6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



POT CREEK RUIN 



The ruin to which this name has been given is one of the largest 

 adobe-walled remains that the writer has seen in the Southwest. It is 

 situated on the north bank of Pot Creek not more than one- fourth 

 mile from the Bagley ranch houses and about the same distance 

 from the main road running through the ranch. The mound covers 

 many acres in area, rivalling in size that of Yucca House in the 

 Montezuma Valley, southwestern Colorado. The mounds are very 

 massive and attain a height of from, 15 to 20 feet, suggesting that the 

 village was two or more stories high. At no place are the mounds less 

 than 15 feet wide, and in many places they are much wider. 



The general ground plan of the buildings as indicated by mounds 

 is a capital letter E with the three arms equal in length. In the middle 

 of the site is an immense circular mound which is bisected by the 

 central arm of the E. At the southwestern corner of the group is a 

 compact mass of buildings almost surrounding a kiva. The other 

 kivas are not embraced in the mass of rooms but are out in the open 

 plaza. In many places there are indications of walls on the tops of 

 the mounds. The whole surface of the ground is covered with in- 

 numerable potsherds and broken stone artifacts. It is possible that 

 excavation would reveal many of the lower or ground floor rooms 

 with ceilings intact. 



Not over 500 feet east of this large mound is a smaller one. This 

 suggests a compact mass of rooms and does not appear to have been 

 a kiva. 



Scattered over an area almost a mile square are potsherds, arrow 

 heads and broken stone materials of all kinds. A lot of this has 

 washed down from the large ruin, although possibly there were other 

 small houses that have disappeared. 



HOT SPRINGS 



At no great distance from a hot spring called the John Dunn, 

 near the Hondo, is a ruin which is described as one of the largest in 

 the Taos region. The writer was not able to visit the site, however. 

 There are many other hot springs in the valley to which the present 

 Indians attribute medicinal properties, but the Dunne spring is the 

 only one with which archeological remains are associated. 



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