ANCIENT ROINS IN SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO, 



By W. pi. Jackson. 



In the extreme southwestern corner of Colorado Territory, west of the 

 oue hundred and eighth degree of longitude, are groups of old ruined 

 houses and towns, displaying a civilization and intelligence far beyond 

 that of any of the present inhabitants of this or adjacent Territory/ 



It will be my endeavor, in the few pages following, to describe these 

 with as much minuteness and circumspection as a very hasty trip euai»led 

 me to observe; depending more upon the pictorial illustrations acom- 

 X^anyiug this article for dear exposition of the subject than upon my 

 choice of words. 



Extending around the sources of the Rio Grande del Norte is one of 

 the grandest uplifts of the whole Eocky Mountain chain, the Sierra 

 San Juan. The drainage from its southern face supplies the half-dozen 

 streams which go to make up the Rio San Juan, flowing westwardly 

 into the Colorado of the West. To the southwest, standing isolated 

 and alone, is another great mass of trachytic mountain-peaks, known 

 as the Sierra La Plata, from which flow the Rio La Plata and the Rio 

 de los Mancos, the most western of any importance of the northern 

 tributaries of the San Juan. 



Although ruins in considerable number and importance were said to 

 exist along the Rio Las Animas and San Jnan ; we did not think 

 it best to spare any of the little time at our disposal for their inves- 

 tigation. Our object being to And those in which the picturesque 

 predominated and were the least known, we directed our course to 

 the westward, having obtained reliable information of the existence 

 of some which would come up to our anticipations. The Rio de los 

 Mancos, (from what cii'ca instance so named I have not been able 

 to learn,) rising in two principal forks among the western foot-hills 

 of the Sierra La Plata, flows southwesterly through fertile and beau- 

 tiful valleys to a great table-land, known as the '■'■ Mesa Yerde," and en- 

 tering, flows directly south through it, to the valley of the San Juan, 

 and then turning west again joins that stream near the crossing of the 

 boundary-lines of the four Territories. 



Commencing our observations in the park-like valley between the 

 mesa and the mountains, we find that the low benches which border the 

 stream upon either side bear faint vestiges of having, at some far-away 

 time, been covered with dwellings, grouped in communities apparently, 

 but now so indistinct as to present to the eye little more than unin- 

 telligible mounds. By a little careful investigation, however, lines of 

 foundations of great squares of blocks of single buildings and of circu- 

 lar inclosures can be made out ; the latter generally with a depressed 

 center, showing an excavation for some purpose. The greater portion 

 of these mounds were now overgrown with artemisia, piQou-piue, and 

 cedar, concealing them almost entirely from casual observation. We 

 found the surest indication of the proximity of these old ruins by the 

 great quantities of broken pottery, which covered the ground in their 

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