NO. 1873 PREHISTORIC RUINS IN GILA VALLEY — FEWKES 417 



are inconspicuous. The land in this neighborhood has been culti- 

 vated for several generations, the valley at this point being one of 

 the earliest settled portions of Arizona. 



About a mile south of the site of the former presidio of Tucson 

 there are remains of old mounds (pi XL, figs, a, b), out of which, 

 according to Hon. Samuel Hughes, who settled in Tucson in 1853, 

 there formerly rose cajon or caliche walls. One of these mounds 

 was of considerable size, suggesting the central building of a com- 

 ])ound. The author has been infonned by several persons that 

 formerly low massive walls projected out of this mound, which 

 statement, if true, would indicate that this was actually a compound. 

 It is about the center of a group. In the immediate neighborhood 

 there is a cluster of Papago huts, the place being known to old resi- 

 dents as El Rancho del Tucson.^ 



The first mission at Tucson was called by the oldest inhabitants 

 Casa de los Padres, and was established at another Indian settlement 

 on what is now the Grosetta Ranch, about three miles down the 

 Santa Cruz from Tucson. The rancheria Santa Catalina was not 

 far from this neighborhood. PTere and at various other points on 

 the Rillito, up the Santa Cruz north and northwest of the old Rancho 

 del Tucson, there are low mounds on which are still found scattered 

 fragments of Indian pottery indicating ancient aboriginal rancherias. 

 It is, however, extremely difficult to distinguish historic from pre- 

 historic sites of dwellings, both of which are found in numbers near 

 Tucson, in the valleys of the Rillito and Santa Cruz. 



The elevated land west of the city of Tucson called Tumanoac 

 or Lizard Hill, has on its sides and near its summit walls, trin- 

 cheras, or lines- of fortifications constructed of blocks of lava, near 

 which are many boulders bearing pictographs, thus indicating the 

 former presence of the aborigines. 



Some of the best pictographs in this region, the general character 

 of which appears in the accompanying plate^ (pl.xLi), are clustered 

 on the cliffs about 5 miles west of Tucson. 



' Several writers assert that the Pima word Tucson means black water, but 

 other informants declare that it means black foothills ; took, black ; son, foot- 

 hills, referring to the laval flows of the Tucson Mountains. 



" Similar lines of stones set upright are also found in the valley. These 

 could hardly be called trincheras. Their interpretation is doubtful. 



^ From a photograph by Dr. MacDougal, Director of the Carnegie Desert 

 Laboratory, to whom the author is indebted for an opportunity of visiting this 

 local it V. 



