Press enter after choosing selection

Wonderful Discoveries In New Mexico

Wonderful Discoveries In New Mexico image
Parent Issue
Day
18
Month
February
Year
1881
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

America, as weil as Italy lias its Her culaneum and Poinpeii. ifwe rnay beliew the report ot MesM i. l'auerson and Maok ley, two gentlemen engaged u mining ii New Mexieo, who display 90iue remark able sjreciinensand make more remarkalil statements. Home stupendous ruins have been disoovered at Abo City, ia the Manzana or Apple ruountains, in Va lencia county, about tweoty miles wes of the llio (iiamje river. and nearly the same distando from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. The diatnH was once very populous, but hu nuw no in habi tanta. e learn from a lon report il the Republican tliat there s evidence of a vast voloaniceruption in thevicinity which overwhelrned large cities and buried them and their inhabitant-s in hot ualus. There are lava beds fifty milos in extent, and a one time the cráter of oneof'the mountains must have tueo 60 tbrom. The remains of a temple with wallssixty feet high and U;n feet thiek, and covering an acre ol grouod were found. The t'iut.ur which was pinion wood, was as sound as when lir-t cut. There are are on one sido of the piece o tiniber soine rude figures, one of tbs All Seeing Kye, represeniiDg probably the gun. Other figures are deeply indented in th wood aa though máde by anything but a sharp-edged or steel tooi. There are smal furrows seen in tho wood a- though piowcii out with a stone gouge. The building evidenily belonged to a style of architecture anterior to the adobe and dried brick pe riod. Mr. Pátterson inclines to the öpin i Li that the locality was the site of one ol CfSVo"1ícneelñi;ro8fllfct'lSpuni,h the country afier ihe oonquest nf Mexico, among which were the citii-s f Cambelone, Grand üavra. Santa Cruz, Puerto de Abo, and the old Pecos, and another situated a few miles west from Abo, in the lava beds. Another specimen is a human kull, evidently that of a young female, as shown by the teeth, which was exhumed about a half milc from the church. Skulls are quite plentiful aruong the ruin.s in the viciniiy. About five miles from the Abo Springs they have discovered sotne anjient silver diggidgs. The smelters were built of adobe of suii dried bricks, and were elevated some tweniy or thirty feetabove thegryund. In digging down they found the remains of charooal, which wai used for tüel by th old smelters There were also seen remains ol' an aqucduct in which water was booveyed from a spring three fourths oa mile distaot to a dam vMoh diverted the water intothe smelting works. Atjout five aore was found covered with slag, which Mr. Pattcrson bas taken up for a mili-site. From ihe old furna 'es a trail was found, after considerable exploratinn, leiding di rei-i y from the smehing works to the mine in the mountain-s which rise here in peaks to a heightof 10,000 feet. The ancient trail pursues a zitrrnp oourM. hviii length of some five miles while in an airline the distance is not uiuch esceeding one mile. Everything was transportad in those old mining days on men's khoulders to and from the mountains. There are now trees of the " pinion " growing on the trail as large a; a inan's body, shnwing the aniiquity of the path. Mr. Patterson says took qim two weeks to fiad the mines aP ter finding the smeking works. The mines from whieh the silver was taken were coocealed by fallen timbor, sothe of which had taken root. It took nearly a fortnight to clear il away. It was iound to be seventy feet deep with horrizontal shafts. A lot of pottery was also discovered, and also a rich turquoise mine which bore evidences of former working. The pottery consists of drinking vesnols ïsed by those old inhabitantsof the counxy. The vesaeli are of various designs, representing several species of birds and antelope. Some of the specimens are tri peil and spotted with a black uoloring. An old miner, named Baxter, dug down', and tóund a chamber ten feet square, havng on one side a fireplace, across which ïung a crane having a clay hook, and at he end of the hook was a bone. On the opposite side of the fireplace was found the kcleton af a man in a sitting position, he was evidently watching the roasting of his linner, when he and his habitation were overwhelmed in ruin by a sudden discharge of lava from the mouutain.

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News