The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-06

WASHINGTON, D. c., Sept. 6.-The
Enchanted Mesa, out in New Mexico.
was recently climbed for the third
time, so far as the records show, and
for the first time without any other
apparatus than a rope.
The Enchanted Mesa is one of the
many mysteries of the Southwest. 1t
stands few miles from the pueblo of
Acoma in a vast stretch off semi-arid
wilderness-a country of gently rolling
hills timbered with pinon and cedar.
Many mesas-that is, plateaus-rise
above the level of this country, but
the Enchanted Mesa is different from
the others. 1t is, in fact, a thing
unique. 1t rises to height of 430 feet
above the surrounding country, and
has perfectly fat top about the size
of large farm. The wells are so
steep that there is only one place
where an ascent has ever been at
tempted, and there sheer cliff 40
feet high must be scaled. This sim
gular rock stands up out of the desert
like great ship from the sea, out
topping everything for miles around.
But the thing which awakens most
interest is the existence of traditions,
supported by bits of pottery, ak heads
and other remains found on and about
the mesa, that many years ago, before
white men came to America, there was
primitive city of Pueblo Indians on
the top of it. This desolate rock was
once the Gibraltar of the Southwest
| 1t was an impregnable stronghold
from which the sedentary Indians, who
were on the way to a civilization OF
their own, the ancestors of the present
Pueblos defied the Navajos, Apaches
and other nomads. In the primitive
warfare of that day, the Enchanted
Mesa was probably fort which could
never be taken except by starving the
| inhabitants out.
A Laborous Life.
They paid a heavy Price in labor fol-
their safety, however. Every drop oil
water used had to be carried up over
400 feet in jugs on the heads of women
| 1t is probably that wells or reservoirs
were made on the crest, where enough
water could be stored to resist {
siege. All of the corn and beans anC
| other food of the Indians was raised il
! little valleys several miles away, anc
| this. too, had to be carried to the TOT
of the mesa, and enough of it stored
there to make the inhabitants safe il
case of attaSk
| All of this is conjecture, of course
and the flaw in the whole theory lie.
in the fact that there is at present n,
| trail to the top of the mesa at all. Tht
! Indians belief is that a trail once eX
listed, and that a landslide wiped i
out, making the abandonment of tn,
| mesa necessary. The top of it ha,
been swept by wind and rain so loni
and so thoroughly that it is now yer,
| difficult to find a vestige of the lif
that once crowned the mesa; but whel
it was assembled in 1897 by DR.. W. F
Hodges, of the Bureau of Ethnology
he found bits of pottery, ax-heads an
other artifacts which seemed to prov
conclusively the truth of the India1
belief that the mesa once was ir
habited.
The first ascent of which we ca,
find record was made in 1896 b
Professor William Libbey. of Prince
ton. Impressed by the steepness an
height of the mesa. this gentlema
provided himself with a Iife-savin
apparatus, including a mortar. wit
which he shot rope clear over tn
mesa and pulled himself and his part
to the top. DR.. Hodges did not believ
such elaborate apparatus was nece.
sary He took to the ground a lon