The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-02-05
ANOTHER RUINED "CITY."


Mexico. -Great Quantities of Pot-
terv, Many Grinding stones. but NO
Water within Twenty-Five Miles.
Railroad and Rich Mines.
FL Paso. Tex. Jan. {, 1S9s..-The
ouickness with which rumor of a rich
strike works through community.
through whole country, FOR that mat
ter, almost passes belief. Everybody in
the Southwest knows very well that
there is no richer mineral section in the
country than that in the western and
southern half of New Mexico. Pros
peCtors are all the time wandering
through the mountains of that region
the San Andres, the Sierra Caballo,
the Organs, the White Mountains, the
Captains. the Sacramentos, the Guada-
loupes, and dozens of others, and no
week passes without word Of promis-
ing discoveries. In TACT it is well
known to all who take any special in
turest in these matters that the min
eral wealth hidden in these mountains
is simply beyond computation. The
difficulty is that they are inaccessible.
In most of them the timber is scarce,
the water is scarce and consequently
they cannot be worked except at great
cost and with many hordsnips. When
ever these regions are opened up by
railroads, as they soon will he, mining
claims will be staked out by the hun
dred i'm every one of them.
\ curious illustration is just trans
| piring Work on the El Paso and
| Northeastern railroad. which is being
| constructed by the New Mexico Rail-
way and Coal company, has now reach
| ed a point about 60 miles from El Paso,
close by the famous Jarillas-pronounc-
| ed High-re-as, with the accent on the
| second syllable. These mountains are
geological freak. They are largely
composed of granite, porphyry and
| trachyte, and have been up-thrrst by
some volcanic action. They are play
mountains" as it were. They have all
| the style and strut, all the rugged fea-
| lures of the Rockies, but on minia-
ture scalp. They are about IL miles
long-northwest to southeast--and per-
haps q mile and a half wide.
Eipples of rumor have come from
them time and time again of fabulous
gold deposits, of torquoise mines, OF
| iron ore almost pure, that covers the
ground as thickly as the stones in a
terminal moraine, of silver, of copper,
and Of almost everything in minera!
| way that tempts men to risk life and
brave dangers for wealth. But there
is not a drop of water within % miles
of the Jarllas; there isn't spring nor
a semblance Of a spring. The noun
tains themselves are practically bar
rpn. The mesa and the sands about
them are almost desert, save during
the rainy season, and while it's intlu-
ence continues.
During Christmas week two El Paso
gentlemen interested in the new rail-
road drove and prospected in the Jaril-
la region and beyond. When they went
in. eleven men were in those mountains
hunting for mineral and locating
claims. When the came out Il days
later more than forty men We're there
and now. less than a week afterward
more than three hundred sturdy pros
pectors are in those mountains hoping
to share in the fabulous wealth they
contain.
AS the railroad proceeds and touches
the Sacramento and the White noun
tains and the Black and the San An
drcs and the Captains and all the othe'
ranges of that rich region this rusf
will be repeated and emphasized. 1t Il
believed that in the neighborhood o
Three Rivers, near the Mescarlero In
dian reservation, the mineral deposits
are monstrously great even for this
wonderful country. This railroad vii
go directly to that land of gold
1t has just been discovered that a
one time the neighborhood of the Jar
illas. now so utterly Waterless and 81
nearly barren, was thickly inhabited
Ruins of a great Aztec city. or per
haps a city built by some people prio
TO the .Aztecs have just been aiscov
cred. The mesa for a great distance Il
covered with fragments of pottery AM
great numbers of the matatas--grind
ing stones consisting of a mortar ant
pestle-that this people used, are alst
found scattered about, and they ar
in a wonderfully perfect state of pres
ervaton. 1t is quite unusual TO linC
ancient matatas that are not chippet
or broken. but although hundreds an'
hundred of years have ELAPSED sine
the women painfully ground corn IL
these stone mills they are as perfec
today as when their owners left them
1t seems certain that there must haV
been water supply in that regiol
when this great city existed Tw'
hundred miles 10 the north. the ruin
of the Gran Quevera amazes every per
son who penetrates to them. But yer,
few have vet done so since then, a
at the Jarllas there is no water a.
evidence of water Tradition has
that at one time the Rio Grande ra
far 10 the eastward of its present be-
hnt that ,In1nip nphpaNal tulne
. tho waters of the river TO the west, a