The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-11

sentativeS at Washington of a bill for
the creation of a national park for the
preservation of the petrified forest Of
northeastern Arizona from the yandal-
ism of relic-hunters and seekers of
polished stones for ornamental build
ing purposes. says Helen T. Griswold.
in the New York Evening Post. led
some 1000 people recently to petition
Congress for the creation of a national
park for the preservation of the re-
mains of several large cities, In Mari
copa and Pinal counties in Arizona,
that passed away hundreds of years
ago. Prof. Hamilton Bonynge of Cam
bridge University has said that there
is no richer field for archaeological
work in America than the ruined sites
of these prehistoric communities. Tn.
less Congress throws some protecting
nand over them, there will be little left
or the relics by another ten wears.
While Italy has been protecting her
Pompeii and Hereulaneum for a CEN
fury, while Egypt jealousy guards her
ancient relics, and even Mexico and
Peru permit no one to go digging
among their relics of prehistoric races,
tnere mas never Except in the case
or the ruins of the abrogial temple at
casa Grande( been the least legal eff
Tort to save from obliteration the mar
vellous relics of the buried cities on the
plains of southern Arizona. or to check
the destruction of the matchless cliff
ana cave dwellings among the noun
tam eanons along the line of the At
chlson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad
IN northern Arizona. The tourists
who become more numerous in Arizona
every winter have made reIic-gatber-
ing settled industry. There are cow
boys, schoolboys, clerks and men out of
a job who go forth every winter and
olg ana plough for relics in these POM
pens OF America In the last ten years
tnere mas been wholesale ripping
open of tombs of prehistoric warriors,
searching for ancient tIlruuoises hat.
Tie weapons, personal finery, household
utensils, and other articles used nv the
unknown ancientS who dwelt in the
oTlla valley. The building of the enor-
nous irrigation plants in the Salt and
Glla valleys has obliterated acres of
very interesting remains of aboriginal
irrigation systems, while ranchmen
ana eattlemen have laid low manv an
outline or prehistoric structures. where
framed archaeologist might have
learned facts of inestimabIe value In
SOWING the problem of who these abo-
rlginals were, how they lived. whence
they came, and whittier they departed
During the last year several fine sneci-
mems or the engineering skill of the
mysterious race who dwelt here ages
ago nave been covered over and we'll
nlgh obliterated by alfalfa-growers.
Where the Buried Cities Lie.
There are no more interesting aborig-
MAJ remains in the Union than these
OF the buried towns in the ella and
salt Valleys, within fifty miles of
Fnoenlx Indeed, an aggregation of
mines of prehistoric towns NAV be
traced across the hot, sandy desert
wastes from Florence southwark into
sonora, Mexico. Frank H. Cushing
estimated that the population of these
aeao' silent, uni1habited localities was
once over 100000. In age, these ruins
OF the buried cities of Arizona are far
earlier than Pompeii and Herculaneurn.
Inc evidence Is overwhelming that
there were once fourteen aboriginal cit
IS, each having a population varying
from 10000 to $4,000, In Southern Ari-
IONA. Here, in what was a wholly I'M
claimed desert until the last few years.
ana is yet largely waste of hot, drift
Ing sands, there lived several thou
sands of years ago a dense populati
of intelligent, ambitious, and skilful
farmers. That these people lived in
this region hundreds of years, Is not
gainsaid by any archaeologist, and
that they were the peers in brains and
progress of any contemporaneous race
on the Western hemisphere is patent. to
the most careless investigator The 1r-
rigation systems, which comprise ca
nails sixteen miles long, with ingenious
water gates; the arrangement of
streets and buildings; the polished
woods, stones, and shells, the finely
woven fabrics that have been recover
ed from these buried and ruined cities,
all tell of the high degree of civiliza-
ton reached by these mysterious peo-
pie. There is no more fascinating sub
ject In the realm of scientific explora-
ton and study than that which con-
Germs the origin and aspira lions, the
wars and the final and wonderfully
complete disa ppearance of the several
hundred thousand men and women
who made a garden of the Arizona
desert wastes centuries ago.
The remains of the largest cities are
on a sloping plain-about forty-five
miles across in any Observation-Disclosures
the Salt and ella valleys.
Remains of Canals.
The irrigating canals are character
istic OF this region. over 100000 acres
of land must have been watered by
these great systems. Even in this day
of mechanical devices and the finest
tools and appliances, the construction
of such canals, big dams, storage res
ervoirs, and dykes would be no mean
engineering work. Fancy, then, what
years of patient labor their constitute
ton required from this prehistoric
race, who had only crude stone imple-
ments to excavate with, and wicker
baskets in which to carry away the
earth. Mr.. Gushing believes the great
canals of these ancient peoples we're
used for navigation as we'll as for ir-
rigation. He found there evidences of
very large pine timbers which could
not have been obtained within seventy
miles of the cities, and he believes
that these and enormous stones Cor
building purposes were foated down
the artificial waterways.
These aborigines were travellers, for
shells that came from the lower Pa
cific coast-many from the Gulf of Call
ifornia--are frequently exhumed. They
were also adopts at inlaid and mosaic
work: In a very durable cement made
from the gum deposited by insects on
greasewood twigs, fragments OF tur-
quoises, bits of polished granite, and
shells were artistically embedded.
Then, when the matrix had been pol
ished and rubbed down. a very su-
perior mosaic for home ornamentation
was made.
The location of the temples which
are determined by the character OF the
relics found in the ruins. shows that
these people were sun worshippers. In
ffxy fFpo ~ "