The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-09-14
IHEY DID /
AL WITH STONE
MarviIouS Work Accomplished
by American AborigineS.
GREAT IRRIGATION WORKS
One of Thier Cities Had TO-
900 inhabitants.
GRtAT IRRIGATION WORKS

The passage by he House Of Rcore-
sentative at Washington Of bill for the
preservation Of the petrifed forest Of
northeastern Arizona from the vandalism
Of relic-hunters and seekers Of polished
stones for ornamental building purposes
led some 700 people recently TO petition
congress for the erection Of a national
park for the preservation Of the remains
Of several large cities. in Maricopa and
Pinal counties in Arizona, that passed
sway hundred Of years ago. Professor
Hamilton Bonynge of Cambridge Uni
versity mas said that there is nc Tiche~
heId for archaeological work in America
historic communities. Unless congress
throws some protecting hand over them,
there viii be little left Of the relics by
another ten years While Italy has been
protecting her Pompeii and Herculaneum
for century, while Egypt jealousy
guards her ancient relics and even
Mexico and Peru permit no one to go
digging among their relics Of prehistoric
races there has not except in the case
OF the ruins Of the aboriginal temple at
Casa Grande) been the least legal effort
TO save from obliteratiOn the marvellous
relics Of the buried cities on the plains
Of southern Arizona, or to check the
destruction Of the matchless cliff aid
cave dwellings among the mountain
cannons along the line Of the Atchispn,
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in north
ern Arizona The tourists. who become
more numerous in Arizona every winter,
have made relic-hunting settled in
dustry There are cowboys, schoolboys,
clerks and man out Of job, who 90
forth every winter and dig and plough
FOR relics in these Pompeiis Of America.
In the last ten years there has been
wholesale ripping open of tombs Of pre-
historic warriors. a searching for ancient
turquoises. battle weapons, personal fin
erv. household utensils and other articles
used by the unknown ancients who
dweIt in the ella Valley. The building
of the enormous irrigation plants in the
salt and ella Valleys has obliterated
acres Of very interesting remains of alb
original irrigation systems, while ranch
men and cattlemen have laid low many
an outline of prehistoric structures,
where a trained archaeologist might nave
learned facts OF inestimable value in
solving the problem of who these alb
origines We're how they lived. whence
they came and whitehr they departed.
During the last year several fine specim-
ems OF the engineering skill of the myst-
erious race who dwelt here ages ago have
been covered over and wellnigh obliter-
ated by alfaIfa-growers.
There are no more interesting abb
original remains in the Union than these
OF the buried towns in the ella and Salt
Valleys. within fifty miles of Phoenix.
Indeed. an aggregation of mines of pre-
historic towns may be traced across the
hot sandy desert wastes from Florence
eouthward into sonora. Mexico. Frank II.
Gushing estimated that the population of
these dead. silent. uninhabited localities
was once over 100000. In age, these ruins
of the buried cities Of Arizona are far
earlier than Pompeii and Herculaneum-
The evidence is overwhelming that
there were once fourteen aboriginal
cities. each having a population varying
from 10000 to SEQ in Southern Arizona.
Here. in what was a wholly unclaimed
desert until the last few years, and is
yet largely a waste of hot. drifting sand,
there lived several thousands Of years
ago a dense population of intelligent,
ambitious and skillful farmers. That
these people lived in this region hun
dreds Of years. is not gainsaid by any
Archaeological and that they were the
peers IN brains and progress of any con-
temporaneous race on the western hemis-
phere is patent TO the most careless in
vestigator The irrigation systems,
which comprise canals sixteen miles long,
fa
ment Of street and buildings; the polished
woven fabrics that have been recovered (
from these buried and ruined cities all
tel Of the high degree of civilization
reached by these mysterious people
There is no more fascinating subject in
The realm Of scientific exploration than
tho origin and aspirations. the wars and
the final and wonderfully complete dis
appearance OF the several hundred thous-
and men and women who made a garden
Of the Arizona desert wastes centuries /
ESQ
The remains Of the largest cities are on
q sloQjng plain-about fortv-five miles
across in any Observation-Disclosures the salt I
and CHA Valleys
The irrigation canals are characteristic I
o. this region. over 10000 acres of land .
must hsve been watered by these great
systems Even i'm this day OF mechanical +
devices and the finest tools and appii- +
aDces the costructious Of such canals
big dams. stora sc reservoirs and dykes
would be no mean engineering work. f
Fancy. then. what years OF patient labor
their construction required from this pre- +
historic race who had only crude stone
implements 20 eNcavate with and wicker +
baskets in which to carry away the
earth. Mr Gushing believes tho great (
canals Of these ancient peoples were used /
Tor irrigation He found there evidence
or very large pine timhers which could
have not been obtained within seventy
miles Of the cities and he believes that +
these and enormous stones for the build +
ing purposes were hoated down the ar-i- +
fetal waterways.
There aboriginos were travellers Tor
shells that came from the lower Pacidc .
Coast-many from the Gulf ~ California
ARE frequently eNhume6. They were also
adopts m inlaid and mosaic work In a
YER durable cement made from thc sum
deposited by insects on CROSSWORD F
tviEs. fragments Of turQuoises. bits ~
polished granite and shells were artistic
sliy embedded. Then. when the matrix .
had been polished and rubbed down. a /,
very superior mosaic for home ornamen-
tation was made The location 81 the
temples. which are determined by the
character 0f the relics found in the 4
. u -r-