Show MORMON THEORY ORY OF CUFF CLIFF DWELLERS IS ISA A FASCINATING STORY tri j r W 4 I i a I IA Ic A c d f J JI I 4 t t I Ik i k T Sidelights on Weird and Pic Picturesque Picturesque Picturesque Ruins of South Southeastern Southeastern Southeastern eastern Utah Subject Is Given Additional In Interest Interest Interest terest by Approaching Ex Exploratory Exploratory oratory pI Expedition there will go into San SanJuan SanJuan SanJuan PRESENTLY r Juan county a company of scion scientists scientists and students to study the relics left by the cliff dwellers who onCe onci inhabited in that weird and mysterious mysterious rious region Professor Byron Bron Cum Cummings of ot the University lb of t U Utah h Will lead p a party of ot students that will ac accompany company the investigators who will come as representatives of the nation national al at government and of Yale Tale college Professor or Edgar L Hewett director of the American Amerl n Institute of Archaeology and Investigator for the bureau of ot eth ethnology ethnology of the th department de of the inte interior interior nor and Professor or of Yale will arrive at Monticello on June 15 There they will be Joined by the uni university un university 1 group The party will proceed to Thompsons where horses h will be betaken betaken betaken taken and a loaded for the trip Into San Juan county to the canyons plateaus mesas and low lowlands lowlands lands ands where when lie fie the ruins of prehistoric prehistoric tone Americans who wll their homes and nd cultivated ted their lands and fought and died In the June number of the Pacific Monthly is an intensely interesting ar article article tide entitled The Cliff Dwellers and the Mormon Theory The article is isby isby by b W r C McBride and is profusely il ii illustrated illustrated with photographs by Charles Goodman It is of or particular Interest here in view of the fact that Utah is the scene of many of Mr McBrides researches and for the further reason that Utah may claim the distinction of or being the cradle of the he America of or today The theory which Mr McBride Ic calls the Mormon theory is In brief a com corn comprehensive comprehensive condensation of the t e Book of Mormon in that which Is told in that book respecting the first coming of the people who were the th founders of the Mormon Mornion faith Mr 11 McBride has shorn the narrative set sat forth in the Book of of much of or Its vcr ver verbiage biage blago and has put the belief beU f into plain everyday English In the beginning of his article Mr McBride desires it to be b distinctly un understood understood understood that he does not the th Mormon idea of the colonization of ancient America but as it is s be believed believed believed and taught by people Mr II McBride In the absence of post tty tive proof to the contrary hesitates absolutely to reject the theory theor He presents it for or the acceptance or orre re rejection rejection of or the readers of the Pacific Monthly as they see fit to accept or reject A few pw of the most interesting portions of Mr McBrides article fol follow follow follow low Professor ProCessor Holmes of or the Smithson Smithsonian ian Institute one of the first to study the ruins Ins from a truly scientific meth method method od 00 makes the following classification which has generally been adopted by b students v First Lowland villages In which dwelt the purely agricultural classes the t e sites chosen hosen being always In the most fertile valleys alleys and close to rivers Second Cave dwellings caves arti artl artificially tidally enlarged often orten closed and strengthened with stone or adobes of kneaded clay lay dried In the sun such as asare asare asare are still used by the modern Pueblo Indians for tor or building their huts Third Cliff houses true fortresses to which the people of the valleys ebly bly retired when danger threatened The houses were w re built of or adobe or orcut orcut cut ut stone and imd in some instances pol polished polIsh polished Ish d carefully laid and the crevices filled with clay cla or mud and sometimes a mixture of clay and charcoal usually two or four stories high although a afew afew afew few are known to have been six and seven stories with as many as 50 rooms That the inhabitants of these ruins were the agricultural classes there sterns seems no doubt for we find Indisputable Indisputable able abl evidence of their irrigation works as a well as of or a city water supply The arid deserts were reclaimed through a system of r storage reservoirs by dam lam damming damming ming ining the mountain streams and con conducting conducting ducting the water to the t e lower plains in canals in the same manner as the government Is now doing in many arid sections of ot the west These canals portions of which were often oft n cut through solid rock are ten twenty fifty and even miles in length and capable of carrying from to inches of water When we consider r that they were constructed ed without the aid of our modern excavating excavating excavating machinery and explosives or even eren tho the common pick or shovel we weare weare weare are compelled to admit that here is evidence of an intelligence far tar in ad advance advance advance vance of that ever shown by any of tho the Indian tribes It Is the cliff cUff dwellings proper roper or the ruins of the cliffs cUffs and canyons that ate are by far the most Interesting and ana an the source of the greatest speculation and wonder Imagine says a recent traveler the dry bed of a river shut In between steep Inaccessible rocks of red sandstone and a man standing in that bed looking up at the habitations of oC his lila fellow creatures 9 perched on every ledge Major Powell United States S tes geologist expresses his surprise ai Rt a nothing for whole days das but 1 perpendicular cliffs everywhere every here rid riddled riddled died with human habitations which resemble the cells of oC a honeycomb more snore than anything else elseA elseA elseI I A few tew contain but a single room others rs ten twenty and as us many as 81 fifty t ty while the great greM palace of ot I the Man Han Manco I cos co cc originally embraced not less ihan tl an ant t U 4 I 3 i A r I c i The upper picture shows ruins of cliff dwelling at Bluff The lower is a ruined tower house at head of Holly canyon 1000 rooms within its walls One on the Mesa Verde covered an area aren of square feet and contained 1 cubic feet of ot masonry Great skill was shown In Joining the walls Avails to the cliffs cUffs and in Imitating the and aspect of the tile neighboring rocks indeed in eed in certain narrow deep gorges one must needs have a good pair vall of oi eyes to detect them amid their rugged surroundings The windows and doors are small the th latter being very vey ve narrow arrow and rarely ly exceeding four or five feet feel In height This has given rise to the opinion held by some that the cliff dU dwellers were a race of ot pygmies Their Theli mummified remains however still found in fn certain localities refute this and show them to have been Of the ordinary stature z p Several Severn I years year ago I visited visIte a 1 ruin of this character in southeastern Utah This strange structure was discovered perched upon the extreme point of ot an Isolated l isola ted tablerock which we estimated to be from SOO to 1000 feet high and found to be about thirty feet wide across the too ton After several hours of tedious climbing often hein being compelled to resort to the use of ropes we reached a point about aboul feet fe t from the summit and Immediately under the object of this dangerous venture Here the project projecting projecting projectIng ing ledge of ot the tablerock above barred barrec all aU further progress Sorely disappointed disappointed pointed we H were about to descend when lo a hole was discovered lead leading leadIng leading ing straight up through the solid saUd rock which on examination was found large enough to admit an man and to 10 be equipped ed with hewn notches at regular regul r intervals In which the hands and feet could be successively placed making the ascent very ery simple and easy for anyone of not too large a girth which unfortunately one of our party possessed On emerging emergIng ing in from this upright tunnel another surprise awaited us as we landed in inthe inthe inthe the very ver center c of the ruin What a place of refuge I a Mr McBride describes the origin of the Book of Mormon how the plates having the appearance of gold were found Cound by Joseph Smith burled buried In a hill hillin hillIn hillin in Ontario county New York how by means of the and or the inscriptions thereon were translated into English how the revelation had come from MaronI how bow eleven citizens gave gae sworn testimony that they had seen this wonder and had held in their hands the plates platea and translations Mr McBrIde then pro proceeds proceeds proceeds We read In Genesis that Just after the destruction of the Tower of Babel end nd the confusion of tongues the Lord was angry with the people and he scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth Con Concerning Concerning Concerning the same event Josephus says After this they the were dispersed abroM on account of their languages and went vont out t b by y colonies everywhere and each colony took possession of that land which w they the light upon and unto which God led them so that the whole continent was filled with them both the inland and maritime countries There were some who passed over the sea In ships and Inhabited the Islands It was at this time according to the Book I of Mormon or about bout years ears after the I flood that the first colony of about thirty people under the direction of the I brother of Jared left Asia for this I country They embarked In eight ves vessels vessels s sels eels or barges as they are called and the Lord caused a furious wind to blow blowin in the direction of ol o the promised land After drifting before this wind for tor days they reached the th west w st coast sup supposedly supposedlY supposedly between the Gulf of California rind and nd the Isthmus And Ad the Lord said Behold this Is 15 a land which h Is ts 4 choice above all other lands wherefore he that doth possess It shall serve God or shall be swept off And whatsoever ver nation shall possess it shall befree from bond bondage bondage age ago and from captivity and from all other nations under uDder heaven If they will but ut servo the God of the land In time this thiM colony grew to be bea a great and populous nation covering nearly neatly all of the continent where they flourished for 1500 years But through the greed of wealth and power the nation became divided Into two powerful parties capa capable capable capable ble of mustering an army of soldiers each and somewhere In north northern ern em New York near Lake Ontario I there was fought the greatest gre test battle I the world has ever seen s en Several pages s of the book are tle required 4 to describe the be awful carnage A t war of ext ermina f l i I tion on men women and children all a 1 slain i until but one sole by the name nune of remained While this terrible war var was in progress progress ress or about years before Christ Chrit Christin I in the first year y ear of the reign feign of Zede Zedekiah kiah king of Judah the second colony left Jerusalem One Lehl Lehi a goodly man being warned by God In ina a dream of the downfall of Jerusalem took his family consisting of wife and four sun sons L r n T muel Nephi and Sam and departed into UI ua ert Lert of Ara Am Arabia Ambia ra rabin bia bin where they wandered for eight elg t years Laman and Lemuel were of a rebellious spirit and constantly re reproached reproached reproached their father for leaving his home and lands to suffer the and privations of the wilderness on ac account account count of a simple dream N phi and Sam were good obedient sons s ns trusting all to their father without complaint Thus were sown the seeds of discord and ard rebellion which were to be bi b harvest harvested harvested ed In the New World During their sojourn in the desert Nephi and his ts brothers returned to Je Jerusalem Jerusalem and persuaded Ishmael an old friend of the family to Join them The Ishmael family of ot two sons gons and several daughters and a slave whom they t ey picked up on the way Increased the party to about fifteen After a mar marriage marriage or two they constructed a n ship according to the command of God of curious workmanship put to sea and after weathering severe storms for many days on the Indian and Pacific oceans landed on the now coast of Chile South America They journeyed northward multiplying rapidly while the seeds of rebellion were fast ripen ripening ripenIng rIpening ing for within or thirty years they divided Into two tw rival factions fac factions factions headed by the th brothers Laman and Nephi adopting the names of La and But the Lord was against the for he cursed them with a skin of blackness The Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them And thus thug saith the Lord God I will wUl cause that they shall be bJ loathsome unto my people save they shall repent of their iniquities And cursed shall shan be the seed of ot him that with their seed for they shall shan be cursed even with the same cursing And the Lord and It was done And thus we have havethe havethe havethe the origin of the American Indian a problem that has been puzzling the minds of thinkers for several hundred years I About eleven years after the Lehl Lehi Im Immigration immigration migration from Jerusalem the third and last party under th leadership of one of King sons also leave Jerusalem They reach the west coast of the isthmus journey across and set settle settle settie tle tie In a land somewhere In the north northwestern northwestern northwestern western corner of Colombia which they named They also found a I city of the same name which some zealous Mormon students claim was at atone atone atone one time as a large as the city of or Lon London London London don and that Its ruins are now beneath the waves of the sea the coast line having since been submerged A short time after their arrival the sole survivor of the first nation the s makes his appearance among them After years of or alter alternating alternating alternating peace and war the people of are accidentally discovered by the with whom they final finally finally ly iy amalgamate under the title The spread northward and eventually cover Central and North NorthA America A erica while the populated populated populated the southern continent As the centuries roll roil on the hatred between the and Increased and while they had bad h d had numerous numerous local wars and an temporary periods o of truce the eld cid feud between the brothers was handed down from generation to gen generation generation generation until it culminated in a general war between bet n the two nations about the year This war like Uke that of the was very bloody neither age agenor agenor agenor nor sex being spared The book tells us that even the women and children donned breastplates and went forth to battle with the men The were totally annihilated leaving the the victors In sole posses of the two continents where they were found by the Europeans In 1492 J t The commander of the N army was named Mormon who seeing the destruction n that was about to befall his people collected all the plates of former writers and turned them over to his hisson hisson son MaronI After Atter the great battle of Cumorah from which MaronI evidently escaped unhurt he says sas And my father was also killed by them and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people But behold they are gone and I fulfill the commandment of cf f my father and whether they will kill me I know not Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the |