The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1907-05-09
OF MYSTERY
THE LEGACY LEFT BY THE ANCIENT
TRIBES Of NEW MEXICO.

Dead. with Its Haunted Ruins. Peo-
Pied with Skeletons.
Much has been written Of the cliff
dweIlers; vast volumes have been com
piled concerning the ancient tribes Of
Anahuac. the Toltecs, the vanished de
scendahts Of "the fair god" Of ancient
Mexico, and all the long gone tribes Of
the great southwest have had their
place in fictitious and historic nara
tive. But who has heard Of the myste-
rious lost Atlantis" Of New Mexico,
the vanished people of the mound,
whose tribes we're once as the autumn
leaves 4nd who perished-not indiyid-
ually, but as race-at one fell swoop,
as from the avenglng wrath Of God7
The attention Of the archaeologlst
has been centered upon the hazy his
tory Of the cliff dwellers. upon their
homes and their habits. forgetting that
there exists in peculiar proximity
field Of more attractive mystery The
cliff dwelIers have drawn our attention
because they left us their homes. The
vanished race Of Socorro county, N. NJ,
has failed to interest US for the reason
that 1t left US nothing nothing, not
even a wall intact or ruin unplun-
dered. Yet stay! Have you ever been
along the Tule Tosa Ia the wild plnon
clad regions u the San Francisco
mountains? Are you familiar with that
hundred mile city Of the dead" so
strangely like the lost city Of Quivera
yet far, far larger and more wonder
ful? Have YOU ever entered the great
ycayation Of ne prehistoric pueblo to
the south Of Luna. east or the barren
peaks Of Elk mountalnsl
The "Ruinas Encantadas,7 0r haunt
ed ruins" as we would call them in
English, are but few miles north of
San Francisco, not the San Francisco
Of California. but the San Francisco Of
Socorro county. n. H., a Mexican and
Indian pueblo older than the quaint
village Of Acoma, "the citadel Of the
Clouds" which was young when the
Spanish priests and explorers hrst ven
tured into that desert wilderness. to
be slaughtered as they attempted the
daring ascent to the summit of the
great Acoma mesa.
The pueblo Of San Francisco was
crumblIng into decay when Acoma-so
called oldest city In Americar-was
young aud fourIshing with the blanket
weaving hosts of the Aztec Her
quaint adobe "house Of penates' was
fast disintegrating when Montezuma
In his youth looked down in all bis
pride and semisavage hauteur from the
gorgeous but barbaric palace Of Cha
pultepec. So say the people Of the
preeent pueblo. whose generations
have lived and perlshed within its mar
row boundaries.
The haunted ruins. they tell us, are
peonled yet with grim and ghostly
gods Of other days and with specters
that still stride Overwhelmingly along the
Eubterranean corridors. But we Of to-
day are too enlightened to accept this
savage superstition. SO we win look al
the "Rulnas EHcantadas'' only as they
are. There Is but little left Of them.
In 1867 the first white man, whose
name was Smith. venturcd into the
f0rbidding Businesses OF the land Of
Tule Rosa. Smith. then in the prime
Of life, arrived at Magdalena in quest
Of newer fields Of gold-in quest Of
fortune. pleasure and adventure. a
Yankee III every sense. there was nc
danger IN the wilds of the hundred
mile city OF the dead" which Smith
would fear Geronimo nor the Apache
Kid was yet in his reign Of terror,
but the Apaches were out for blood
and the country was a formidable one
But Smith pressed on. A hundred
miles beyond the village Of Magdalena
beyond the famous Horse springs
later the scene Of two never to be for
gotten massacres beyond the old. his
fOric Turkey mountain and the land Of
plnions, where the sIlvery Tule Rosa
winds and has wound its way for cen,
turtles untold-thls valiant pioneer Of
the west ventured with his burro train
and trusty knife and rifle
Smith, whom the author had the
pleasure Of meeting shortly before his
death. was by nature Intended as al
nrchaeologlst, for bis love Of the rare
and curious the mysterious and an
tique, was directly responsible for his
final determination to reside In thai
land Of ruins and relics Until the
day Of his death he never left the
hundred mile city Of the dead" but
remained for over thirty years to ex
plore its mounds and caverns.
To the tireless efforts OF this sturdy
pioneer the Smithsonian institution
owes some Of its most valuable New
Mexico antiquities. 1t was he who ex
eavated the "Rulnas Encantadas." b,
who llrst brought to light the many
mysteries OF It's grim and ghostly grot
toes.
Shortly before Smith died he tool
me through an excavated mound no
far from the Mound Of Mystery II
It's several apartments. arranged o.
crude pinon limb shelves. vIewet
hundreds az the relics and skulls D
ffo vauiahad roonIa Tshoro xuars ~