550 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 (ETH. ANN. 17 
RUINS NEAR SCHURMANN’S RANCH 
The valley of Oak creek, near Court-house butte, especially in the 
vicinity of Schiirmann’s ranch, is dotted with fortifications, mounds 
indicative of ruins, and like evidences of aboriginal occupaney. There 
is undoubted proof that the former occupants of this plain constructed 
elaborate irrigating ditches, and that the waters of Oak creek were 
diverted from the stream and conducted over the adjoining valleys. 
There are several fortified hills in this locality. One of the best of 
these defensive works crowned a symmetrical mountain near Schiir- 
man’s house. The top of this mesais practically inaccessible from any 
but the southern side, and was found to’have a flat surface covered 
with scattered cacti and serub cedar, among which were walls of 
houses nowhere rising more than two feet. The summit is perhaps 200 
feet above the valley, and the ground plan of the former habitations 
extends over an area 100 feetin length, practically occupying the whole 
of the summit. Although fragments of pottery are scarce, and other 
evidences of long habitation difficult to find, the house walls give every 
evidence of being extremely ancient, and most of the rooms are filled 
with red soil out of which grow trees of considerable age. 
Descending from this ruin-capped mesa, | noticed on the first ter- 
race the remains of a roundhouse, or lookout, in the middle of which 
a cedar tree had taken root and was growing vigorously. Although 
the walls of this structure do not rise above the level of the ground, 
there is no doubt that they are the remains of either a lookout or 
circular tower formerly situated at this point. 
Many similar ruins are found throughout this vicinity, yet but little 
more is known of them than that they antedate the advent of white 
men. The majority of them were defensive works, built by the house 
dwellers, and their frequency would indicate either considerable popu- 
lation or long occupancy. Although many of those on the hilltops 
differ somewhat from the habitations in the valleys, I think there is 
little doubt that both were built by the same people.’ There are like- 
wise many caves in this region, which seem to have been camping 
places, for their walls are covered with soot and their floors strewn 
with charred mescal, evidences, probably, of Apache occupancy. This 
whole section of country was a stronghold of this ferocious tribe within 
the last few decades, which may account for the modern appearance of 
many of the evidences of aboriginal habitation. 
There are some good pictographs on the foundation rocks of that 
great pinnacle of red rock, called the Court-house, not far from Schiir- 
mann’s ranch.? Some of these are Apache productions, and the neigh- 
1 Fortified hilltops occur in many places in Arizona and are likewise found in the Mexican states of 
Sonora and Chihuahua, where they are known as trincheras. They are regarded as places of refuge 
of former inhabitants of the country, contemporaneous with ancient pueblos and cliff houses. 
2This pinnacle is visible for miles, and is one of many prominences in the surrounding country. 
Unfortunately this region is so imperfectly surveyed that only approximations of distances are possi- 
ble in this account, and the maps known to me are too meager in detail to fairly illustrate the distri- 
bution of these buttes. 
