The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1920-02-06
CUMMINGS SPEAKS
PREHISTORIC AR|z
IS SUBJECT
SiiTton Greets University Extension
Speaker With Capacity Audience
In Auditorium.

der the auspices of the University Ex-
tension Club was delivered at the
High School Auditorium last Friday
night. The lecturer for this occa asion
being Dean Cummings of the Uniyer-
sitySof Arizona
| Dean Cummings was introduced bv
Mr. Norman Carmichael in few
we'll chosen words, after which the
speaker for the evening entertained a
large audience for over an hour with
series of motion pictures slides de-
picting scenes in the southwest where
| cliff dwellings abound the subject OF
| the Deans address being "Pre-histor-
| ic Arizona
AS the pictures were thrown upon
the screen the lecturer commented up-
on them in a manner possible only to
| one who had been over the ground
where they were taken.
1t has been the custom for the Uni
vrsity to send into the field teachers
and students. who have gathered such
| data first hand. Dean Cummings
has headed several of those exploring
parties, making his lecture all the
more interesting
The pictures showed the box cany-
ons occurring in the limestone forma-
ton OF the mesas of southern Utah
and northern Arizona. These cany-
ons abound in great natural caves,
and these with southern or western
exposure were utilized by a pre-his-
toric people as site to erect their
homes. Many pictures were shown of
two, three and even four story struc-
lures. all in a remarkable state of pre-
servation, and built under the protect
ing roof of an over-hanging cliff
Store Rooms and granaries were al
ways in evidence, showing the ancient
inhabitants were of a pastoral type,
and somewhat thrifty, storing their
grain and other products of the field
in a place safe from the destruction
of the elements.
That they had a religious side to
their nature was also evident, as the
pictures of number of ceremonial
chambers were shown and commented
upon by the Dean. They seemed to
reverence a Spirit, which proceeded
took it's flight across ain altar of stone
through small shaft leading out and
up to the light of day, depicting the
flight of the spirit of man from the
earth, skyward. Not an unusual idea
in any religion.
Picture writing upon the walls of
tory they have left behind, and tells
only of things in nature they feared
or reverenced The lightning driv-
ing "a zig-zag course through the
clouds like a great serpent seems to
have been a favorite subject. The
gentle rains which endue the soil with
fertility is shown by criss-cross marks
and is called the she-rain, while the
fierce and destructive rains whirh
blow out of the. hlouds like great dew
lis are pictured like javelins directed
with an ugly will, and are called he
rains. You see even in that ancient
time the people of mother Earth rec
the sexes.
Dean Cummings spoke of the desir
ability of good roads crossing our
state from north to south as well as
from east to west, calling attention to
the fact that such roads would adver
tise the wonders and grandeur of
east and west commercial route. 1t
is a well known fact that tourists
crossing Arizona on either the Santa
Fe or the Southern Pacific can form
no idea at all of what Arizona is really
like, while sood automobile ROAD
connecting the different points of in
;erest north and south would be Of
untold benefit as an advertising med
ium, aside from the general utility of
such a project.
The audience which greeted Dean
Cummings was a capacity one for
the auditorium, many people from
Morenci and Metcalf, being present,
beside a large quota of Clifton peo-
pie. This is an encouraging sign to
those who have undertaken to furnish
the district with this class of enter
tainment and if is hOped that the Uni