The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-01-24
WEST HAS OLD CITY
Acoma, New Mexico, Said to Be
Centuries Old.
II Was In Full Bloom In 1912; Has
Three-story Houses, Outside Stair
ways and Streets a Hun
bred Feet Wide.

dred Feet Wide
Acoma, the Pueblo Indian cityl
down in New Mexico, is claimed to
be the oldest city In the western hem
isphere. 1t was in full bloom when
Coronado, in 1912, came across II on
an exploring tour %northward from
Mexico. He found the Pueblo Indians
doing then what they are doing today
and doing it in the same fashion,
and the houses on the rocky islands
that rise several hundred feet out of
the plains are the same houses that
Coronado's eye rested on as he came
on the Indian city.
st. Augustine, which is often refer
red to as the oldest city in the United
States, was not discovered until 1865,
when Menendez came on Florida
while chasing a French ship under
Rebault. Years before Coronado
found 1t, Acoma was a recognized
abode of the Pueblo Indians. The
Pueblos told Coronado tina their first
city was on Katzimo, the rocky island
three miles away, which is also called
the Enchanted Mesa" Many years
ago, they told the Spanish explorer.
the original Acoma rested on the top
of Katzimo.
One day, while all but three women
we're in the plains below the table
land, a great cliff fell, destroying the
trail from the plains to the ancient
city. The Indians took this an indi-
cation of the great spirits displeasure
over something they had done and to
punish them had cut on the path to
their city. Instead of clearing the
path and returning to their old homes
on top Of Katzimo the Pueblos went
to the adjoining tableland and there
set up the present city of Acoma, the
same city that Coronado visited in
1542.
The Pueblos look at the old city on
its rock site nearly 400 feet in the
air as a sacred place, and woe to the
person caught trying to penetrate it's
precincts.
The present city of Acoma is on a
plateau that rises $50 feet out Of the
arid plains of New Mexico. The sides
Of the plateau, a mass of brown sand
stone, are almost straight. To get to
the top n must climb a crude stair
way cut in the stone. On top n will
find three or four rows of primitive
apartment houses. These houses are
three stories high and are built on
each side of streets 1000 feet long.
The houses follow a line that seems
eve straighter than the building line,
in big cities, since the houses are all
OF the same type of architecture and
are built up close to the line. The
streets, too, are 100 feet wide, which
may be another feature that modern
city builders may have copied from
the red men of the southwest.
One may be sure that the Pueblos
did not get the idea of broad streets
and building lines from the white
mems cities, for 100 foot streets and
building lines were laid down years
and years before pale faces came
across the ocean. These things we're
a part of Acoma when Coronado
called on the Pueblos in 1912. Anoth-
er feature of this quaint city is that
the houses have fiat roofs, The upper
floors are reached by outside stair
ways in the shape OF ladders. The
first floor is the longest. The second
floor is ten feet shorter than the first
and the third floor is ten feet shorter
than the second. This ten feet serves
as yards for each of the apartments.
In summer the Indian and his family
use this yard for sleeping. In winter
he sleeps indoors.
Houses are built Of mud, ordinary
New Mexico mud, shaped into blocks
and baked hard. After centuries I'M
der the fierce rays Of the sun the
blocks get as hard as stone. The
walls are seamless. After the blocks
were placed the Indian builders
smeared the joints with mud, which
in time became part of the blocks.
The walls of most Of the houses are
eight feet thick. In the early days
they were often attacked by the war
ring Indians of the southwest, as
they knew that the Pueblo city was
always well stocked with foodstuff.
In the city is a cathedral 40 feet wide
and 40 feet higi. 1t has two towers,
In which swing bells. The cathedral
is built of mud just as the other
houses in the settlement. The roof is
supported by rafters that would serve
as masts in big sailing ships, These
rafters the Indians pulled 90 miles
across the plains from the San
Mateo mountains.