ARCH^OLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 615 



Indeed, probably no two observers would agree as to the limits of the 

 place, as detached home mounds can be detected almost all the way 

 from Buena Vista to San Jose. The bluff on which the ruin of Bueiia 

 Vista stands is a natural one, and commands a view of the Gila River, 

 between which and the mound is a low ridge of sand which forms a 

 bank of the San Jose Canal. The Gila is fringed with trees, which 

 also line the edge of the bluff. North of the bluff there is a wide river 

 bottom, now cultivated, and, no doubt, the site of ancient farms. The 

 ruin itself is covered with a growth of mesquite bushes, cacti, and 

 other thorny A^egetatiou, but the soil is more rocky than the rich allu- 

 vium of the river bottom. 



The large central ruin of the Buena Vista cluster is trapezoidal in 

 shape, formed of a number of rooms with a central inclosure or plaza, 

 which is now used as a corral. The walls of these rooms were built of 

 stones, or at least stone walls are all that now remain. In one or two 

 parts of this large structure the character of the masonry can be made 

 out, but as a rule the walls have so fallen that it is very difficult to 

 determine the size and arrangement of the chambers that formerly 

 composed this building. This stone inclosure may be likened to the 

 great central structures that characterize the Gila Valley ruins. 

 There is evidence that earth was combined with stone in its construc- 

 tion, but naught now remains but the rows of stones which supported, 

 possibly strengthened, the walls. This was a citadel or place of refuge, 

 and from an architectural standpoint resembled more nearly than any 

 other building the great stone ruins north of the White Mountains, at 

 Chaves Pass, or on the Little Colorado. 



The greater part of the terrace upon which the Buena Vista ruin 

 was built was covered with small, rounded mounds, isolated or forming 

 low ridges, bearing evidences of artificial origin. 



RUINS NEAR SOLOMONVILLE. 



The excavations of the mounds on Epley's farm, a short distance 

 from Solomonville, rewarded me with fair results. Some of these 

 mounds had been opened by Mexicans for adobe, and the many speci- 

 mens of ancient handiwork found by them have been scattered and 

 lost. Work had likewise been done upon them by Mr. B. B. Adams, 

 who greatly aided me in my studies in the valley. Epley's ruin is 

 rapidly being brought under cultivation, and in a few years traces of 

 the ancient mounds will wholly disappear. Already so many have been 

 leveled that I found it next to impossible to get a good idea of the 

 arrangement of the house clusters in this locality. There was formerly 

 a many-chambered house, indicated by a high mound, just back of 

 Epley's residence, which appeared to occupy the same relationship to 

 smaller neighboring dwellings that the large inclosure at Buena Vista 

 does to the mounds in its neighborhood. We dug to the lowest floor 

 of this house cluster and found it made of a thick layer of hard adobe 



