The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-08-04
AZTEC RUINS ARE
unlike OTHERS
III. M. Gushing Home From
Boosting Utah in Colorado
Visits New Mexico.
STATES FAME is GROWING
OVER 1000 RESIDENTS OF SAN
JUAN ARE COMING HERE.

Harry NJ. Gushing, travelling passenger
agent for the Rio Grande, is home from
Colorado. Mr.. Gushing accompanied the
Elks' special to Denver and remained in
that city during the recent convention
Since that time he has been making an
extended trip through Colorado, spending
a great portion of his time in the San
Juan district He visited Durango Sill
vertOn, Telluride, Ouray and other camps
in that territory. advertising Utah and thu
annual San Juan excursion to Salt Lake
This is scheduled for Aug. IL.
'Utah's fame in Colorado has reached
proportions really surprising" said Mr..
Gushing yesterday. "All through the state
you find the people anxious to talk about
our state. Railroad literature has been
distributed throughout the state in great
style and this has advertised Utah thor
oughly The prominence attained by the
Utah delegation of Elks at the convention
in Denver showed everyone that we are a
1--we people out here The residents OF
cities in the San Juan district will come
to Salt Lake 1900 strong this year. Wher-
ever | went | was besieged by newspaper
men anxious to interview me about Utah.
/ always had plenty to say you can rest
assured.
May Invest Here.
THE San Juan district is prosperous.
Old mines which closed down during the
depression of 1903 are again working and
the old mines which were leaders In Sill
yer production at one time are now
turning into gold mines. Nothing is ever
heard of labor trouble. the old fights be-
ing now a thing of memory. The people
appear to have plenty of money and are
contented. Many have money which they
desire to invest and several told me that
they were coming to Salt Lake next
month to look around this country, with
an idea of getting in on some of the good
things here.
81 visited the old ruins at Aztec, n. Nj
These can be reached by our new branch
to Pennington. The ruins are interest
ing. Leading scientists believe they were
built between the third and sixth centu-
ries They differ in many respects from
any other ruins found in the United
States. | examined town three miles
from Aztec. This comprises about 400
ruins. From Aztec the towns extend down
the Las Animas valley for distance of
sixty miles, indicating that an immense
tribe was at one time located there.
1.-The houses are big square affairs.
three stories high. They are built of rock
about the thickness of a brick, but much
wider. The walls are almost perfect. but
a peculiar feature is their corners. These
are not dOve-tailed or worked together.
Each wall is built up against the other,
but no connection made. The outer walls
are about four feet thick and the parti-
lions on the inside about two and a half
feet thick.
Tell Laughable Story.
"The floors were built on huge cyprus
poles some q foot in diameter Cedar
poles were laid across these, a layer of
mud laid on the cedar and then the whole
thing covered with a layer of cedar bark
which made an excellent carpet. Tne roofs
were made much in the same fashion and
be found anywhere in the Las Animas
valley today. When the ruins were dis
covered skeletons of whole families were
found in the rooms Some of the men,
women and children were sitting up
against the walls while others were lying
down. Scientists say an earthquake
passed under the country and emitted
gases which killed the Navajos, or what
ever they were instantly. The Navajo In
dams now in that region believe an out
side race killed the inhabitants of the
town, driving a great number of them
into the Las Animas river, where they
became fishes. The present inha bitants
will not touch fish taken from the river
and would starve before eating one.
Understood Irrigation.
THE old cliff-dwellers understood irri-
cation. The town was built on flat
table land above Aztec. Above the town
was built an immense reservoir. Big
bitches lead from this to different por-
tons of the surrounding farming district.
A farmer by the name of Knowlton is now
using water from this reservoir to irri-
gate his farm. He protects the ruins and
keeps curio hunters in check. The govern
ment may place the ruins under a reserve.
1.-The houses themselves have many fea-
lures The walls in each room are ten
feet high. There are no steps leading
from one story to the one above on the
inside of the houses. Ladders were prob
ably built from one porch TO another on
the outside. Cooking utensils and instru-
ments of all kinds were made of iron.
Nothing made of steel or other metal of
any kind has been found about the ruins.
IA sixty-foot road from which all rocks
were taken and thrown in piles on each
side leads to flat mound where the In
dams are thought to have performed their
sun worshipping No writing or signs
have been found in any of the ruins. The
burial grounds are filled with vaults
where the dead were laid on shelves. One
corpse was buried in each vault"