The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-02-20

line. 1t is supposed that the settle
ment was destroyed by an earthquake
and volcano.
Twenty-Five miles southwest of Will
lard is one of the famous Seven cit
les of Cibola, LA Gran Quivira. The
road to this romantic and historical
spot partly is through h beautiful
Canada de Leon, into which the Am
erican farmer rapidly is pushing his
way. When n traveller reaches the
summit of the mesa, he enters on a
well defined trail which winds it's
way for miles through a wide and
gently Es1oping arroyo, which gives
him glimpses, on either side, of hill
tops clustered with pine and pinion.
In the distance tower the Manzano,
Gallinas and Pedernal mountain
ranges, making the trip with the u II
shine for which this section so truly
is noted, one of pleasing beauty and
picturesqueneSS.
The IA from Willard to La Gran
Quivira has been used so much that
it so we'll is defined that the most in
experienced prairie tyro, if travelling
alone could not mistake his way.
With the opening of the Cut-Off of he
Santa Fe Railway to through travel,
from the East to he Pacific, the ruins
of La Gran Quivira are destined to De
one of the mecca spots OF interest in
the Southwest to the a~rchaeologist
and ethnolcgist, and also to the tour
list generally, who will desire to know
|something of the primitive peoples
who ruled supreme in this section at
the advent of the Spaniard.
An Old Apache Warpath.
The road one will pass over from
Willard is the same that was used for
untold ages by h Pueblo Indians,
when going to n from the pueblos
of the Manzano Mountains to those of
the Mesa de los Jumanos, La Gran
Quivira being located on the latter.
again by their applicable foes, the
Apaches, when raiding the Pueblo
towns. The road is destined to be-
come a historical landmark, as it is
so closely interviewer with the tradi-
tons of the rise and fall OF La Gran
Quivira. Over it passed the superbly
equipped legions of Coronado, compo
ed Of h most chivalrous and daring
blood of Spain.
note that 1T was the largest and most
powerful pueblo east of the Manzano
Mountains. They are yet in a fair
state of preservation, notwithstanding
the vandalism they have been subject
ed to in the last $50 years. In the
vicinity of La Gran Quivira were mum
erous other pueblos, and the historian
Cozzens, who visited them in 1859, es-
timated the population of La Gran
Quivira and its sister pueblos to have
been about $4,000. This same his
torian claims to have traced the ruins
of a stone aqueduct for IA miles
to the mountains, where 1t entered in
a depression that gave every evidence
of having been at one time a large
spring.
Church and Presbytery.
The best preserved buildings at
the ruins are those Of the church and
presbytery. The church Interior is
"a feet wide and 1872 feet long. and its
walls are 6 feet thick. The walls of
the monastery r in a fair state of
preservation, and a familiar eye can
easily distinguish the cells of the
monks and the community room, the
latter opening into the church chapel
The ruins indicate that the dimen.
sions of the monastery were 1887
feet.
AS the annals of the Catholic church
give no name to this church or mo-
mastery. 1t is most likely that La Gran |
Quivira pueblo was destroyed before
It was completed. Near the ruins of
the large church are the ruins of al
smaller one. which was known at St
Johns.