Arizona republican., 1901-03-12

l the Tempe road The land on which ! this ruin stands belongs to the society, cut it will without doubt give its con- ', sent to any organized and business-like | move toward its careful excavation.
 The society, viewing the question mere | Iy from scientific standpoint, does not care whether the investigation is taken hold of by the business men and local | residents or not, as no trouble will be experienced by the society when it an-
 nounces its willingness to have the ruin opened up by scientific men from else where. There are plenty of eastern
 men and eastern societies that would be willing to do this work for what may
 possibly be found.
 But in that case they would very nat
 urally insist on carrying away with them, whatever of interest might be discovered The Antiquarian society is purely an Arizona association, and its
 members feel that whatever is found here should be kept here. Therefore the
 work should be done by those whose in-
 terests are local. Further, it is be- heved that if the old ruin is carefully
 excavated there will be found sufficient
 
 little museum at that place that will
 prove a point of attraction for tourists and in that way be money maker for
 local business men. Even if there is
 nothing found but the bare walls of the ancient structure, and they are careful
 ly preserved, that in itself will be
 sight worth looking at and undoubtedly
 one of the things that will add to the
 attractions in this valley for both stu
 dents and tourists It is for these req sons that an attempt is being made
 to arouse local interest. It will take
 such a small sum of money to do the
 work the business men of the city can-
 not afford to overlook the opportunity.
 There are easily fifty or a hundred men
 who could afford to invest $10 year in such an enterprise and twice that many that could afford half as much, while
 every man that runs peanut stand
 could put in dollar or two to good advantage.
 The Moqui snake dance brings hund- reds of dollars into this territory every year, and that is only one of a
 dozen illustrations that could be made. line Grand canyon, the petrified for
 ests, the natural bridge and numerous
 other things of the same nature are all
 in line with this argument. and this old
 ruin, which is the largest one to be found in the territory, at least so con- veniently situated and so rich in pros-
 pect, might to a great extent be class
 ed with these attractive features. The
 subject is surely one for serious con- | sideration and prompt action.
 In illustration of the interest that would be aroused by that work, refer
 once may be made to what has resulted already from the single handed discus sion of the subject in this paper dur ing the last two or three weeks. Aside from the local announcement of the ! meeting that was to have been held last Saturday, there has been but one i article on the subject, yet it has
 brought to Dr. Miller two letters from scientific men of national repute. One
 is from Dr. Le Plongeon. of Brooklyn,
 who is a well known author on archae- oloSical subjects. He says: II am told
 that the Antiquarian society is about to begin explorations among the ruins oe
 the ancient dwellers of Arizona. should like to obtain Photographs of
 any Inscriptions that may be discov- cred, etc" The rest of the letter is de- voted to a discussion of discoveries
 along the same lines in Mexico and Yu-
 catan, that the doctor has been inves- tigatlng and which have proved impor-
 tant
 The other letter is from John D. Whlsh. of Albany. He says: 'I have learned that your association is about
 to explore extensive ruins of an an- cient city near Phoenix. If this is a fact you will greatly oblige a student
 of prehistoric America by sending me
 any newspaper clippings you may have about the expedition and the ruins I
 should also like to receive any report
 that may hereafter be made on the cx- petition and particularly any copies of photographs of what is brought to light etc. These letters were both written on
 March 4, and refer alone to the single
 mention of the subject in this paper It
 is an indication, first, of the interest that the prosecution of this work
 would surely awaken and secondly. it
 shows that people read The Republi- can.