The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1892-05-07
WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE ANYHOW :
An Interesting Question History has
Failed to Answer.

Failed to answer.
Chicago is making an effort to
raise $4,000 to purchase the clif
dwellers collection owned by Rev.
q. FL. Green, of CovinEton, Ky.
Secretary Carrington Mason, OF
the Cossett Library Association.
has between 300 and 400 excellent
specimens gathered from the
mound builders mounds.
This splendid collection will form
part of the museum, and indeed
it is rare and most interesting
museum IN itself. 1t is said, by /
those versed in antiquities, to be
the finest collection OF mound
builders relies ever placed on ex-
hihition. There are Jars and vases |
OF such exquisite pattern that the
beholder is led to wonder whether
The conceptions of the poJters were
original or whether they had been
handed down from prehistoric
races.
The Mason collection is being
added to year by year, and u lent
to the public in the museum, itI
Will he a wonderful factor ID the
educational line.
DIR. Green, of Covington, col
lected his specimens in lS9O and
1891. The cliff dwellers are sun
posed to antedate the mound
builders many centuries. The col
lectlng Of the relies is very diff
cult and even dangerous undertak-
ing. The principal ruins are found
III the Mancos Canon, Col. The
nearest railway station is Durango
and from there the journey has to
he made on horseback through the
late reservation to the canon, and
when there the cliffs are we'll nigh
inaccessible. This gulch is about
seventy miles in length, and the
depth varies from 200 feet TO 1900,
the average depth being possibly
1900. Only people of determine
tion and endurance can hope to
gather any thing from these long
deserted habitations. Few people
have undertaken it. Many of the
cliffs have never been explored.
Among the relics and signs of
former life found in these crevices
il, the cliffs by DIR. Green were six
mummies, one of them being that
of n woman six feet two inches
high. There was also a mummied
man and four children. Besides
these there are samples of pottery,
crude and undecorated, a pair OF
cruiches. a cane, ladies', many OF
them painted, wicker baskets, and
MANY wood, stone and bone imple-
ments. THIS race evidently was in
the habit of wearing ornaments,
as many garnet aud turquoise
beads were found.
The cliff dwellers, it appears,
were race far in advance OF tue
indians of later centuries, so far
as manufacturing aud providing
homes were concerned. Their
abodes were not the mere rocky
crevices that many people imagine,
Int most of them, though at an
elevation of 800 or 900 feet, are of
great dimensions, some of them
Extending back into the cliffs 200
or 400 feet. One of these houses,
called Cliff Palace, located in Man
cos, Canon, COL, is 40 feet long
eighty feet wide, and ten stories
high. When this place was visited
by explorers, ladders were found
leading from one story to another.
DIR. Green places the age IF the
ruins at more than 10000 years.
He has from his researches arrived
at the conclusion that the Ameri-
can continent is o.d-very old. He
regards Egypt as a mere infant
compared to this country. In his
opinion Lower Mexico was inhabit-
ed and settled by a powerful race
of people centuries before Egypt
or the other countries that now
bear the stamp of antiquity had
ever seen the handiwork OF man.
He is of the opinion that America,
which is called the new world, Il
as a matter of fact tue old world
The Green collection will be
placed in the archa logical exhibit
at the Worlds fair. Why not have
the Mason exhibit there Ioos L
represents the antiqn ty of this
particular section of the Unltet
States, aud h IS been collected b.
a Memphian--Metnphis CONNER
clal.
The DIR. Green referred to in thu
foregoing, is better known to th'