10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



of the dwellings, the indications are that they were extensive and 

 have been broken down and washed away. 



OLDTOWN RUIN 



Near where the Mimbres leaves the hills and, after spreading out, 

 is lost in the sand, there was formerly a " station," on the mail route, 

 called Mimbres, but now 7 known as Oldtown. Since the founding of 

 Deming, the railroad center, the stage route has been abandoned and 

 Mimbres (Oldtown) has so declined in population that nothing 

 remains of this settlement except a ranch-house, a school-house, and 

 a number of deserted adobe dwellings. 



Oldtown lies on the border of what must formerly have been a lake 

 and later became a morass or cienega, but is now a level plain lined 

 on one side with trees and covered with grass, affording excellent 

 pasturage. From this point the water of the Mimbres River is lost, 

 and its bed is but a dry channel or arroyo which meanders through 

 the plain, filled with water only part of the year. In the dry months 

 the river sinks below the surface of the plain near Oldtown reappear- 

 ing at times where the subsoil comes to the surface, and at last forms 

 Palomas Lake in northern Mexico. 



In June, when the author visited Oldtown, the dry bed of the 

 Mimbres throughout its course could be readily traced by a line of 

 green vegetation along the whole length of the plain from the Old- 

 town site to the Florida Mountains. 1 



The locality of emergence of the Mimbres from the hills or where 

 its waters sink below the surface is characteristic. The place is sur- 

 rounded by low hills forming on the south a precipitous cliff, eighty 

 feet high, which the prehistoric inhabitants chose as a site of one of 

 their villages; from the character and abundance of pottery found, 

 there is every reason to suppose this was an important village. 



The Oldtown ruin is one of the most extensive seen by the author 

 during his reconnoissance in the Deming Valley, although not so 

 large as some of those in the Upper Mimbres, or on Whiskey Creek, 

 near Central. Although it is quite difficult to determine the details of 

 the general plan, the outlines of former rectangular rooms are indi- 

 cated by stone walls that may be fairly well traced. There seem to 

 have been several clusters of rooms arranged in rows, separated by 

 square or rectangular plazas, unconnected, often with circular depres- 

 sions between them. 



*A beautiful view of the valley can be obtained from the top of Black 

 Mountain, above the small ruin at its base, that will be mentioned presently. 



