Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-10-03
PREHISTORIC IRRIGAToRs.
Dams and bitches in Arizona Built
Thousands of Years Ago.

As the question of irrigation, ancient
and modern, is now being discussed by
the press of the entire West, the follow
ING facts obtained from E. l.. Wetmore
of this city will be appropriate :
The early pioneers of Arizona mention
the outlines and ruins of an ancient
pueblo, known additionally as Pueblo
Yerio, that had crumbled to its founda-
ton, four miles northwest Of Tucson,
within the fork of the Santa Cruz and
broken ollas were scattered around
promiscuously. No record has been
handed down to posterity as to what
manner of people they might have been
who built and lived in the city. Other
ruins have been discovered on the Santa
Cruz and Rillito rivers at the point of
the Santa Catalina mountains also at
the point of the Tucson mountains
Hieroglyphics on the rocks of these
mountains, if translated, might inform
us of the history of these people. There
cannot be doubt that their chief re-
sources were agriculture and mining
The ruins of dam can be traced in the
vicinity of the pueblo, short distance
west of the narrow gauge railroad, that
evidently caused the overflow of nearly
10000 acres of land.
The early pioneers inform us that
when they visited Tucson thirty years
ago the land now cultivated west of Tue
son, ON the Santa Cruz, was lagune,
covered with rushes and cat-tails, and
the home of myriads of water fowls.
DIR. J. H. Goodwin, an old pioneer, took
possession of n quarter section of land
on the Santa Cruz, near where the rail
road now strikes it, and conceived the
idea of constructing ditch running in
southerly direction toward the city, at
point near the location of this lagune,
and secured permanent water within a
few feet of the surface. He noticed the
evidence of an ancient people in excava-
ting for the ditch. Stone hatchets and
hammers were taken out.
At Fort Lowell. seven miles north
east of Tucson, the ruins of an ancient
people were exhumed on the south
bank of the Rillito river, their skeletons
! lying promiscuously on the ground and
evidences that cooking was under way,
the ollas with charred wood and ashes
underneath, indicating that they had
come to a violent death. During the
spring of 1877, when work was progress
ing ON the Wetmore ditch on the south
bank of the Rillito, near J. II. Han
cocks ranch, in excavating two feet be-
low the surface, cobblestones were en-
countered in the sandy soil and
continred down to point six feet below
the surface, where two skeletons were
found that crumbled to dust when ex-
posed to the air. They were buried in
a sitting posture, and were only few
feet apart.
At this point the Rillito shows evil
dence OF having run in westernly di-
rection, and can be traced through the
Hancock, Jones, Samaniego. Haynes
and Wetmore ranches to the vicinity of
DR.. Goodwin's ranch, striking the base
of the mesa, and indicating o flow of
water fully forty feet in width and of
uniform grade. What other conclusion
can be drawn than that this was an
ancient ditch that furnished water for
irrigating several acres of land in the
vicinity of the old pueblo? The land
along this ancient water way is covered
with mes luite and catclaw the soil is
of sandy nature, and water can be had
from fifteen to thirty below the surface
in an unlimited supply. The water is
pure from the gravel and sands below,
being a part of the old river channel and
supplied from the watersheds of the
Santa Catalina, Ricon, MILESTONE and
SAINT Rita mountains.
Along the line of this ancient ascequa
the farmer of to-day with his pillow and
SPADE turns up the broken ola, relics of
an ancient race who We're tillers of the
soil, and the present occupants are now
profting by their example. Tucson
(Arizona) Star.