The Topeka state journal., 1899-12-07
Ruins of Pueblo village in Kansas.


CF'rom Lawrence University Weekly.l
For some years certain remarkable
ruins have been known to exist in the
valley of Beaver creek in Scott county
of this state and preliminary notice
of them was published in the Univer-
Sity Quarterly several months ago by
Prof. WilHston of the State university.
Recently these ruins were thoroughly
explored, with exceedingly interesting
results. by Mr. H. T Martin of the de-
partment of PaleOntOlOgy of the Uni
versity. From his Investigations it is
evident that there was a considerable
village of Pueblo Indians and white
men in that locality long before any
hitherto known settlement of the state.
The chief structure explored was a
large adobe and stone building about
fifty feet in length by thirty feet in
width, and containing seven rooms.
This building had all been leveled to
the ground and covered deeply with
soil, so that scarcely a trace Of the
structure was left. The original walls
of the structure, however, remained
nearly to the surface of the ground. All
the debris and soil has now been re-
moved from the foundation, leaving
walls about two and a half feet high.
In the middle of each room there is a
kiln or oven evidently for the making
any Indications of doors through the
smoothly plastered walls but each
contains the remains of ladder that
was evidently used fer ingreSS and
egress after the fashion of the Pueblo
Indians. Two cavities of unknown use,
and covered with large rocks, were dis
covered in the floors.
The excavating of the rooms brought
to light numerous implements and
tools, which viii be preserved in the
museum of the university. Among
them is a part of much rusted iron
axe. This axe closely resembles the
stone axes of the Indians. that it, it
has a groove about it instead of an eye
to receive the handle
In Of the cavities in the floor
found half of a clam shell sawed
through the middle by a tOothed saw,
the markings of the teeth being evil
dent. These two implements prove
concIusively that the building was in
habited by white men, or that tools
made by white men We're brought to it.
Other implements discovered in the
excavations were stone pipes of diff
ferent kinds, stone and bone needles,
scrapers of bone, grinders for pulver-
izing grain, a hage0let made from a
wing bone of a large bird, and numer-
Gus arrow heads of various sizes. Scat
tered over the floors IN abundance We're
kernels and parts of ears of charred
corn which is of a small kind like the
primitive squaw corn. One ear preserv-
ed nearly entire shows ten rows OF ker-
nels.
These ruins explored by Mr. Martin
for the university, prove beyond all
doubt the existence here in the past of
a considerable Pueblo village, which
was also the habitatiOn of white men
DR.. Williston has succeeded in finding
some of the history of an ancient Pueb-
10 village in western Kansas, which was
almost certainly located here. The
name of this village was Cuartalego.
and the province thereabouts was
known as San Luis. It was founded
about 1850 by some refugee Pueblos
from the upper valley Of the Rio Grande
in New Mexico. who went out on the
plains to escape the oppression of the
Spaniards then in control of New Mex
leo. For nearly a century it was a very
important place, occupied during a
large part of this time as a stronghold
of the Apaches then allies of the Pueb- !
los. In the beginning of the next cen
tury it was occupied for some time by
French colonists. Here certainly was