REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 6*7 



between the ancient Paragonah dwellings and those near Beaver 

 City and neighboring settlements, and warrant the belief that the 

 builders of these structures were more closely related to the house- 

 building peoples of Arizona and New Mexico than has been suspected. 



In the report following his reconnoissance of last year, Mr. Judd 

 drew attention to the fact that the mounds still existing near Para- 

 gonah comprise a mere remnant of the large group formerly at that 

 place and predicted the early razing of those remaining. The hurried 

 investigation of this year was undertaken for the purpose of gaining 

 information regarding these ruins before their destruction. 



One of the largest and, at the same time, one of the least disturbed 

 mounds was selected as a type for excavation. Its dimensions were 

 approximately 100 by 300 feet; its average height was 4^ feet. Two 

 great gashes had been made through the opposite ends of the mound 

 by diggings of many years ago, each cut partially exposing the 

 walls of a single long room. Including these two dwellings, which 

 were reexcavated only with considerable difficulty, Mr. Judd suc- 

 cessfully revealed and measured the walls of 14 rectangular houses, 

 11 of which are entirely cleared of fallen debris and earth accumula- 

 tion. The walls of these ancient habitations, like those previously 

 examined near Beaver City, had been constructed entirely of adobe 

 mud; in their present condition they exhibited no evidence of the 

 use of angular bricks or blocks similar to those employed in Pueblo 

 structures subsequent to the Spanish conquest. On the contrary, 

 close examination showed that the walls were invariably formed by 

 the union of innumerable masses of plastic clay, forced together by 

 the hands of the builders and surfaced inside and out during the 

 process of construction. Careful inspection of the ruins showed that 

 the dwellings were originally roofed in the manner typical of cliff 

 houses and of modern Pueblo structures throughout the Southwest. 

 No certain evidence could be found that doors or other wall openings 

 were utilized by the primitive artisans — each house invariably con- 

 sisted of a single room that apparently had been entered from the 

 roof. One of the most important discoveries made during the 

 course of the Paragonah excavations was that of a circular, semi- 

 subterranean room which, with similar wall fragments previously 

 discovered in the Beaver City mounds, tends to establish the use of 

 the kiva^, or ceremonial chamber, by the ancient house-building 

 peoples of western Utah. 



On the conclusion of his studies at Paragonah, Mr. Judd proceeded 

 to Fillmore, Willard County, for the purpose of investigating cer- 

 tain mounds reported in that neighborhood. These and similar ele- 

 vations near the villages of Meadow, Deseret, and Hinckley, were all 

 superficially identified as of the same type and representing the same 



