The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-12-05
MRS. M'CLURG
WINS SLAW SUIT
Mesa Verde, Rich in Ruins Of
Cliff DWeIIerS Saved.

Decision Rendered just In Time :
Reservation Leased from Ute In
dian Rich in Old Ruins Many Diff.
cult es Encountered During Ex
pIorations- Old Glory Manufactured
in Strange Way.
The decision of the United States
Land Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
in regard to the con- est suit of Nc.
Clurg versus Corbin. which was re-
ported by the Associated Press on
Monday WILL if ratified in Washing
ton, save a most important ruin area
to the United States. Mrs. Gilbert
McClurg is the Regent of the Colo
RADIO Cliff Dwelling Association, an
organization of women which leases
from the Southern Ute Indians of
Colorado, the Mesa Verde, or Green
Tableland, a plateau twenty miles by
eight, which rises like an inverted
box from the surrounding sage plain.
inaccessible on three sides, and con-
tains from three hundred to four
hundred cliff Notwithstanding
the famous Cliff palace of $50 rooms.
| Dr. Fewkes has called it the most
representative and spectacular area
of cliff dwelling ruins known.
AS Mesa Verde is situated on an
Indian reservation, the government
has no control over the relic-hunters
and treasure seekers. who have de-
stroyed the archaeological treasures
of the United States.
Four years ago Mrs. McClnrg in a
council held with old Chief Ignacio
aud his braves, who have known her
personally for many years, induced
the Association for 5000 90 per year,
IN order to gain authority to punish
depredators. The lease in no way in
terferes with Indian occupation nor the
Indian avocations of grazing. hunt
ing or agriculture, but gives the one
hundred women of the Association an
opportunity to protect and restore the
ruins, build and keep up roads thereto,
employ caretaker and punish depre-
dators. The lease was ratified by Act
Of Congress, March 8, 1900. 1t has
been work of untold difficulties,
pursued in a self sacrificing spirit
for the public good
The movement to preserve Mesa
Verde, awakened a general interest
in the ruins of the southwest, and q
well-known Eastern institution en-
gagged Mrs. McClu & TO select prom
ising area for it's field-work, with
the view of repairing such buildings
as were capable of restoration and
securing relics from mounds and
graves. Mrs. McClurg, after inves-
tlgation, reported favorably upon the
Gran Quivira or "Great Mystery "a
Tompiros pueblo of New Mexico, de-
stroyed in 1880, properly known as
Tabira. These ruins cover lac acres
On the summit of hill is a great
Spanish church, with walls still
twenty feet high and six feet thick ;
attached are the ruins of convent
and cloisters aud across the plaza are
ruins of chapel built by Fray Ace
vedo in 1888.
Around the Spanish churches
stretch the indeterminate blocks of q
great three-story Pueblo, which must
have had about 1900 inhabitants; /;
lower down the hill lie the low
mounds of a still earlier civilization
which, for want of better name,
we call Toltec. A Spanish gatehouse
and wall complete the area, which is
traversed by an acequia leading from
high reservoir on neighboring hill
TO two lower storage reservoirs
| These are long since dry aud the
ruins have been thirty miles from
any water until year ago one of the
old Pueblo wells was re-dlscovered,
! llhtu WiAIi SNihollt anu suppiiVN WIN
fair water; great pottery OLA, or
water-jar, lay in the bottom of the
we'll Romantic tales of spirits haunt
ing the ruins and buried treasures OF
the Spaniard', cling about the place
and no Mexicans will approach il
after nightfall Superstition aud the
ex RENE difficulty of access (beine
100 miles from the railway in dark
est New Mexico) have preserved the
Gran Quivira. but with the advent Of
the Rock Island road, whose new E
Paso branch comes within 20 miles
the ruins will be seriously imperile(
by ioonoclasts, and have just in time
been saved. When Mrs. MoClurl
first visited Gran Quivira, she wa
toldrby an old man living in the onl,
cabin within fifty miles, that he hat
not seen woman in ten years. jul,
4, 1901, with guide and driver, Mrs
MoClurg first reached this desolat
SPOT. She was desirous of celebrat
ing Independence Day, bnt had onl,
J scanty packet of necessaries as tn
party was carrying water for 1T
horses from Punta de Aqua fort.
miles away, aud had divested itself 0
! all sunarfluities. Mrs. McClurg tor