The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-05-12
THE GREATEST THING
IN THE WORLD
By CHARLES f. Lus1MIs.

The greatest thing in the world"
That is a large phrase and an over
worked one and hardened travellers do
not take 1t lightly upon the tongue.
Noticeably 1t is most glibly in use with
wandered beyond their native State
or county. and as every province has
its own local bragg of b ggest things,
the too credulous tourist Will find a
superlative everywhere. And superla-
tives are unsafe without wide horizons
of comparison.
Yet in every sort there is. of course,
somewhere the biggest thing In the
world" OF its kind. II is q good word.
when spoken in season and not abused
in careless ignorance.
believe there is and can be no
dispute that the term applies literally
to several things in the immediate re-
gion OF the Grand Canyon OF Arizona.
AS have more than once written (and
it never yet has been controverted),
probably no other equal area on earth
contains so many supreme marvels
of SO many kinds-so, many as
founding sights, SO many master
pieces of natures hanilwork. so vast
and so conclusive an encyclopedia
OF the world building process, SO I'M
prcssive monuments of prehistoric
man, so many triumphs of man still i'll
the tribal relation-as what have
called the Southwestern Wonderland.
This includes a large part Of New
Mexico and Arizona. the area which
geographically and ethnographically
we may count as the Grand Canyon
region. Let me mention a few Won
dcrs:
The largest and by far the most
beautiful of all petritied forests, with
several hundred square miles whose
surface - c.rpetuu with agate chips
and dotted with agate trun- two to
four feet in diameter; and just across
one valley buried forest whose
huge silicifed-not aGatized-logs
show their ends under fifty feet of
sandstone.
The largest natural bridge in the
world-200 feet high. over 500 feet
span and over 500 feet vide. up and
down stream. and with an orchard on
its top and miles of stalactite caves
under it's abutments.
The largest variety and display of
geologically recent volcanic action in
North America with sixty mile lava
flows, l.500foot blankets OF creamy
tufa cut by scores of canyons; hun
dredS of craterS and thousands oil
square miles of lava beds, basalt and
cinders, and much volcanic glass"
(obsidian) that 1t was the chief tool
Of the prehistoric population.
The largest and the most impressive
villages of cave-dwellings in the world,
most of them already abandoned
when the world-seeking Genoese sail
ed.
The peerless and many storied cliff
dwellings-castles and forts and homes
in the face of wild prccipices or upon
their tops-an aboriginal architecture
as remarkable as any In any land.
The twenty-siX strange communal
town republics OF the descendants of
the cliff dwellcrs." the mooern Pucb-
los; some in fertile valleys. some dixie
Acoma and MokD perched on barren
and dizzy cliff tops. The strange
dances. rites dress and customs OF this
ancient people who have solved the
problem OF irrigation. six-story house
building and clean self government.
and even women's rights-long before
Columbus was born.
The noblest Caucasian ruins In Amer
lea. north of Mexico-thc great stone
and adobe churches reared by Fran
ciscan missionaries, near three CEN
turtles ago, a thousand miles from the
ocean. in tho heart of the Southwest.
Some OF the most notable tribes OF
savage nomads-like the Navajos
whose blankets and silver wS..k are