Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-07-01
HISTORIC RUINS.
CASA Grande 20 BE Reproduced at
the Columbian Exposition.
Arizona 70 Have Headquarters In . struo-
t1ro Built In Initiation OF che
R3pnouS Adobe Pile Which
Guarded . Lost City.

Picturesque and romantic ruins are
going to be erected at the worlds fair
by the people of Arizona. William
O'Neill, president of the board of
worlds fair managers for the territory,
Is in the city with the plans and specif-
cations The ruins viii be used as q
territorial building by the Arizona COM
mission and will contain its exhibit.
They will be q fac smile reproduction
of the famous Casa Grande in the south
crn portion of tho territory. This
adobe structure is perhaps the most re-
Inarkable of the ruins in North Ameri-
ca, and, in fact, is the only remains of
aboriginal architecture on the CONT
ncnt, barring, of course, the govern
mont building in Chicago.
The Casa Grande was first visited by
Europeans in 1888 by Cabeza. de Vaca,
and his followers of the Inflated Ponce
de Leon expedition. -Four years later
Coronado, during his expedition to the
southwest, made it his headquarters.
Then, as now, not even q tradition as
to the race that built it remained among
the surrounding tribes. The building
was once the main gateway to an inn
mense walled city, the ruins of which
still cover the plains, and to such an
extent that in the accurate estimation.
of scientists the city's population must
have exceeded o hundred thousand
The remains of vast irrigating bitches
and cemcptcd reservoirs arc found in
tho vicinity of the ruined city. Some
EngliShncn having money cleaned one
OF the irrignting bitches last year, and
reclaimed one hundred and fifty thou
sand acres of land.
The prehistoric ruins of Casa Grande
arc between five and six stories high
and fifty feet square. They are COM
posed of Sun-dricd brick, with heavy
buttresscd walls, and, like nll the other
ancient ruins il that country, bear cvi-
dences of having been destroyed by fire,
for the chnrrcd remains Of raftcrs still
cling TO the walls. All about for miles
and miles are strewn broken pottery.
arrow heads and stone axes, which tell
scientists that one day Thousands of years
ago that city blazcd with fire and was
deserted by q panl2-3trlclScn people.
Casa Grande IS the most famous feature
of all those old sun-bal1cd ruins, and its
unknown origin, the sudden and unac-
cOuntable light and dissolution of the
inhabitants of the city it guarded and
the deep mystery which has chung to it
for ages make it one of the most in
t>rosting subjects of scientific investi-
El.ion. 1t will be, perhaps, on it's re-
Production at the fair, the most inter
"sting building in which any of the
states or territories will make head
quarters.
The exhibit of Arizona, anyway, will
be ono long-continued delight in the
way Of curiosities. Besides the. exhibits
of minerals, semi-tropical fruits and
other products of the territory, Mr..
ONcill says there will be magnificent
display of petrifed woods, better even
than the one shown at the Paris cx-
position. Then there will be added an
other curio in the shape of the largest
mass of meteoric iron ever discovered.
it was found in the northern end of the
territory. There will be complete dis
play of the recently-discoVered onyx.