The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-03-31

halted in anazemcnt at the ruins of
long-deserted, sand,topped city hiding
the secrets Of people older than the
Indians. Castaneda, the scribe of the
invasion, wrote with appreciation of
the relic of a supposed fortress which
had been destroyed long before by bar
barous tribes, perhaps ancestors of the
Apaches. In 1854 Jesuit father, wan
deriDg IN penance, chanted mass with
in its walls, recalling the spirits of de
parted chiefs of whom we are left
no written record. While the white
colonsts of New England were strug
Cling in l17j TO throw off yoke bind
ing them to Europe, an ccclesiast, Pad
re Font, was living in room of the
Casa Grande, writing the deeds of
nation whose prestige had already
waned at the approach OF m,ghtier
tribe
Described by Army Officer.
In 1916 an Army of the West Of
this advancing mightier tribe con
qucred these tottering walls and the
territory surrounding them. Lieut.
Emory and Lieut.. Johnston of this
army saw and wrote of the ruins, and
Mai John Russell Bartlett later de.
scrbcd them with admiration Mr.. A
F. A. Bandelier, travelling for the Arch.
eological Institute of America, was the
next to mention them in notes on
trip as far south as Central America
These accounts were followed b a par.
tial report In 1883 by Mr.. Frank Ham
,lton Gushing Of the Hemenway South
western Archaeological Expedition,
from which the party returned laden
with specimens OF many carved stone
implements, highly decorated pottery
and burial urns, but above all with
vivid description of the customs of the
extinct people Of the region. In set"
Ting up affairs of this expedition, DR..
Fewkcs came into actual touch with
the archaeology of Arizona, The Hem
enway explorations were general, The
work of Dr. Fcwkes is limited 10 the
buried city about Casa Grandc, which
he firmly believes as he writes to the
Smithsonian Institution, will be one
of the great spectacles of the region
"an American Pompeii for sightseers,
as well as an object lesson for students
of American archaeology and history -
The Walled Clusters.
"Thc Casa Grande group Of
mounds" he says, "is composed of
three walled clusters of buildings or
compounds now for the most part
buried in the earth. In his reports
he has labeled them compounds \, 3,
and c. compound AZ lie is excavat~
ing. "Compouud 5" is close at hand.
He describes it writing from his tent
upon the grounds; cit is noble
ruin, and as ! see il now looming among
the mesquite trees ] fancy the stately
building that some one, some day, will
uncover there"
DR.. Tewkes has already uucarthed
much Of the first group Of structures in
which stand the walls Of the "grcat
house, AS the sand is dug out, the
mystery of its meaning gradually
clears. 1t can hardly be massive ten
pie of worshippers. as a former
traveller surmised, but is more prob
abl a place of refuge, n stronghold in
which there may have resided pow
erful chicftain Of by-gonc days who
cxacted homage from his vassals. The
group proper is slightly over 400 feet
long bv 200 feet wide, surrounded by
n solid wall OF pressed earth n yard or
more thick and now from eight to fl
teen feet high. On two corners have
already been uncarthed an eightroom
bnstion and n two-room lookout, The
great house itself rests about the cen
ter of the enclosure, danked by plazas
and groups OF smaller houses arranged
in an ordered plan. On one side is 4
large opening, probably the entrance,
and about the whole, outside the wall,
run traces Of n ditch which connects
at one corner with an adjacent depres-
sion in the ground.
Beyond the wills are mounds of all
sizes and shapes-mounds which prod
ding has proved to be of as many orr
gins. There are mounds formed of
ashes and debris. The larger ones are
burial mounds--treasure houses for the
archcologist-rich in mortuary offer
ings and human remains. There are
mounds nf aarth Loft from clearing ont