The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1920-05-21

system, eStaDllSneu last NO
- vember-is likely to have many
visitors this season. Some will go
because 1t is new. Others will go be-
cause of the claim of Utah that Zion
equals Yosemite in beauty of form
and far excels 1t in beauty Of color.
And still others will go because of the
story of a mysterious cliff-dwelling
that has been discovered-and is be-
lieved to be inaccessible and untouch-
ed by the hand of modern man. More
over, a second canon, with many ram
ifications, has been discovered in Zion
National park. White men have been
in it-or at least have looked down
into it from the plateau thousands of
feet above-but they are few. And
who knows what relics of the mysteri-
Gus prehistoric people of the great
American Southwest these UNEMPLOYED
canons may contain?
Exploration parties are already get
ting ready in Salt Lake City and Los
Angeles. It's no wonder. The story
of the discovery of the inaccessible
cliff-dwellings is one to whet the in
terest of the keenest mountaineer.
Thus the story goes:
Eyre Powell of Venice, Calf, point
ed his telephoto lens at a high per-
pendicular cliff in a side canon about
three-quarters of mile away and
squeezed the bulb. A certain quarter
of an inch in the print attracted his at
tention. He enlarged it as much as
possible. 1t then showed what is ap-
parently cliff-dwelling something like
400 feet long and 60 feet wide. The
cliff-dwelling is in shallow cave
foot of the cliff. Below it are appar-
emily traces of lodges once used as an
ascent and now almost eroded by the
elements. Hence it is a fair guess that
this particular cliff-dwelling has been
unvisited since modern men entered
this region.
And if this mysterious, long-hidden
abode of the Cliff-dwellers proves to
be reality and is reached by some
daring climber. will it yield something
new? That of course is the question
that adds Zest to the quest. For,
though here and there are archaeOlo-
gists who believe they have solved the
mystery of the prehistoric people, it
looks to the common people as If the
scientists were still guessing at the
answers to the questions: Who are
they? How long did they live there?
What became of them? So the pos
sibility that this Zion >Cliff-dwellers'
inaccessible refuge, untouched by the
hand Of the spoiler, may contain some
thing that will throw light on these un-
answered questions is fascinating.
Curiously enough, the many relics
of this prehistoric people throw little
or no light on these questions. This
is the more strange, since the village
sites of the ancient inhabitants, with
all the accessories of village life
kivas, shrines, burial places, fields, ir-
rigation works, lookouts, stairways-
preserve a pretty complete picture of
life In this ancient Southwest. More
over, buried under the debris of build
ings and In the graves Of the dead are
various artifactS of stone, bone, wood,
fiber and clay, which indicate the in
dustrial and domestic life OF the peo-
pie. Ceremonial objects, such as pipes,
fetiches and medicine stones, together
with the symbolic ornamentation of
domestic and mortuary pottery, give
glimpses of the social and religious
life of the times.
Such structures as are above ground
have been pretty thoroughly examined
and an astonishing variety has been
found. For example, there are many
cliff-dwellings, of which those In Mesa
Verde National park in southwestern
Colorado are probably the finest in all
the Southwest.
On the Jemez plateau in the north