Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1915 — Ancient Corn MillS. [ARTICLE]

Ancient Corn MillS.

These peculiar rock formations are hand made —the most ancient of grist mills for grinding American corn. They have been used by the Navajo Indians of Arizona from time immemorial up to within a comparatively few years. There are 35 to 40 of them in the group, the lava rock in which they have been cut being especially favorable for grinding purposes. The Navajos, unlike their more warlike neighbors, the Apaches, have been for the past 200 years a pastoral and industrial race of Indians, cultivating large acreages of grain and an entire tribe was wont to repair to these mortars near Sulphur Springs, where the squaws would spend several days making meal. Some of the old hangerson at Sulphur Springs say that years ago there were many pestles or grinding stones lying around the “mill,** but these have all been taken away by travelers as curiosities.