Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-24

Crutnbiing Palaces in New MEXICO of a
Prehistoric Age.
WASHINGTON, September 23d.--Secretary
Noble has transmitted TO the Director of the
Geological Survey report by Special Agent
Morrison on the condition of the Casa
Grande Great House" ruins in Pinal
county, Arizona, with the instructions that
the necessary steps shall be Immediately
taken to repair and protect the ruins under
the authority granted in the Act of March
g 1889, appropriating $1,000 for that pur-
pose.
Special Agent Morrison says the front of
the main building measures 90 feet and the
width 43 feet; hight OF first story, Is feet;
second, 9 feet, and third and fourth Stories
s feet. The greater part of the upper story
has disappeared.
The walls are between four and five feet
thick, and the material of which they are
constructed is almost indestructible con-
crete made of fine gravel, sand and cement,
closely resembling the granolithic now
used in Washington.
The walls both inside and out are plas-
tered with cement, which yet clings to
them with wonderful teuacity-that on the
inside being smooth and glossy as the best
hard finished interiors of the present day.
The lower story is nearly filled up with
crumbling debris and the drifting sand of
timbers were placed are plainly visible,
but every particle of wood has been car
ried away by relic hunters, and the disin-
tegration Of the walls have been so rapid of
late years that, it measures are not i'm
mediately taken to strengthen them, the
entire mass will soon fall into spaceless
ruin.
The report says that for miles around
the mysterious Casa Grande many great
hor lt attn hob 10
the desert sands, bear indisputable evidence
of having been at some far remote period
the abode of busy industries.
Morrison says he is convinced the Casa
Grande was not used for either religious or
warlike purposes. The superiority of the
architecture, it having outlived all other
structures by which it was surrounded, the
numerous small apartments into which it
was divided, and the elegance and interior
finish point to the conclusion that it was
the palace of the King or Chief who gov
erned the primitive Americans who in
habited these vast domains ages before the
Aztec of Toltec.
The most ancient of the traditions of
the Pimas and Papag0es, who yet live here
where their fathers have lived for centuries,
point to them as "The Ruins"
The earliest history record we have of
Casa Grande was given by the famous
Spanish CaValersand explorer, Ca0eZa De
Boca, who discovered it during his journey
across the continent, about 1887. A few
years later the famous explorer, Don Fran
cisco De Coronado, Governor of New
Galicia, led an expedition into New Mexico
States. The Pima Indians then 1850 years
ago., had no knowledge of the origin or
history of the town, which they believed
had always existed there. 1t had always
been ruin" to them and to their ances-
tors and fathers.
Kino and Mango, who visited there in
1894, also gave an account of twelve other
ruins in the vicinity.
Father Pedro Fout, in 1777, found them
in much the same condition. He describes
the main building as an oblong square
facing the cardinal points of the compass.
The exterior walls extended from the
north to south 420 feet, and from east to
west 260 feet. 1--WE thus see," says Morri-
son, what havoc the storms of ll0 years
have made, and the necessity for immedi-
ate action TO save the remnant from COM
plete destruction" The ruins are regarded
as the most interesting remains of the pre-
historic apa tn ba found on t1,a noptipapt