THE IEKIGATION AGE. 



Home of an Ancient Civilization, Antedating the White 

 Race Rich in Historic Interest Curious Rites of 

 Present Day Taosans Baffle Inquiry Irrigation Prac- 

 tised in Remote Age Ranchos Orchard & Land Com- 

 pany Introduces New Methods Valley Proves Its 

 Richness by Grain, Stock and Fruit Yields. 



A valley so rich in archaeological interest that it has 

 contributed more facts to the "study of the ancient Ameri- 

 can peoples than any other section of the United States. 



Scenery whose sublimity exalts the mind and in- 

 spires mankind with a lowliness and contentment in the 

 contemplation of the mighty works of the creation. 



Climatic conditions that bar disease, promote lon- 

 gevity and give to humans a virility and energy far surpass- 

 ing that of the dweller in cities or lowlands. 



valley had reached the zenith of its glory and had passed 

 to the decline. As the army of white men approached 

 the western mountains it was convulsed by strife and 

 turmoil. When the first fair skinned intruder gazed upon 

 ;he peaceful valley its peoples had diminished, its struc- 

 tures had decayed, its institutions had faded into the great 

 past from which there was no recall. 



Yet there remains today in the valley of the Taos 

 the gaunt and silent sentinels of a by-gone race. The 

 native engineer has left his mark upon the landscape. 

 Here are the homes of his ancestors and his progeny, the 

 pueblos with their impregnable walls reared with methodi- 

 cal exactness. Away in the valley are the fruits of his 

 constructive skill, the canals and ditches by which he 

 carried water to the parched acres. His was a crude yet 

 a wonderful skill, for he knew no precedent and he 

 created an art. 



But in this wreck of a nation, this relic of another 

 world, there remains one connecting link betwen the old 

 and the new. Each year, at a given time, the Taosans 

 gather in secret conclave for mysterious rites and cere- 

 monies into which the Gentile may not so much as inquire. 

 for the secrets of his people are guarded as faithfully by 

 the Indian as are the Masonic rites of today. Old settlers 



Pueblo of the Taos Indians. These Structures Have Endured for Hundreds of Years and Are Still Occupied by the Last of a Once Powerful Race. 



Soil, impregnated with plant foods and eager to 

 yield up its bounty at the magic touch of water, from 

 which it has been withheld for hundreds, perhaps thou- 

 sands of years. 



Such is the valley of the Taos. Isolated from modern 

 civilization by almost impassable barriers, it escaped the 

 eye of the prospector and the rancher alike until within 

 the past decade. While the white man was slowly push- 

 ing his way westward from the narrow chain of colonies 

 along the Atlantic coast, the Taos valley of New Mexico 

 enjoyed a culture and a civilization unknown to any other 

 section of ancient America. 



Long before Jamestown had been founded the Taos 



residing in the valley, declare their inability to gather 

 even a farthing of understanding from the stoical Indian. 

 Neither his cupidity nor his friendships will tempt the 

 Taosan to divulge the secrets of his honored customs. 



Ethnologists are baffled in their attempts to gain a 

 crumb of information upon which to base an assumption. 

 It is asserted, and there is reason for the belief, that the 

 present descendants of the race know not of the import 

 of their ceremonies and that it is only the superstitious 

 belief in the ancestral custom that prevents abolishment. 

 Whether or not this surmise is correct, it is predicted 

 that the last survivor of the race will carry his secrets 

 to the grave. 



