Where our history was made,
Faris, John T. (John Thomson), 1871-1949
E 159 .F25 Vol. 1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS * w » * * 0V t. c * • ♦ ^o . „ 7* ^ ~r'- - ^ -a 0 > O'5 " *w «? <%, ^.* </■ O % •• % ♦•.’• v *:•> C> 4.0 * A * • 7* ' -wte ^ • V X? *7% ♦ O ^ *\ > a*' (i» '#. _ A” * «* w « aO" ,VV % *> <, y .vssfetf. % A* _ „,.__v.„ _ " ^ ^ 0 *p * ^ * sr'y:* ,4? ^ v* °* * A° ' % O A ,CV. -%, 0° .isssw. ' °-*> \ V O 4- Av 1 vl^L'* « • O. o .‘•Wf! # k •• O ^ L W 4 « 2 * ’’b/ 3 # r ^ . J-0 ^ • KWQ * aV r. «s ^/v • 'tz=Mm=z ~ A<y *p 4 * • * * tV^ 'O "° * * 4 JP A <* ttV# ° *j&/{177??: vA C» ’isSSW’* o S~/r??Z- S3*, ^v* .v^ttV. •»•_ ,-v -7*^.. ^0 P fl 9 'V/*^9 °<*. * #' 1 * Av ^ ► ^ Vv o * • o *0~ , • V i,. **> • ^ ^ ^iv <v> tV^SSSN*1* A : W :« ^ :^HI'- W r <{» -V7 ^C> o * » ?,* w u ♦ !»** v ' °o Ay • v ' • * *b v^ * i«’ ° A .* ': , >° -v : • ** vs,°° +. *' At • t • ~*<p, 4 _ * v*Cr »' o0 4.V o » ;^> " 1 A° 4> + 9 *09 o *»,,*" c\ «o <> A - , 6 ^ r * . ^ </ ^ ^ 4¥i* \, * 'Cl :i®' w •° ^v ^ °oWw: ;S^>* ^v% * • * v * o A^ * ° A »* *. *?> : 0 <C^ 'r^N *“ * X® T*i • A> ''-a A A J ^ # .■^ % -Vv,-' f° v ^ aV *!**d^*fc% • ^ A? S; ^ , ■ => ; V ''VVT* A .Or <, «J* * • J • jWv - <* «J5 .|v .* % o * ft sy sr k 1 * °* c' sy tLVLr* » % # ♦ yj^ » *: % / ‘ • *v<* *• V •f' • 1 V V' « K tf 4 <LK rl* “ v" • * A <b '?.?• A* V *<vff* ,<^ <► '?..* .< *♦' .•‘V* % ,Qr .<£•«, V A* .•*'•* \ A* *3> -W # # *» » <j5 °^v «' O **■ ^ *oVo# ^ °4* * %> V • '%?* -6V a’J » / 1 fc v^m“-SK67 * « . * ^ * cP '***. - ft w ’'Co* * «Cv v> a " ,Cr c 0 " ' ■> % A ..‘JJ. *#> & .•^sSSW*, o ftWfcb,* V.. *b ^ o* .4 C > A >* x <r> o V ’; jp’v « * ’ 0*°° , . . , %.** *^** <^' , . , % AV *A*4W ♦ ft* V ft I Jr ■ «* C ° o * ^6 o ft0^. .~^sy//i\\'^ > 9" *d» " !\- i1'i\'^i\~ . s^y//!\\''tf ' ■-> «* * f~rsy/IVj3r * /-\ ft t^UWvoy* ' bt* _ * ^Pvvy/tin * /> ^ aV vLV>L'ft V% ft*#«^ C\ aO ft^rCjft ^ * ^ ^ r ■>/ ' A ^ A * ® ^ v * o *V*\ « ft ^ ^ O . ’•> V • K » ft <UV r^> ** > , " V’ • *5 & * A ,C* V vrUv ,a <b *• . * • A< A4' ^ 0V « ® V* ♦ ^o a^ . • 1 V* ft >0^ ’’b^’ i-0^ v* SkItok^O' » rv> ^zpW/lj'W •* ? ’"or InvcsSos ; .\- v1®' V b.'7-'"/ b. A , < • o# i *//^><. V n^*®# < *. > .’^ v .& 'M br< ^ .‘4fc * #$ -* « ^5? i“Ca * * Av ^ -+ 0V o. +< r$ o ^ ^ o ftO c j'i*’ % ,-S U\v j ft aS * ft ><?-V ^ -ft. *® ft * * -Cr o, ' * * * ^ .V _o*ft. V ... V- ’-'o^0 ....^ a.vn V >9 .-’— * I \ « % WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE BY JOHN T. FARIS ii AUTHOR OF “ HISTORIC SHRINES OF AMERICA,” “ON THE TRAIL OF THE PIONEERS,” ETC. BOOK ONE SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY NEW YORK NEWARK BOSTON CHICAGO Copyright, 1923, by SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY SEP 18 ?3 ©C1A711930 PREFACE “Did it really happen ?” The time comes when the real boy or girl is almost sure to ask this question about any story that is heard. Fairy stories no longer satisfy them; they want the note of reality. So teachers and parents have learned to expect the ques¬ tion, and to prepare to answer it. “Where did it happen?” is the next question. What boy or girl would not like to go to Lexington, Concord, Washington, or any other place made fa¬ mous by its association with our history, that he or she might be thrilled by being on such hallowed ground and by living in imagination the moving events that really occurred there ? But it is not always possible to go to the places where these stirring events happened. The next best thing is to tell the stories in connection with definite localities so that the readers may feel as if they really were there. It is the purpose of the two volumes of Where Our History Was Made to anticipate the queries of boys and girls who are becoming alive to the fact that the history of their country is not a mere record of the past, but a vivid picture of the men and women who made our history, what they did, how they did it, where they did it, and how the things done concern those who read of them today. It is hoped, too, that these stories may inspire boys and girls with that spirit of devotion to their country and with that venera¬ tion for the heroes and patriots who have contributed iii IV PREFACE to the upbuilding of the nation without which history fails of its highest purpose. So, for this reason, famous people and events, as well as people who are not so well known — though they deserve to be more than locally noted — leaders who established homes in the wilderness and others who fought for freedom, have found a place in these pages. Readers of the stories in the two volumes will be able to say with satisfaction, “That happened in my state” ; for the tales of people and places have to do with nearly every state in the Union. But it is the real purpose to present all the chapters in such a way that readers will have the higher thought, “That happened in my country ! That man helped to make the liberty I enjoy ! That monument tells of a heroic struggle of which I am reaping the fruits ! That wonderland is in my America , and some day I am to go there, and then I can tell of it to some one who has never seen it.” In choosing the topics to be included, the effort has been made to supply material that not only will illuminate many aspects of American history but also will create in the boys and girls an appetite for side lights on history that will pave the way for the later independent investigation that gives life to all study. Grateful acknowledgment is made to all the various state historical societies, local historical associations, chapters of the Daughters of the Revolution, and col¬ lege officials who have given valuable criticism and suggestions in the preparation of the manuscript. John T. Faris The author and publishers make grateful acknowledgment to the following who have furnished illustrations : Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad for Acoma Indian Pueblo, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and for Governor’s Palace, Santa Fe, New Mexico Bucks County Historical Society for the Indian Walk Monument, Wrights- town, Pennsylvania A. S. Burbank for Peregrine White’s Cradle, Plymouth ; Plymouth Rock in Its New Location; Myles Standish Monument, Duxbury ; and Statue of Massasoit, Plymouth Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, for Cahokia Mound, Illinois; An Old Indian Trail; El Morro National Monument, New Mexico ; and Indian in Full Head Dress H. P. Cook for Shirley on the James River, Virginia; Gunston Hall, Virginia ; St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia ; and Old Church Tower, Jamestown, Virginia Denver and Rio Grande Railroad for Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado Detroit Historical Society for “ Cadillac’s Village” : Detroit in 1701 Great Lakes Transit Corporation for Fort Michilimackinac, Michigan Harvard University Corporation for Massachusetts Hall, Harvard Univer¬ sity Illinois Historical Society for the Magazine at Old Fort Chartres, Illinois, and On the Site of Fort Massac on the Ohio River Massachusetts Historical Society for Boston Common in i860 National Park Service for Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona Ohio Historical Society for Monument to the Massacred Indians at Gnadenhiitten, Ohio F. H. Parkhurst for The Wyoming Massacre Monument, Wyoming, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of Forestry for An Old Toll Gate House on a Pioneer State Road Pensacola Chamber of Commerce for Interior of Fort San Carlos, Pensa¬ cola, Florida Fred. Perry Powers for an Old Swedish Block House at Naaman’s Creek, Delaware William H. Rau for Home of David Rittenhouse near Philadelphia St. Augustine Historical Society for Ancient Watch Tower, St. Augustine, Florida V. K. Stubbs for Boundary Stone on Mason and Dixon’s Line United States Forest Service for Georgia as Oglethorpe Found It Philip B. Wallace for Graeme Hall, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Letitia Penn House, Philadelphia; The Rittenhouse Home, near Phila¬ delphia; Palladian Window at “The Woodlands,” Philadelphia; Car¬ penters’ Hall, Philadelphia; Independence Hall, Philadelphia; Craigie House, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; The Old Pump at Cliveden, Philadel¬ phia ; and A Revolutionary Interior Yale University for On the Campus, Yale University, New Haven, Con • necticut v CONTENTS CHAPTER I. RELICS OF LONG AGO 1. The Mysterious Cahokia Mound, Illinois. 2. The Great Mound at Moundsville, West Virginia 3. America’s Earliest Road-Makers 4. The Cliff Dwellings of the Southwest 5. The Pueblo Dwellers of New Mexico 6. The Petrified Forests of Arizona 7. Inscription Rock, New Mexico .... 8. At Natural Bridge, Virginia .... CHAPTER II. IN THE DAYS OF COLONY BUILDING. 28 9. Early Jamestown, Virginia. 28 10. On Virginia’s Eastern Shore. 31 11. The Blue Laws of Old Virginia. 34 12. Plymouth and Province town, Massachusetts. .37 13. In the Wake of the Pilgrims. 44 14. The Wreck of the Sparrowhawk. 47 15. An Early Picture of the Indians of New England ... 49 16. On Boston Common ......... 53 17. Mount Desert, Maine. 59 18. Providence, Rhode Island, and the First Church ... 62 19. In Historic Rhode Island ........ 65. 20. Relics of the Past in New Castle, Delaware .... 69 21. Where the Swedes Built a Blockhouse in Delaware. .71 22. The Walking Purchase in Pennsylvania ..... 74 23. In Philadelphia, in the Days of the King. 77 24. * America’s First Paper and Paper Mills. 80 25. Pioneer Traveling in America. 84 26. The Story of Mason and Dixon’s Line. 87 27. The Making of Winston-Salem, North Carolina ... 91 28. Two Memorials in Savannah, Georgia. 94 29. Frederica, on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. 98 30. The Romance of Ebenezer, Georgia. 102 31. Coweta, Alabama, Where the Power of France Was Checked. 106 vii PAGE 1 1 4 7 10 13 17 20 24 CONTENTS viii PAGE CHAPTER III. GLIMPSES OF FRANCE AND SPAIN IN AMERICA. 110 32. Old Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida. no 33. Fort San Carlos de Barrancas, Pensacola, Florida. • 114 34. Early Days in Santa F6, New Mexico. .117 35. Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga, New York. 121 36. Ancient Fort Niagara, New York. 125 37. The Story of Michilimackinac, Michigan. 130 38. The Early Days of Detroit, Michigan. 135 39. Starved Rock on the Illinois River '. 138 40. Old Fort Chartres on the Mississippi River .... 142 41. Fort Massac on the Ohio River. 145 42. The Massacre of the French, at Natchez, Mississippi. 148 43. The Romance of New Orleans, Louisiana. 152 44. Mobile, Alabama, in Early Days. 155 45. The Blockhouse at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 159 CHAPTER IV. STORIES OF EDUCATIONAL BEGINNINGS 164 46. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. .164 47. The Beginnings of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. 168 48. William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. .173 49. In Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey. 177 50. In the Days When There Were No Public Schools. 181 51. The Eagle School, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. .185 CHAPTER V. IN COLONIAL HOMES. 62. Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts. CONTENTS 63. The Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts .... 64. Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia. 65. Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 66. Paul Revere’s Home, Boston, Massachusetts .... 67. The Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts 68. St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia. 69. Where Washington Lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts 70. The Story of the Old South Meeting-House, Boston, Massa¬ chusetts. 71. Fort Moultrie, Charleston, South Carolina. 72. The Morris-Jumel House, New York City. 73. Three Shrines at Princeton, New Jersey. 74. In the Mohawk Valley, New York. 75. The Battle Monument at Bennington, Vermont 76. On the Battle-Field of Germantown. 77. With Washington at Valley Forge. 78. Old Tennent Church, Freehold, New Jersey . . .. 79. The Massacre of Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania 80. The Wallace House, Bound Brook, New Jersey 81. Washington’s Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. 82. The Massacre at Gnadenhutten, Ohio. 83. The Springfield Meeting-House, New Jersey. 84. At Saratoga, New York. 85. Washington’s Headquarters at Newburgh, New York 86. An Eye Witness at Yorktown, Virginia. 87. Fraunces’ Tavern, New York City. PAGE 229 234 237 243 248 252 255 259 263 267 270 273 277 281 284 288 291 294 297 300 303 307 310 3i3 316 Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado (See page io.) CHAPTER I RELICS OF LONG AGO 1. The Mysterious Cahokia Mound, Illinois Long before Marquette and La Salle and Tonty and other brave Frenchmen explored the country, the Mississippi Valley in the neighborhood of what is now St. Louis, Missouri, was occupied by tribes of peace- loving men who have been called mound-builders. Just who they were or when they lived, no one knows. But it is certain that they were very intelligent and very patient ; for they built scores of mounds which must have caused them an immense amount of labor. Some of these mounds were on the west side of the Mississippi, and others were on the east side. Those on the east side were built close to a central mound » that was bigger than all the rest together — the Cahokia Mound, it has been called. There are those who think that this great heap of earth was not raised up by men ; that all the mound- builders did was to trim it and shape it as it was when the first explorer saw it. They say that to build it would have been impossible for men unacquainted with modern methods of handling great weights, since it is located eight miles from the Mississippi bluffs, the source of the supplies of earth they would 2 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE have had to use. But most authorities seem to think that the mound was originally built by a vanished race. An explorer who, in 1811, visited the region of the mounds, stood in awe before them. He declared that he felt much as a man does who looks for the first time on the great pyramids of Egypt. He said the smaller mounds looked like “enormous haystacks scattered through a meadow.” It is believed that the Cahokia Mound — or Monks’ Mound, as it is sometimes called, because a company of Trappist monks tilled the ground there from 1810 to 1813 — was a long time in building. It probably was begun as a burial place for the dead. As burial after burial was performed, and one small pile of earth was added to another, the structure became so large that the natives used it as a temple. On the summit was kept burning a fire in honor of the sun-god ; and there the people of the village in the center of which the sacred mound stood, came to worship. Cahokia Mound, as it now stands, is oval in shape. It is 102 feet high, and covers a little more than 16 acres. It is larger than the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and the temple of the Aztecs in Mexico. In fact, it is the largest knowm structure of its kind any¬ where in the world. People think that if this mound were to be explored, there would be found remains of the civilization of that ancient day, similar to those found in another mound of like character about half a mile distant. THE MYSTERIOUS CAHOKIA MOUND 3 This smaller mass of earth was originally about four hundred feet in diameter and shaped like a cone, but in recent years fifteen or sixteen feet of the summit have been removed. These excavations brought to light skeletons, flint chips, broken pottery, bones of animals, and other fragments, which, it is thought, were scooped up by the people of that time when they took the ground around their homes to make the mound. The pottery unearthed shows that the favorite colors Cahokia Mound, Illinois of the Cahokia people were black, brown, and a com¬ bination of red and white. Copper relics have also been found, the most unusual of which are delicately wrought in the form of tiny tortoise shells. There is a theory that the Indians built the Cahokia Mound. But the Indians, as they have been known since America was discovered, do not seem to have had the mental ability to make and carry out so large a plan. Then how could their ancestors have been responsible ? So we have good reason to believe that it was a pre¬ historic race who left us this reminder of their presence in our country. 4 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE Although some people who have cared more about making money by selling the land and building on it than they have cared for the wonderful work of the mound-builders, have wished to destroy the Cahokia Mound, it has as yet resisted their efforts. Some day Illinois may be persuaded to make a state monument there. The mound would then be the property of the public ; and no one would dare lift a hand against this venerable relic. 2. The Great Mound at Moundsville, West Virginia One of the greatest relics of those who lived in America before the days of Columbus is the mound which gave its name to Moundsville, West Virginia. The age of this ancient burial place is un¬ known. Once a great white oak tree that grew on the top of the mound was cut down, and an examination of the trunk showed that it was more than five hun- THE GREAT MOUND AT MOUNDSVILLE 5 dred years old. There is no way of telling how old the structure was when the tree was a sapling. Originally the mound was ninety feet high, but eleven feet of earth were taken from the top by a builder who wished to make an observatory upon the summit. The sides are steep and covered with trees. The first mention of the curiosity was in 1772. In 1838 the owner tunneled horizontally into the mound, beginning at the level of the ground. When the ’tunnel was hi feet long, the workmen came to a vault that had been excavated in the earth before the underground passage was commenced. This vault was 12 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 7 feet high. It was perfectly dry. Originally, upright timbers at the sides and the ends had supported cross timbers on which the roof rested. This roof was formed of unhewn stone. Gradually the timbers decayed, the stones fell, and the vault was nearly filled with earth. Examination of the timbers showed that they had been shaped by burning. There was no evi¬ dence of a tool of iron for cutting them, but near at hand were bits of charcoal, reminders of the painfully slow work of the ancient builders. In the vault were two skeletons, one of which was surrounded by 650 ivory beads. Not yet satisfied, the owner of the mound began to make an excavation from the top straight down¬ ward. When halfway to the bottom, he found a second vault, just over the vault on the ground level. This also had caved in because of the decay of the support- 6 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE in g timbers. A skeleton found there had on it seven¬ teen hundred ivory beads, five hundred sea shells, and five copper bracelets. One hundred and fifty pieces of isinglass were scattered over the body. Near by was a curious, oval stone, bearing three rows of hieroglyphics which have never been deciphered. It seems likely that the mound was built as the burial place for three people of note. Probably the two bilried in the lower chamber were a great warrior and his favorite wife. That many others were buried there was evident from the ashes that began to appear when the second excavation was about eight feet deep. As the cavity became deeper, it was found that the debris removed was made up almost entirely of ashes and burned bits of bone. For many years afterward the mound was neglected. The observatory was used as a restaurant and danc¬ ing-pavilion. Fair grounds were laid out around the mound, and a race track encircled the ancient monu¬ ment. The excavations were responsible for a sinking of the earth, so that there was a noticeable depression in the top. Gullies were cut into the sides by the con¬ stant washing of the rain, and footpaths were made at random on the slopes. Fortunately public-spirited men and women de¬ cided that this interesting monument must be pre¬ served. Appeal was made to the State Legislature, and the lawmakers were persuaded to purchase the ground and set it apart as the possession of the people of West Virginia. AMERICA’S EARLIEST ROAD-MAKERS 7 3. America’s Earliest Road-Makers The earliest colonists in the East were not the first road-makers. They found trails already made through the forests and along the ridges. Neither were the first home-seekers farther to the west responsible for laying out the course of the paths that made possible their entrance to the heart of the country. These pioneers also found similar trails. Who were the trail -makers ? The Indians? It is true that they traveled by the pathways which crossed and recrossed the country in all directions. But the Indians known to the colo¬ nists were not the first to travel these paths. An earlier race, the mound- builders, followed the same tracks. These mound- builders showed great clev¬ erness in adapting still earlier trails to their use. Yes, earlier trails. For the original trail-makers of America were not the native tribes, early or late. Hulbert, in his Historic Highways of America , tells vividly the story of the first trail-makers : “It was for the game animals to mark out what became known as the first thoroughfare of America. The plunging buffalo . . . broke great roads across the continent on the summits of the watersheds, be- 8 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE side which the first Indian trails were but traces through the forests. Heavy, fleet of foot, capable of covering scores of miles a day, the buffalo tore his road from one feeding-ground to another, and from north to south, on the high grounds ; here his roads were swept clear of debris in summer and of snow in winter. They mounted the heights and descended from them on the longest slopes, and crossed each stream on the bars at the mouth of the larger tribu¬ taries/’ It is remarkable that the unerring instinct of these ancient trail-makers enabled them to select the very courses that modern surveyors have found, after great labor, are the most favorable routes across the country. Down in West Virginia, between Grafton and Parkers¬ burg, where there is, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail¬ road, some of the finest railway construction in the East, the railroad follows for miles almost exactly in the path of the buffalo. In fact, two of the great tun¬ nels in this stretch are directly under the road chosen by the burly beasts which once thundered through the forests, over the hills, and along the river-courses. More than this, it has been said that “the three great overland routes from the Atlantic seaboard into the central West were undoubtedly first opened by the buffalo ; the first was the course through central New York, followed afterward by -the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad; the second, from the Potomac to the headwaters of the Ohio ; the third, the famous route through Cumberland Gap into Ken- AMERICA’S EARLIEST ROAD-MAKERS 9 tucky.” The route of the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Alleghenies was an old buffalo trail. Later it was known as the Kittanning Path of the Indians, who followed the buffalo. And when General Forbes marked out his road across southern Pennsylvania towards Pittsburgh, he could do no better than choose the track of the wise buffalo. When the mound-builders came, they built their forts and burial places by the side of the old buffalo trails, which became their roads. Those who have studied the mounds have noted with interest that they lie by the side of modern roads which are succes¬ sors of the primitive trails. In Ohio, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, in Georgia, and in North Carolina, this fact is notable. While the mound-builders did not show any won¬ derful engineering skill in constructing their works, they were wise in the choice of sites. Usually they selected high ground. For instance, in Missouri, a group of mounds is on a long ridge near the Mississippi River, and it is to them that the farmers in the neigh¬ borhood flee for refuge in time of flood. Evidently their location was determined for a like reason by their builders centuries ago. The buffalo trails which the mound-builders adopted as their own were not very easy for travelers. One of the early explorers wrote in his journal, after hours of tedious going, “We reached here very late at night, after considerable trouble, for the paths were only about half a foot wide where the snow would sustain IO WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE one; and, if you turned ever so little to the right or left, you were in halfway to your thighs.” The narrow buffalo trails were gradually improved by later users. When Washington journeyed to west¬ ern Pennsylvania in 1753 on his mission to the French, he followed rough trails; and in 1754 he widened ‘Nemacolin’s Path, that he might have room for the guns he wished to take to Fort Necessity. In 1755 Braddock made the same trail still more distinct ; he left behind him “a great gorge of a road which, after a century and a half, we can follow as plainly as a new-made furrow behind a plow.” 4. The Cliff Dwellings of the Southwest It is difficult to realize that here in our own America are some of the most interesting and mysterious ruins and monuments of peoples that vanished long ago — the cliff dwellings hidden in the walls of lonely canyons in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Who were the builders? When did they live? How did they manage to carve shelves in the rock, transport building materials, construct houses that have lasted to this day, and then climb to the difficult places where their homes were placed? What was the story of their construction ? What lessons are we to learn from them? In southwestern Colorado, cutting the Mesa Verde, are canyons where houses are perched in different levels in the cliffs. There are ruined community houses, . watch towers, and granaries. The largest of all is THE CLIFF DWELLINGS OF THE SOUTHWEST n Cliff Palace, where twenty-three distinct families lived. Spruce Tree House, named because of a large spruce tree growing in front of it at the time of its discovery, was the home of perhaps three hundred people. There is a Temple of the Sun, which has supplied many de¬ tails concerning the people of the past. Down in the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, but high up on the face of its precipitous wall, is White House, built no one knows how many centuries ago, in a cave forty feet in height, hollowed out of the face of a for¬ bidding rock, two thousand feet high. From the top of the cliff the cavern cannot be seen, for the great rock face slopes inward more than one hundred feet. A branch of the Canyon de Chelly is the Canyon del Muerto, where travelers tell of cliff dwellings on almost every ledge. Pueblo Bonito, in Chaco Canyon, has houses that present some unique problems. Perhaps the greatest problem is connected with the gigantic “braced-up” cliff which towers above some of the ruins. One visitor to the region says : “ These scattered stones at the bottom of this leaning tower of Chaco are an enigma. They represent a naive effort to prop up a massive curb of solid rock on the part of these aboriginal engineers.” From the top of the cliff the view of the Pueblo Bonito is most interesting. One third of the ruin has been fully excavated, so that the eye can look into successive cavities, square, oblong, and round, which were dwelling-places of the men and women of long ago. In some instances the dwellings were not perched high on the cliffs, but were on plateaus. 12 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE In most cases, however, the cliff seemed to be the favorite site. A writer in The National Geographic Magazine , in speaking of these cliff dwellers, says : “The manner in which they reached their most secure abodes is not always apparent. In some places, where no natural ledge gave access, traces of steps cut in the living rock remain; elsewhere, small holes sufficiently large for the insertion of the toes and the grip of the fingers have been chiseled into the steep face of the cliff, sometimes along a horizontal and some¬ times along a vertical line. Commonly, however, there is no evidence whatever either of natural or artificial approaches, and we must suppose that the inhabitants entered by means of ladders. To reach some of these eyries is one of the exhilarating features of a trip to the cliff-dwellers’ regions.” Scientists have been interested in dating these struc¬ tures, and they have made studies that have had a degree of success. When Dr. J. W. Fewkes reported to the Department of the Interior the finding and excavating of the Sun Temple, in Mesa Verde Park, he said he was convinced that it was built about a.d. 1300. His estimate was based on a study of the age of a red cedar tree which was growing when he began work near the summit of the highest wall of the temple annex. The tree was killed in the process of excavat¬ ing, for its roots penetrated the adjacent ruins. When it was cut down, the superintendent of the near-by Montezuma National Forest counted 360 annual rings. THE PUEBLO DWELLERS OF NEW MEXICO 13 But the tree grew in a mound of ruined wall, so it was thought wise to add at least 250 years for the period of the construction of the temple, its use, and its falling into ruins. A careful study of the age of the ruins has been made. A method adopted in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, was the driving of a shaft into the accumulation of debris thrown out from day to day during the life of the com¬ munity. At Pueblo Bonito the refuse lying in front of the village forms a long mound measuring about 75 by 800 feet at the base and all of 16 feet in height. Broken pottery and other industrial remains gave some indication of the great length of time that elapsed during the gradual accumulation of this debris. At Mesa Verde the investigators obtained, by bor¬ ing, sections of the timbers used in the construction of the floors and roofs of the canyon houses. Careful study of the rings in these specimens disclosed the age of the trees from which the timbers were cut, and even showed periods of drought when tree growth was meager. It is hoped that by a future study of specimens from every tree it will be possible to determine just how long ago these periods of drought occurred. Then the dating of the ruins will be simple. 5. The Pueblo Dwellers of New Mexico Before Columbus came to America, there were houses in the New World which were five, six, and even seven stories high. Most Indians lived in wigwams, or tepees, but down in what is now New Mexico and 14 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE / Arizona, a strange people — no one knows just where they came from — built great apartment houses before the days of the white explorers. Some of the ancestors of the people who settled Plymouth and Jamestown were not yet born when each of these pueblos — as they were called — was sheltering scores of families. Acoma Indian Pueblo, West of Albuquerque, New Mexico A traveler, after visiting some of the pueblos, said that a thousand-room building was not unknown. “Some of the structures are of stone plastered over with mud, while more frequently they are built of sun-baked bricks made of clay mixed with straw/’ he wrote. “The lower stories of the ancient dwellings were without doors or windows, and could only be entered by a kind of trapdoor in the roof. It must have been somewhat of an undertaking for the stout old ladies of the tribe to do much visiting, as it required a courageous heart, a steady head, and the agility of THE PUEBLO DWELLERS OF NEW MEXICO 15 a trapeze performer to gain an entrance. Most of the houses were built on the barren mesa, but some of the most pretentious were perched on the summit of cliffs, and were reached by a single ladder. When the com¬ munity climbed up, went to bed, and pulled the ladder in after them, it was their way of letting visitors from another city know that they were not at home to callers. This custom of pulling up the ladder must have had a good effect on those individuals of the tribe who showed a disposition to stay out late at night, for it was either come home before the ladder went up, or sleep out of doors.” One of the best-known of the pueblos is at Isleta, close to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Those who wish to see terraced houses must go elsewhere, but those who are content to look on a village that is on the same site, and many of whose buildings are the same, as when Coronado made his visit in 1540, have only to look from the windows of the railroad train. Much more satisfactory, however, would be a visit to the pueblos, and an interview with the unassuming governor who is chosen by the votes of the people of the community village. The village has also a lieutenant governor, a council of twenty-five members, a sheriff, and a judge, whose decisions must be approved by the United States In¬ dian agent. The Isletans are numbered among the thousands of Pueblo Indians of New Mexico who own nearly one million acres of land and boast of United States 16 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE citizenship, because of a clause in the treaty of Guade¬ loupe Hidalgo with Mexico in 1848, though they have not the right to vote. Laguna, another curious pueblo town, is two miles from the railway station of the same name ; and on the road that passes through Laguna is Acoma, the pueblo of pueblos, whose history is as romantic as any¬ thing in New Mexico, the state of romance. Acoma pueblo is a series of terraced houses of plain adobe construction, whose upper terraces are reached by the customary ladders. For 1000 feet these houses extend, while they are 40 feet from the ground to the highest terrace. They are built on a precipitous rock 350 feet above the mesa, which is itself 7000 feet above sea level. When the visitor is told that the present approach from the plain to the rock is easy when compared with the method of entering in days when enemies were abroad, he has new respect for the hardy mountaineers. Their ancestors thought nothing of toiling up a stair¬ way that must have been as difficult as modern con¬ struction ladders to a lofty church steeple. That these men paid little heed to such difficulties is evident from the fact that the walls of the church in this pueblo are 60 feet high and 10 feet thick, while the timbers are 40 feet long and 14 inches square. All this material was painstakingly carried up the mesa. The length of time required for this herculean task may be judged from the fact that forty years were consumed in transporting and depositing the earth for the churchyard. THE PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA T7 Three miles from the rocks where the Acoma pueblo is situated, is a strange formation that stands out from the plain in curious fashion — the Mesa Encantada, or “Enchanted Mesa.” This inaccessible height — so tradition says — was the original site of Acoma. How the Indians managed to ascend to its forbidding summit, 430 feet high, is a problem that may never be solved. The reason for the abandonment of the position is equally an enigma, though tradition sug¬ gests that the reason was the fall of a portion of the cliff while the men were absent; when they returned and found some of the women dead in the debris, they sought a site somewhat more approachable. The great rock stands silent. But many of the pueblos are as full of life today as they were hundreds of years ago. 6. The Petrified Forests of Arizona The most ancient ruins in Arizona are not the houses of the Pueblo Indians or the strange habitations of the cliff dwellers, but the Petrified Forests in the district a few miles south of Adamana. There are three of these forests where, scattered over an area of many square miles, are the petrified trunks of hundreds of gigantic trees that stood in majesty in an age long gone. Probably they grew by a lake at some distance from the place where they now give delight to the visitor who picks his way among their broken sections, or crosses the ravine in the First Forest, nearest to 1 8 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE Adamana, on the sixty-foot stone log embedded at either end in sandstone. The length of this log bridge is 1 1 1 feet, the span is 44 feet, and the greatest diameter of the trunk is 10 feet. The shape of the roots in their sandstone covering can still be plainly seen. No one thinks that this tree was thrown across a gulch, but rather that the Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona gulch was formed beneath the fallen tree. Through many ages the soil and rock beneath were washed away, until the petrified tree was left as it is today. After these trees of an unknown time fell — per¬ haps during a tornado or a flood — they must have been carried downstream. The next step in their history was the deposit of sand and clay above them, until they were buried, possibly thousands of feet deep. Next, underground water, colored in rainbow tints by the minerals in the ground, was absorbed by the THE PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA 19 wood ; as the fiber decayed, lime or silica took its place. This is the process of petrifaction, or turning to stone. Volcanic action probably followed, which resulted in burying the logs in the depths of the sea. After ages passed at the bottom of the sea, another volcanic disturbance probably caused the land to rise above the surface. With it came the trees. Next came the wearing away of the overlying sand, and the uncovering of the marvels that are now like the jewels of Aladdin’s cave. Here are amethyst and topaz, onyx and chalcedony, carnelian and agate. Efforts have been made to cut the logs and release some of the jewels, but not much can be done in this direction, when a six-inch steel saw is worn to a ribbon half an inch wide in the attempt to saw through a single log. Even then the work requires several days. It would be interesting to learn how the Indians managed to fashion their stone hammers, arrowheads, knives, and scrapers from the chips of these jeweled logs. It is fortunate that these fallen and transformed monarchs have proved so hard to cut ; otherwise they might not have been on hand in such profusion when, in 1906, the three forests which make up the region were set apart as a national monument. Visitors are forbidden to carry away even the smallest souvenir from the Petrified Forest, but they are per¬ mitted to learn that thin slices of the logs have been ground down to an unbelievable thinness. To the naked eye of the casual observer these samples from 20 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE Arizona’s Garden of Jewels are a vision of beauty; under the microscope of the scientist they tell in plain¬ est language the wonder story of transformation from stately, erect, cone-bearing trees to prostrate cabinets of precious stones. 7. Inscription Rock, New Mexico What is probably the most gigantic autograph album in existence is situated in a lonely region some seventy miles southeast of Gallup, New Mexico. The album is not a book, but an immense, precipitous cliff of white sandstone. Past its base led one of the trails taken, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, by Spanish explorers and traders, when they wished to go from Santa Fe to the Indian pueblos of Zuni and Moqui. One day it occurred to a member of an expedition to carve a message on the sandstone. Others followed him, saw the message, and did as he had done. As the years and centuries passed, the signatures and messages became so numerous that today travelers like to go to the place from which rises the great cliff, that they may study these curious records. Perhaps the first record was made in 1526; at least no earlier date has been found. Less than a genera¬ tion later, followed a man who carved #in Spanish a simple statement which read : Passed by here the Adelantado Don Juan de Onate from the discovery of the South Sea [the Pacific Ocean] on the 16th of April, 1606. [The real date was 1605.] INSCRIPTION ROCK, NEW MEXICO 21 If all who write in public places had as good reason for leaving a record of their achievements, fault would not be found with them because of their writing ! In a score of words he told the story of his journey of six months, over fifteen hundred miles of the wildest country, to see if there were truth in the report of a great ocean to the westward. Another man of many deeds and few words was General Vargas, who conquered the Indians when they rebelled against the authority of the Spanish. After leading a successful expedition against them, he carved on the sandstone a message almost as brief as that of Onate : Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas who conquered to our holy faith and the royal crown all New Mexico at his own expense. Year of 1692. Long before the conqueror of the Indians used his sword to leave on the rock the story of his deeds, Governor Nieto — • evidently a man not so modest as some of his predecessors — wrote a few lines of verse. The Spanish has been translated by one who studied the words. He found it necessary to guess at some of the letters and figures. This is the transla¬ tion as he gives it : Here [passed] Governor Don Francisco Manuel de Silva Nieto Whose indubitable arm and valor Has now overcome the impossible With the wagons of the King our Lord — • [A] thing that he alone put into this affect 22 WHERE OUR HISTORY WAS MADE 9 of August six [teen] hundred twenty and nine — That it might be heard I passed to Zuni and carried the faith. From another inscription it is evident that the Zunis were not always good to those who went to them to preach the gospel. This record was written by a man in great haste, to judge from his puzzling abbrevia¬ tions. Perhaps he was too lazy to make more marks on the stone than he thought necessary ! Se Psao A 23 De Mo de 1632 Ao A A Bengsa De Mte Del pe Letrado Lujan Those who have puzzled long over the abbreviations have given an English translation : They passed on 23 of March of the year 1632 to the avenging of Padre Letrado’s death. Lujan The soldier called Lujan was a member of a party sent to punish the Zunis for killing Padre Letrado with arrows. 