desert in outward ap-
pearance, for it contained no herb, no
'oot, no plant, no verdure of any kind,
nothing save a waste of sand alkali
md dirt, across which living creatures
iesitated to travel unless forced to do so.
Beneath this pile of desolation lay the
'uins of an ancient city, probably Toltec
n origin.
1t is not hard to imagine how the old
:ity became buried. Mr.. Chavez tells us
low he chanced to stumble across it soon
,fter waterspout and gale of wind un-
covered the ruins to view. Here in the
ar Southwest, where rains are few and
trong winds frequent, the surface of the
country, which by ages of drought and
lisintegrating processes has become
Tumbled and loose, is picked up and car
led about from place to place by almost
my wind that blows. Very often these
vhirligig storms develop into miniature
cyclones, and sometimes they grow so
arge and on such grand scale that their
power and destructiveness are almost be-
Tond belief. Sweeping across the coun-
Try with not so much velocity as a genuine
:yclone, they pick up and carry along
;ocks, dirt, stone, trees, sand, and what
lot, smashing everything they encounter
md spreading ruin in their path. They
have habit when reaching soft, yield
ng surface of boring down and sucking
lp or scooping out the sand, leaving the
hollow spot barren and clean as far down
IS bed rock, and this hollow or hole looks
for all the world as if some gigantic auger
had been employed in doing the work.
Hence they are called ''sand augers." So
dense is the mass of sand gathered up by
this curious phenomenon of nature that the
column, whirling about with frightful
:apidity, actually reaches the clouds, and
Joins with the latter in forming funnel
from the earth to the sky.
The first indication of sand auger
would be the formation here and there of
little whirligigs Of dusty wind, picking
up little bits of straw, leaves and other
rubbish, and waltzing about helter-
skelter with them from place to place.
In this valley, from where am writing,
one can see almost any day dozen or
more of the little tunnels, looking like
tall, slender pipes of smoke, dancing
over the prairie in every direction. One
Or two of them sometimes meet and join
forces, but when dozen or twenty come
together and happen at the same time to
strike heavy, low-hanging cloud full of
wind and vapor, then the chances are
that genuine sand augur of the first
magnitude win be generated. Although
formed or created by a succession of
small whirlwinds, sand augurs break up
very quickly, collapsing so suddenly that
the heavens for time are mass of flying,
falling sand. Anything below is simply
swamped out of existence.
Such, no doubt, was the fate of the
city recently unearthed by Mr.. Chavez.
A sand augur possibly made the first de-
posit, and then the continuous accumu-
lations of windshades and the like piled
I'D the sand and other detritus until the
whole was converted into an extensive
mound. The uncovering of the ruins
was accomplished by severe rainstorm,
which proved to be a genuine cloud
burst. This, sweeping down upon the
sandy mound with terrific force, washed
away one angle of the mound, disclos-
ing some heavy stone walls which made
the discovery possible. Mr.. Chavez OBJ
tanned number of interesting relics.
One skeleton, had three strands of beads
around its neck, of turquois, jet, and
bone respectively, also earrings of jet
and turquois. The mummy's hair was
brown, and some pieces of bright, orna-
mented pottery were near it. Arrow
heads, broken pottery, etc., were scat
tered about. The skeleton was in a
chamber of solid masonry, the stones
firmly cemented, and it may have been
bis tomb, within which he was sealed at
the time of his death.
One large building, with massive stone
walls and tower at each corner, was ex'
posed by the cloud burst. This has the
appearance of citadel, the masonry
being strong and secure, and in ths
centre is probably water reservoir witt
aoueducts of stone stretching away in
many directions, giving the idea that ths
building was erected for the purpose o.
standing siege. Some Pueblo Indians
questioned regarding the old city, sa!
that its name was Guato, and that i
fourished long before Cortez came t.
Mexico. Of course this is mere tradition
and cannot be relied upon, yet if it is o
Toltec origin, the probabilities are tina
H. was b,lilt ares aoo. and possibly ante