Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1914 — CLIFF DWELLINGS VERY OLD [ARTICLE]

CLIFF DWELLINGS VERY OLD

Head of Surveying Party Says Those of Utah Were Constructed Many Qenturies Ago. Cliff - dwellings more than 1,000 years old, and buildings of even greater age have been discovered in Utah, according to D. B. Miller, assistant supervisor of the general land office, who has been at the head of a surveying party in that state for the last ten months. "The cliff dwellings tfe found in Utah undoubtedly are many hundreds of years old,” said Mr. Miller to a Washington Post reporter. “They were doubtless built by the Montesuma Indians. TheSfe Indians also built on the mesa lands and many interesting structures were found Deneath the surface of these lands. In Utah are three natural bridges that are more wonderful than the natural bridge of Virginia. "AH are wider and two considerably higher than the Virginia bridge. One of these bridges has a span of ,more than 200 feet and the arch is more than 100 feet from the ground. If seems almost to have been made by man. White persons rarely have visited these wonders of nature. "The Navajo Indians in Utah are of course well acquainted with all these things. The Navajos are essentially superstitious. They do not mingle much with the whites, and. few of them speak ffihg)lsh.. When one is found who can speak English It is pretty certain he is a sharper.

“My party went into Utah to survey the public lands early last April and remained there until October. During the entire time not a drop of rain fell, and it is curious that all the time we were in that country we were followed about by an old Navajo medicine woman, who persisted in telling the Indians that so long as we stayed there no rain would come. “We paid no attention to her of course, but we had to give her a thought when on the day we broke camp, within a few hours after we left the Indian lands a terrific storm arose that deluged the whole country. I suppose that the old medicine woman is looked upon by her companions as a supernatural creature.”