The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1906-09-28

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To the tireiess efforts of this sturdy
pioneer the Smithsonian Institution
owes some OF its most valuable New
Mexico antiquities. 1t vas he who esz-
( cavated the ssRuinas E.ncantGdas," he
who first brought to light the many
mysteries OF its grim ana sshostly Erot
toes.
Shortly before smith died he took
me through an cxclvated mound not
FAR from the Mound of Mystery In
it's several apartments, arranged on
crude pinon limb shelves. i viewed
hundreds OF the relics and skulls Of
the vanished people. There were ar
rows. quoits. beads. meal grinders,
bowls, burned and figured pottery,
strange shapes Of earthe1ware. stone
tablets covered with Indec;Phernble
hierogiyphies. implements of aEricui-
ture. grent granite pillow, ducks.
birds, eartheu penates and weird Idols.
bones. skulls. vases and countless lit
tie trinkets whose names could not
guess. There were Jumps Of copper.
zinc, Iron and Head. all OF which pos
sessed no tangible shape. but which
revealed the knowledge Of minerals
that had been acquired by the vanish
cd people.
The mound Of Mystery IS I'M
doubtedly all that its name implies
no explorer OF that land of ruins, no
nrchaeologist familiar with the hun
bred mile city" has ever been able sat
isfactorily to explain its secrets But
1t Is a mound rich IN antiquities.
ExternalIy, before its excavation, the
"AIound or Mystery" appeared but a
huge pile OF rocks and debris not DIFF
ferent from the thousands OF other
crumbled abodes OF the prehistoric
people But the spade and pick OF the
explorer brought forth developments
OF startling nature
There are many apartments and mar
row corridors in the Mound of Mys-
terry" The latter are less than five
feet wide: the former are spacious and
paved thoroug1Ily with cement. This
cement, strange AZ it may seem. IS of a
quality not surpassed by modern man
ufacturers Despite the countless ages
th..t have elapsed since the occupants
OF talt house Of Geath met their tragic
END. the floor paving auG the walls are
sim p,1irti,-,!ly Intact Blocks OF the
cement winch l tested show it to be
.Ilevs, II a-.aGilnt hardness
la one OF the larger rooms of the
haunted ruins. or Mound of Mystery"
as smith designated It, were found
over seventy human skeletons--men,
women and three Infants Most of
these Skeletons were unearthed in sit
ting pospmes. leaning against the
walls ~ II their death had been stimuli
tancous and the -'blghtiug breath of
Cod had smitten them as they sat
instantly. iueNorabiy, thoroughly. One
body, ,.rouche.! in corner, was
STRANGELY DEC grated. 4 LARGE earthen
bowl covered the head. as a skullcap.
Across the tlISh bones rested another,
but q slna,iur cue. III this bowl We're
many stIiugless, colorless bone beads.
Herr. there. everywhere, upon the
floor. lay thousands of bones, taken
one at Il tire from the mass OF sand
and rock that had filed the chambers
Their weapons. their utensils, their
gods, all. everything, still lay about
the promises, covered by the wreckaSe
OF the roof and the drifting sands from
the desert edge.
The Mound OF Mystery is not the
only one IN Socorro county which con-
tains such things. butts more rife with
treasures than the rest. Scarcely
mound in all that hundred mile city
of the dead" is without its skull, Its
pottery or penates. But the Mound
OF Mystery" is like a palace among
huts, a Ereut labyrinth of grottoes
among the lesser cells.
An examination of the skulls IN the
''Ruinas Encantadasv shows that If
they were Indians they were far from
Ike the Indians of today. The fiat
forehead. the prominent nose, the mar
row vertcbrae and other Indian chur-
ncteristics are not to be found in the
skulls as they exist In this one big
catacomb. The forehead is rounded,
the temples full. the cheeks low and
reccdinE, the chin square, the nose
small. Who. then, were the strange
fnha Ditnnts of that ruin? Can 1t be
that they were related to the Toltecs-
,Nose enlightened predecessors of the
hosts of Montezuma-and that it was
from this land that Anahuac first was
populated?
History tells us that the tribes of
Chichcmec came down from the
north" and it is known that to the
north went the victim gatherers for
the sacrifices OF Huitzilopoclhtli. From
the north. too. according to Prescott,
came QUA tzalcout and the later
Aztccs.
The mystery of the haunted ruin
can never he positively dispelled. Nell
thor win we ever know the cause Of
the terrible and far sweeping death
that came so simultaneously upon that
people of the hundred mile city" Of
SocorrO county.
Scientists still speculate. Archaeol-
oGIsts are orferinG us many and con-
hicting explanations, but the Mound
of Mystery stiu stands there, grim
with its grInning skulls and ancient,
utorylcss rellcs--its grottoes somber
with its gloom and stiffness OF the
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