Evening star., 1934-10-07
LOST CITY SITE IS
COVERED BY DAM
Largest Settlement of Red
Man Found in Nevada
Desert.
BY the Associated Press.

6y Luc hboOClhIcu EIcSo'
Y OS ANGELES. October Ga
lost" city that soon will be a
drowned" one is occupying the
- attention of scientists probing
early Indian culture in the
United States.
It is the largest city ever discovered
Of an ancient red mems civilization,
and before it is buried under Boulder
Dams man-made sea its miles Of ruins
will have been surveyed, mapped and
explored for the relics and artifacts
which will enable science to piece to-
gether and preserve something Of the
history of a lost people.
The soaring desert heat of the area
once occupied by an egg-headed tribe
of red men who lived in pits dug in the
ground like wild animals until about
500 AID. makes it necessary for this
work to be done in the cool months
of the year. Consequently Mark r.
Harrington, curator Of the Southwest
Museum, plans to make his last in
vasion of the territory between Oc-
tober and April.
Even then, he and his men must
Odyo VI ana
desert dust storms to finish the work
OF uncovering this old-time metropolis
before the 100-mile lake which Boulder
Dam will create buries it forever.
Peaceful Tribe Joins Up.
From previous search and study
Harrington and others have been able
to construct fragmentary picture of
this olden culture. 1t is believed to
have begun about 1900 years ago.
when the men with oval-shaped skulls
settled upon the site of what is now
known as Moapa Valley in the Nevada
desert about so miles from Las Vegas
A thousand years later hundreds
OF Pueblo Indians came out of Ari-
zona and joined them peacefully.
Together they titled the soil by hand,
growing corn, beans, cotton and pos
Slbly tobacco. They mined salt In
natural caves of the region.
These two tribes built a large city
the greatest yet discovered of the early
Pueblo culture. 1t stretched for Ave
miles along the banks Of the muddy
river. Most of the homes, built of
adobe and stone, contained eight
rooms, but one huge apartment house
was uncovered with 95 rooms
This early center of civilization ap-
parently proSpered. The residents
bartered with other tribes as far as
the Pacific Coast, for bits of their
pottery and woven goods have been
found i'll Indian graves in California.
After early Summer crops were
harvested, the Indians left their entire
city IN charge of a few guards and
went to the high attitudes of the
nearby mountains to escape the ter
rifle heat, which today reaches 126
degrees and above in July and August.
Then Came Invasion.
This peaceful life went along un-
interrupted for about 300 years. Then
horde of savage nomad Indians
swept into the valley, slaughtering
the Pueblos by the thousands and
driving the rest from their homes.
On a high mesa, where the ruins
Of large pueblo were found, appar-
emily occurred the last stand of the
valley tribe, for here we're discovered
the largest number of arrowheads in
the patio and around outbuildings,
the last signs of bitter fight that
took place somewhere around 300 A. D.
First trace of the lost city was dis
covered In 1924 by two miners, John
and Fay Perkins, brothers, who re-
ported their find to the State. Mr..
Harrington was commissioned to
identify and appraise the ruins.
EiraYpo a c% NNxr1v,,
80 Civilian Corps workers, he dug into
the houses, partly uncovering only
about 80 out of that vast city.
Had Dice, Too.
Fireplaces, warehouses and graves,
which had been dug within the aban-
doned houses apparently there were
no separate cemeterieS), yielded clues
to the lives of these people. Types of
pottery revealed three distinct tribes,
the pit dwellers, the incoming Pueblos
and the nomadS or PaiuteS. whose ar
rowheadS indicated they came fighting.
In one grave Mr.. Harrington found,
beside the skeleton of a man, deco
rated food bowls, two cooking pots,
the skeleton of a dog, the only ami
NAL these early tribes had domeSti-
Gated; water jar, canteen, traces Of
baskets, arrowheadS, skeleton of baby
wildcat and several bone dice.
The specimens Mr. Harrington and
his party recover will be added to the
many barrels and boxes previously re-
trieved and preserved in a Federal
museum to be built at Overton, New.
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