U"j HE Indian arsenal, or the Indian 
armory, or the Indian workshop 
of Pine'y branch, as the inter¬ 
esting- place is variously called, 
came in for a larger measure of noto¬ 
riety or popular* notice during the Pan- 
American Congress than it has ever 
had before. The stony little tract has 
been the subject of official reports, but, 
unless those reports happen to be re¬ 
printed in newspapers and translated 
into United States, very few persons 
learn of them, even though, as 
sometimes happens, really interesting- 
facts are concealed in them. So, it is 
probable that not many persons have 
ever heard of or learned much about 
the Indian workshop on Piney branch 
through the reading of government re¬ 
ports. 
In the ethnological exhibit in the Na¬ 
tional Museum is a group of American 
Indians engaged in the work of making- 
stone arrowheads, and the various, 
processes of this work are illustrated. 
As the Rambler recalls this exhibit, there 
are five Indians in the group, and the 
descriptive card on the big glass case in 
which the Indians are represented as at 
work gives the information that the scene 
is supposed to be on Piney branch, at a 
point about where 18th street, if ex¬ 
tended, would cross the valley through 
which Piney branch flows, or through 
which Piney branch did flow until a 
great sewer was built along most of its 
course. 
* 
-4 - * He 
That exhibit has been in the National 
Museum for several years, and a vast 
number of Americans from outside of 
Washington have stood before the pic¬ 
turesque group, studied the art of mak¬ 
ing arrowheads and have read the de¬ 
scriptive card. Some Washingtonians 
have seen the group, and all of them 
might" if they cared enough about the 
wonderful things on . view in the 
museum to make a trip through the old 
and new buildings. Perhaps it is too 
much to expect that Washington people 
should go sightseeing in the capital of 
the United States, especially as they 
must conserve their energies for sight¬ 
seeing during vacation time at Atlan¬ 
tic City, Chesapeake Beach, Colonial 
Beach or other wonder-towns which 
make the great museums, libraries and 
galleries at Washington seem so dull. 
A few days before the assembling of 
the Pan-American Congress there was 
printed in the news columns of The- 
Star this: “Plans for the entertainment 
and enlightenment of visiting scien¬ 
tists who are to attend the coming Pan- 
American Scientific Congress here were 
altered today when Dr. William H. 
Holmes, head curator of. the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, announced that the 
original intention to show the scien¬ 
tists the remains of a great quarry 
within three miles of the White House 
had been abandoned. This quarry, 
which is situated on Piney branch, an 
outlet of. Rock cheek, near their junc¬ 
tion, is said to have been worked by 
prehistoric stone masons of America 
before the pyramids of Egypt were 
built. Beside the branch there is an 
extensive area filled with the refuse of 
aboriginal workshops, chips of quartz, 
broken and partially shaped imple¬ 
ments, hammer stones and anvils, to a 
depth of ten feet in places. The winter 
weather will cause the abandonment 
of the original plan to show the visit¬ 
ing scientists deposits which, perhaps, 
few Washingtonians know are so near 
their homes.” 
In that news story there was some 
poetic license, reportorial license, geo¬ 
graphic license or something euphe¬ 
mistic for a “bad break” in the state¬ 
ment that this quarry is situated “on 
Piney branch, an outlet of Rock creek, 
near their junction.” Everybody ac¬ 
quainted with Piney branch and most 
of ; those persons familiar with Rock 
creek know that Piney branch is not 
a‘n" “outlet of Rock creek.” However, 
no harm has been done to Piney branch 
or Rock creek. 
With a wooded and rocky ravine, 
having its general direction from 
nor.theast to southwest, extending from 
the District line near Takoma to Rock 
creek a little north cf the Zoological 
grounds, and bisecting the northern 
part of Washington, which has had such 
a remarkable growth within a few 
years, it should not be difficult for any¬ 
body to find a way into this territory. 
A large proportion of Washington peo¬ 
ple must already be familiar with it. 
While the valley of the branch is quite 
wide as it winds southeast of Bright- 
wood and to the north of Petworth, it 
expands considerably as it approaches 
the point where 16th street has been 
filled over and extended across it, and 
its wildest section is that between 16th 
street and Rock creek, with a closely 
built-up part of Mount Pleasant-on the 
southerly side and the woods of the 
Blagden property on the northerly side. 
The scenery of this section of Piney 
branch is, perhaps, no finer than was 
the 1 scenery of the more Easterly sec¬ 
tions, but the lower part has been add¬ 
ed to Rock Creek Park, while the upper 
part, unhappily not so preserved, has 
suffered from the upbuilding of the 
city. A great sewer was constructed 
along much of the course \of Piney 
branch, and the creek was turned into 
this, and much of the splendor of the 
scenery of the vale was destroyed. The 
sewer has its portal a little way below 
the 16th street fill, and the creek water 
which now flows in much diminished 
volume over the stones and around the 
bowlders of the cree.k bed is mixed 
with sewage. It might be better to 
say that it is sewage which now flows 
through the bed of the once sparkling 
creek. 
❖ 
He 3k 
At the head of Mount Pleasant street 
a narrow and well built, though not 
yet a highly improved, street leads 
north. It is 17th street. Some especial¬ 
ly pleasing homes abut on this street, 
and some very handsome places lie 
just off it. A little way along its 
course 17th street begins to go sharply 
down grade, the houses on its sides be¬ 
come few, the sidewalks end and the 
road bed becomes stony, and other¬ 
wise rough. Woods grofv on both 
sides of the way, and, following the 
down grade, one soon comes to the bot¬ 
tom of the valley of Piney branch. 
Through this valley, but nearer to the 
northerly than the southerly slope, 
flows, what before the building of the 
sewer was Piney branch. The bed of 
the stream is strewn with bowl¬ 
ders. Many.of these are large, irregular 
blocks of gneiss and granitic or grani¬ 
toid rocks. Some appear to have come 
into the creek bottom by having been 
dislodged from the valley slopes, and 
then, finding temporary lodgment in 
the creek bed, seem to have been. car¬ 
ried along by the force of flood waters 
until encountering an obstruction, 
strong enough to hold them. Some of 
the bowlders in the creek bottom ap-i 
pear to be part of the basic rock mass¬ 
es of the earth exposed by the age-long 
process which has worn the stream 
bed from the top of the adjacent high¬ 
land to its present level. 
