Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1915-09-16
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1915.

UISCUveIy VI W6Sd vC'ue.
Our Most Wonderful Prehistoric
Ruins Found by Chance by
Ranchmen Hunting For
Lost Cattle.
The following article is from "Our
National Parks" bulletin issued by the
Department of the Interior, Washington,
ID. c.:
1T appears strange that the great
est of American prehistoric ruins,
those now inclosed in the Mesa Verde
National Park in southwestern Colo
RADIO, should have escaped discovery
until 1888. Years before, innumer-
able ancient ruins left in several other
States by the ancestors OF the Pueblo
Indians had been described and pic
tured. They had been the subject of
popular lectures; they had been treat
ed in books of science and books OF
travel; they had become a familiar
American spectacle. Even the ruins
in the Mancos Canyon in Colorado
were explored as early as 1874. Mr..
W. H. Jackson, who led the Govern.
ment party, found there many small
dwellings broken down by the wealth
er. The next year he was followed
by Prof. w. H. Holmes. later Chief
of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
who drew attention to the remarkable
stone towers 80 characteristic of the
region.
But these discoveries attracted little
attention because of their inferiority
to the better-known ruins OF Arizo-
ma and New Mexico. Had either of
the explorers followed up the side
canyon of the Mancos they would
have then discovered ruins which are,
in the words of Baron Gustav Nor
denskiold, the talented Swedish ex-
plorer, so magnificent that they
surpass anything of the kind known
in the United States"
This explains why delivers in libra
ries find so little about the Mesa
Verde. Most books and magazine
articles were written when cliff dwell
ings were a novelty.
Baron Nordenskiold thus describes
in his book 1.-THE Cliff Dwellers Of
the Mesa Verde" the discovery of the
wonderful dwellings in this side Can
yon of the Mancos:
THE honor of the discovery of
these remarkable ruins belongs to
Richard and Alfred Wetherill, of
Mancos. The family own large herd
of cattle, which wander about on the
Mesa Verde. The care Of these herds
often calls for long rides on the mesa
and in its labyrinth of canyons. Dur
ing these long excursions ruins, the
one more magnificent than the other,
have been discovered. The two
largest were found by Richard Weth-
Grill and Charles Mason one Deem
Der day in 1888, as they were riding
together through the pinyon wood
on the mesa in search of a stray herd.
They had penetrated through the
dense scrub to the edge of deep can
yon. In the opposite cliff, sheltered
by a huge massive vault of rock,
there lay before their astonished eyes
a whole town. with towers and walls
rising out of heap Of ruins. This
grand monument of bygone ages
seemed to them we'll deserving of the
name of the Cliff PALACE. Not far
from this place, but in different
canyon, they discovered, on the same
day, another very large cliff dwell
ing. To this they gave the name of
Spruce Tree House, from a great
spruce that jutted forth from the
ruins.
During the course Of years Rich
ard and Alfred Wetherill have ex-
plored the mesa and its canyon in all
directions. They have thus gained a
more thorough knowledge of its ruins
than anyone. Together with their
brothers, John, Clayton, and Wynn,
they have also carried out excava-
tons during which number of ex.
tremely interesting finds have been
made"
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