220 



Kansas Academy of Science. 



i-;.\|iciiii ii 



bend of Wolf creek, with its abundant supply of crystal waters, 

 and covered at this place with plenty of timber, the site was 

 well fitted to attract with its beauty the hearts of whatever 

 people may have constructed these walls which now lay in 

 ruins. This creek forms the north and partially the eastern 

 boundary. The western boundary is a deep ravine fringed 

 with cedars, and the southern the high walls and buttes of the 

 cliff before mentioned. Thus surrounded it would appeal 

 either to the instincts and superstition of the savage or to 

 the culture and esthetic sense of the Aztec. 



Among those who still live in the community, the first to 

 take notice of these remains was Mr. Thomas Connell, who 

 resides at present in Canadian. In 1877 he settled on Wolf 

 creek, on a ranch which he still owns, a few miles from the 

 ruins. The place was at that time known to the old buffalo- 

 hunters who maintained their camps in this region, but of 

 its origin they could tell nothing. The same fall Mr. Connell 

 came he took with him Spotted Wolf, chief of the Arrapahoes, 

 to the site. This chief was at that time near eighty years of 

 age, and he declared that the ruins were never the work of 

 Indians and were placed there long before he was born. Spot- 

 ted Wolf had more than the ordinary intelligence of the In- 

 dian and could understand English well. He attributed the 

 ruins to the work of white men. 



