610 ARCH^OLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 



Pueblo Viejo, which, as will be seen by consulting the map, is about 

 ;ue south of the ruin near Taylor and not far east of the meridian 

 already referred to. 



In the year 1846 a detachment of United States troops, known as the 

 "Army of the West,"' under General Kearny, made what was officially 

 called a military reconnoissauce from Fort Leavenworth to San Diego, 

 Cal. Lieutenant Emory, of the topographical engineers, and Captain 

 Johnston, who lost his life in an action with Californians at San Pasqual, 

 were attached to the expedition, and their journals were published in 

 1848, ^ in compliance with a resolution of the Senate. These oft-quoted 

 "Notes" are of great value to the student of the antiquities of southern 

 Arizona, 



On the 28th of October the "Army of the West" camped on the 

 Upper Gila Eiver bank opposite a high mountain, indicated on their 

 map as Mount Graham. For three days tliey traveled along the valley 

 now called the Pueblo Viejo, and Emory and Johnston were probably the 

 first Americans to call attention to the abundant evidences of ancient 

 habitations which this valley contains. Their accounts of the ruins 

 have remained for fifty years the best that we have of the antiquities 

 of this interesting region. Emory was particularly struck with the 

 amount and character of broken pottery about the ruins, and suggested 

 that the shards were broken pipes once used "to convey water." He 

 found fragments of agate and obsidian, and mentions the existence oi' 

 both circular and rectangular rooms. Stone implements and metates 

 made of lava rock also attracted his attention. Johnston records hav- 

 ing picked up a perforated marino shell and a stone painted red,^ 

 which "may have been used as a foot of an idol." He also mentions 

 both circular and rectangular rooms, and figures several fragments of 

 decorated pottery. 



Both Emory and Johnston seem to have recognized that the walls 

 of the ancient buildings were built of earth, with foundations of water- 

 worn bowlders. From their descriptions I am led to believe that the 

 ruins which they mention are those that can still be seen at the little 

 Mexican settlement at Buena Vista and at Pomeroy's farm, between 

 Solomonville and Saffbrd. 



The material used in the construction of these houses was such that 

 it weathered rapidly, with the result that in a short time after deser- 

 tion the house walls were leveled to the ground, and nothing remained 

 but mounds of earth to mark the sites of ancient settlements. These 

 mounds, rising a few feet above the general surface of the land, are 

 conspicuous for some distance on account of the poverty of vegeta- 

 tion upon them. They are generally slightly higher than the level of 

 the surrounding plain, and as the water can not be made to flood 



iNotes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San 

 Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. 

 21 found at Epley's ruin a painted piece of pottery in the form of a moccasin. 



