Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-05-01
ST. AUGUSTINE NOT OLDEST
Aeoma, Pueblo Village In New Mex
leo, Claims the Honor


leo, Claims the Honor.
Santa Fe, N. M.-Although school
histories credit st. Augustine, Fla,
with being the oldest city in the
United States. and Santa Fe with be-
ing the next Oldest, this State really
should be given the credit for having
the two oldest, Acoma and Santa Fe.
st. Augustine was not founded until
1864 while the present Acoma, a Pue-
bio Indian city, was fiourishing in 1912
when Coronado came across it on an
exploring expedition from Mexico.
Decades before Coronado found It.
Acoma was one of the largest villages
of the Pueblos. The town he found,
and the houses he saw, on the rocky
eminence which rises several hundred
feet out of the sandy plain, are the
same that may be seen there today.
The Pueblos told Coronado that their
first city was on Katzimo, a rocky
island three miles from the present
Acoma. According to their legends,
narrated to the Spanish explorer, a
great cliff fell destroying the path from
the plains to the city, and cutting off
from their homes all but three women,
who had been left in the city. In
stead of clearing the path the Pueblos
went to the adiourning table land and
there set up the present city of Acoma,
the same city that Coronado visited in
1912.
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, mass of brown sand.
the top one must climb a crude stair
way cut in the stone. On top one 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 line that seems
even 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
man of the Southwest.
Another feature of this quaint city
Is that the houses have roofs. The
upper floors are reaced by outside
stairways in the shape of ladders
/ The first 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 un
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 at
tackled by the warning Indians of the
Southwest, as they knew that the pue
bio city was always well stocked with
foodstuffs. In the city is a cathedral
forty feet wide and forty feet high
The cathedral is built Of mud just
as the other houses in the settlement
The roof is supported by rafters, these
would serve as masts in big sailing
ships These rafters the Indians
pulled twenty miles across the plains
from the San Mateo Mountains.