The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-08-21
"a BURIED CITY IN TEXAS.
THE GREAT SOUTHWEST A LAND
OF MARVELS.
a pazzling White Lake Suddenly
FoSmed in New Mexico - The
Chalc4dony 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 great and industrious
people once inhabited the land, who
understood something of the arts and
sciences, and who cultivated the
fields, and plowed the ground at some
distant epoch of time much the same as
we 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
the ruins of an extensive city, the exist
ence Of which had never been suspected
before. The place where this hidden
city lies has hitherto had the general APP
pearance of huge swell or rise in the
prairie, perfect desert in outward ap-
pearance, for it contained no herb, no
root, no plant, no verdure of any kind,
nothing save a waste of sand alkali
and dirt, across which living creatures
hesitated to travel unless forced to do so.
Beneath this pile of desolation lay the
ruins of an ancient city, probably Toltec
in origin.
1t is not hard to imagine how the old
city became buried. Mr.. Chavez tells us
how he CHANGED to stumble across it soon
after a waterspout and gale of wind un-
covered the ruins to view. Here in the
far Southwest, where rains are few and
strong winds frequent, the surface of the
country, which by ages of drought and
disintegrating processes has become
crumbled and loose, is picked up and car
ried about from place to place by almost
any wind that blows. Very often these
whirligig storms develop into miniature
cyclones, and sometimes they grow so
large and on such grand scale that their
power and destructiveness are almost be-
yond belief. Sweeping across the coun-
try with not so much velocity as genuine
cyclone, they pick up and carry along
rocks, dirt, stone, trees, sand, and what
not, smashing everything they encounter
and spreading ruin in their path. They
have habit when reaching a soft, yield
ing surface of boring down and sucking
up or scooping out the sand, leaving the
UOllOW SDOs bullGn slllNl Nlttlu tto lul AONu
as 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
rapidity, actually reaches the clouds, and
Joins with the latter in forming a funnel
from the earth to the sky.
The first indication of q 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 a dozen OF
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 will be generated. Although
formed or created by succession Of
small whirlwinds, sand augurs break uT
very quickly, collapsing SO suddenly that
the heavens for time are a 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,
post, and then the continuous accumu
lations of windshades and the like piled
up 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 mad
the discovery possible. Mr.. Chavez OBJ
tanned a number of interesting relics
One skeleton had three strands of bead
around its neck, of turquois, Jet, anC
bone respectively, also earrings of je
and turquois. The mummy's hair wa
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
chamber of solid masonry, the stone
firmly cemented, and it may have bee
his tomb, within which he was sealed a
the time of his death.
One large building, with massive ston
walls and tower at each corner, was eX
posed by the cloud burst This has tn
appearance of a citadel, the masonr
being strong and secure, and in tn
centre is probably water reservoir wit
aqueduets of stone stretching away il
many directions, giving the idea that tn
building was erected for the purpose {
standing siege. Some Pueblo Indians
questioned regarding the old city, sa
that its name was Guato, and that
fourished long before Cortez came
Mexico. OF course this is mere traditio
and cannot be relied upon, yet if it is {
Toltec origin, the probabilities are thi
it was built ages ago, and possibly anti
dates the building of the first Egyptia
pyramid.
In the Salt River Valley, which is no
a dessert, the ruins of no less than min
teen buried cities have been found. E.
cavatiOns show that once q mighty an