Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1892 — Skeletons Intrenched in a Fort. [ARTICLE]

Skeletons Intrenched in a Fort.

Two prospectors.-who;have just'Crgne down to Aleade. New Mexico, from the mountains, report the finding of the skeletousof fourimen who had evidently intrenched themselves in;a-rude ;fort and battled with Indians 'until they were either killed -or -sturvod to death. The fort was constructed at the head of Blind Canyon, and was in such a sheltered position that it could be approached from only one direction. The men had evidently fled up the canyon from''the .Indians, and, finding their retreat cutoff, built a barricade of stones and sold their lives us deurlv'as possible. The incident must have been years age, for the bones are bleached white from exposure to sun and rain. There is not a scrap of clothing or paper, and the guns and ammunition hud evidently been carried off by the ludiuns after the men had died. There wore about a hundred empty shells from a 45 calibre gun hung around within tho fort, showing that a desjforate fight had boon made. The story fold hy the prospectors re ceives corroboration from a story told by Milton Welch, who has a ranch east of here. Weloh thinks the bones aro those of his four companions from whom he was separated by the Indians in tho mountains near the spot nine years ago. .Mr. Welch says lie aud four men had been prospecting, when they were -suddenly attacked by Indians. He was riding a mule and started down the valley on a run, while tho others :run the other wuy. Ho was wounded twice and his mule wasr«hot with half a'dozen arrows, but ho made good his escape. He tried to find his companions afterward, but was never able to get any trace of tbem and supposed they had been carried off by the Indians to the deep recesses .of the mountains where the savages made their homes’.—[New York Herald.