186 ANTIQUITIES OF THE VERDE AND WALNUT CREEK [eva ayn. 28 
where they formerly were driven for protection. According to 
Major Powell, these people have legends that their ancestors inhabited 
villages and cliff-houses, and they claim to be descendants of the 
aboriginal inhabitants of the cinder-cone dwellings near Flagstaff. 
There is said to be a ruin north of Seligman, Arizona, which they 
likewise claim as remains of a former home. 
The records available constituting the written history of this 
part of Yavapai County are not very extensive and shed little or no 
light on its archeology. Western Arizona was visited in 1583 by 
Antonio de Espejo and was traversed nearly a quarter of a century 
later by Juan de Ofiate, who penetrated as far as the mouth of the 
Colorado River. Forty years before Espejo the explorer Alarcon 
at the farthest point reached on his trip up the Colorado heard of stone 
houses situated in the mountains to the east, and no doubt Father 
Garcés in 1776 visited some of these villages in his journey from the 
Colorado to the Hopi villages. The routes of the early Spanish 
explorers in this region have not yet been very accurately determined; 
but it is probable that they made use of old Indian trails, one of 
which ran from the Verde to the Colorado, followed Walnut Creek, 
and went over Aztec Pass to the sources of the tributaries of the Santa 
Maria and the Bill Williams River, which flow into the Colorado. 
Although the accounts of these early travelers are vague, one fact 
stands out in relief, namely, that the region was populated by Indian 
tribes, some of whom were agriculturists and sedentary, who con- 
structed stone houses of sufficient size to attract the attention of the 
explorers. But it was not until early American explorers visited the 
Southwest that knowledge of this region took more definite form. 
The Government reports of Sitgreaves in 1853, of Whipple and others 
in 1853-1854, and of the Wheeler Survey in the ’70’s drew attention 
to the ruins, and the establishment by the War Department of a 
fort on the Verde (moved in 1861 to a near-by site and abandoned in 
1891) opened this interesting region to students of archeology con- 
nected with the Army. The presence of the camp at Fort Huala- 
pai seems to have led fo no scientific results so far as archeology is 
concerned, although situated in the midst of a valley containing 
‘many ruins.! 
1 Consult the following: 
Sitgreaves, L., Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers. Sen. Er. Doc. 59, 32d 
Cong., 2d sess., Washington, 1853. 
Reports of Explorations and Surveys . . . from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, vol. m1, 
Washington, 1856. (‘‘ Whipple Survey.’’) 
U. S. Geographical Surveys of the Territory of the United States West of the 100th Meridian. Annual 
Reports, Washington, 1875-78. (‘* Wheeler Survey.’’) 
Hoffman, Walter J., Miscellaneous Ethnographic Observations on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, Califor- 
nia, and Arizona. In Tenth Ann. Rep. Hayden Survey, Washington, 1878. 
Mearns, Edgar A., Ancient Dwellings of the Rio Verde Valley. In Pop. Sci. Mo., xxxvu, New York, 
Oct., 1890. 
