Show S A N t I 1 U AI N the walls of ancient empires t by albert R lynian lyman me the of these articles published a word history bistor yv i ft san juan county in a local loca 1 paper twelve years ago this chis wa was prepared pie pared from material which had been colle collected aed for six years karm from many sources source and these sources yielded more material abrial aister the ibe history was pub the series of articles here proposed will be framed from the whole sum of data daia on on h and but itis not the intention here 0 ot t present an n exhaustive chron 4 of san can juan this IMs will deal with places climaxes phases landmarks land m maiks biks onders of nature and any of the multitude of things which make san juan an al 1 ank country I 1 fifty two years t ago what is now sa san n juan county was marked blank on all reli reliable ible milis maps of utah this country wai was uncharted unexplored even the venturesome settlers of the terri territory itry had jaa little idea how they could get into it and a picked company of of scouts spent the spring spring and pummer of 1879 hunting bunting for a suit able eri entrance trance and alter after all effort and with a full knowledge of what those scouts had discovered it remained torn fora a larger company to spend six months the ter mid and spring finding their way thru the barriers into the new strange region no onet one had guessed that san juan different to all othet other coun 1 tries was willed about on all sides by mighty gulfs and barrieri b arri ers the struggles of these two heroic companies alio vi fought their way ahr the barriers fifty years ago may bi be material for later issues the unexplored oid san juan like unexplored yucatan sahara or borneo was covered with evidences ot of a population t that h at had lived and died long ago where they went why they deserted the ahe places they had labored to prepare or whether their last bemant had perished by sword or pestilence in the ruins is still a matter oi of speculation and how many have bame bashed sine since that dis disappearance appes rance was for a long tinte an unsolved riddle they had built extensively on the open prairie as well as on rims ana in sheltered caves old hand hol holes I 1 leading up the surface of the cliffs showed how they had reached their crows nest of security and old roadways dams and defenses could be traced alter the laps of inde indefinite finito ages I 1 I 1 the mormon pioneers pione eis coming to settle the country in 1880 had little time to compare the old markings and piece together the mute fragments of a thrilling story they happened to discover that this opening had been barricaded barricades barrica ded or that pass had been guarded by a fort or a wall or this natural entrance to some region showed traces of a deadly conflict how many men and women had been left in their gore at these places to crumble on the sand could only be guessed but the guess need not mot be wild wila after finding mummified men with stone slone axes sunken half way v ay thru their skulls others cut in two and skeletons with hint flint arrow heads halt half hurried in the white bone an old for fort t guarded the entrance enhance known to us as dandy crossing on an the colorado and ancient battlements could be traced commanding other crossings on the colorado and on the san juan dim scars around the passes thru the great comb reef and silent markinI marki rigs gs and wreckage near other crossings or passes began to stimulate men to think tills thinking got get fruitful hints from the use made by the utes of san juans nat aral defenses from some remote past these indians had a knowledge of how rims and gulches cabbe can be made a mighty security from all pursuit what a splendid aind id system of safety i carriers briers nature dalure has given the e coun try the yawning gorge of the san juan river on the south the almost impassible chasm of 0 the colorado an on the northwest and the comb reef on tle the east and each one of these rag rugged barriers reinforced with reef iier after reef and wall after will wall on each side so that the people who make their home within the shelter of tins triangle are sure to discover how bow tm impregnably they are In trenched from bom till all comers they may avail themselves of it only to maintain thede the defensive and lived in peace or they may plunder the count ever every y direct direction in with this as their invulnerable re rb treat tl it was asserted by 31 mcleod it L ea d who ho r pent many months excavating the he ancient dwellings of san juan that he I 1 found the bones end and ruins of ilijev distinct peoples the first had the country by themselves but the see sec ond jond two were contemporary at least ibe he latteri laiter times linies of one race over 1 hipped the heg ining of tha ahe other race that there was war between them cannot be doubted it it is not probable and not indicated pd by discoveries that the people were warlike who built on the prairie all the same that age had war war to the death the houses and places 0 t at 4 ZI it it ancient cliff dw Uwel e lers ersi ruins salt sail juan county of safety built in the cliffs have their certain relationship to that hostile period in the heart of sari juans protected iette triangle angle are traces traces of thi the peace full praire dwellers but more traces tri ices of the people who lived ik av edin in and loved loyed the rocks one opinion midy may be as good is as another but the stor story v ot oi humanity is the story of the pae deac able agricultural p peoples oples being driven out cut by aggressive aggress sive Ne fighting races to the east of the prote protected acted triangle and I 1 on into the state of colorado are the ruins of the people who lived on and cultivated the sage brush prairie i t Empi followed empire in san juan where that first people e went and why is the greatest mystery ot I 1 all but it may yet be shown that the thousands of farmers who cultivated white mesa and the mesas east and west made their beginning beg ining in the protected triangle of san juan having established themselves there when they broke from some tyronical tyr anical monarch in the south or east that when they became prosperous is the protected zone and je gave their attentions attention ioni to the care of their fields and their big flocks of turkeys a race of robbers crept in and preyed on them till they moved out east of the comb reef it may sometime be shown that these the robbers from their triangle preyed upon the prairie farmers till the farmers moved away possibly to become the ancestors of the present hopi tribe the rudering ru dering race who sell fell heir dir to the big 09 stronghold were in time driven out by other races who made no buildings pr or improvements and left 11 nothing behind them races like th tha utes who held to and doted on the fine old retreat when the mormon settlers canie in the spring of 1880 7 all 1 va k teen LU 4 agi N ai 06 ah i jr part of the ladder shown in picture is original cliff driers ladder |