The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-07-22
THE SUN
A Stone Roadway Built by Thorn 1900
Feet Up q Mound.

A Stone Roadway Built by Thorn lao
Feet Up . Mound.
From the San Francisco Call.
Charles J.Wimple, one of the wealthiest
miners in Mexico, 10 q recent arrival in
the city. To a representative OF the Call
he told the following wonderful story last
night:
"You nave asked me to give an
of the interesting mountain my friend,
Jesse ID. Grant and myself saw during our
trip through Mexico en- route to this city.
Well, that mountain Is mt once N of the
most gigantic exhibitions OF mans handi-
work, and something almost beyond
credence were we not already familiar
with the works of the Aztees. just imaR-
inc a valley 40 by 30 miles in area, and
from its center rising a mound over LOO
feet in height. Then you can realize the
first effect created upon our minds when
we came before the hill I am TO describe.
My foreman was with us, and had partly
prepared us for the surprise, but We had
treated his story with incredulous re-
marks, and had by no G suspected
he had but given a modest description OF
he mound
"We Razed TO the top and allowed our
eyes to follow the windings Of a road down
to the base. We went aroun the base
and conjectured il was about n n a
half miles in circumference. Then we
started for the summit. The roadway
was built of solid rock clear to the pima
Gle. and was from thirty to forty feet in
width. A wall of solid rock formed a
foundation n an inside wall at the
same time. The outer edge of the road
was unguarded. These stones weigh all
the way up to a ton each, and are not &C.
mented. The roadway is as level as a
iioor and is covered with broken pieces OF
earthenware water vessels.
"Half way up the mountain is an altar
cut i'm solid road in the niche is a boulder
which must weight at least six tons. The
boulder is of different stone from that
used i'm the walls. The rocks i'm the wall
are dressed by skilled workmen, but are
not polished. We saw no inscriptions;
in fact, we had no time to spare in making
n searching investigation. We did not
look for arrow-heads or other war-like inn
plements, to satisfy ourselves that tho
mound had not been used for defensive or
offensive purposes. Nor was there any ev-
idence to prove hat the roadway had
been built for the purpose of Witnessing
bull-fights and other sports i'm the valley.
l could only conclude the Aztec SURVIVOR
shippers expended years of b on the
hill i'm order that they might have an APP
propriate place to celebrate their impos-
ing festivals, inasmuch as the roadway
was strewn with broken ~earthenware, and
those scions of a bygone and notable race
were known to carry at sunrise large
quantities of water in earthenware jars to
an eminence, and there pour out the
liquid and smash the vessels.
"When we descended we brought with
us n number Of small sea shells which had
petrified, and il you look at these on my
table you will see how they a been
perforated by the Indians. We again
took n long look at the mountain and saw
il was oblong in shape, and that the up
ward road commenced on the eastern side.
/ have travelled ON both sides of the our
tains from British Columbia TO Central
America, and on either side of the Sierra
Madres, where the cliff jewellers have left
such remarkable mementos of their skill
and customs, but l have never witnessed
anything so wonderful and magnificent as
the mound which / have been telling you
about. The valley is about six hundred
feet above the sea level. and is about sew
enty miles from the coast. Ii is situa ted
in Sonora, between the cities of Altar and
Magdalena, and near the Magdalena
river. We called the curiosity Palisade
mountain, and it is well named"