Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1893 — The Mystery of an Arizona Ruin. [ARTICLE]

The Mystery of an Arizona Ruin.

San Francisco Call. Arizona is plentifully sprinkled with the ruins of strange habitations. Most of them are constructed of concrete or adobe, and the mystery about them is the identity of the people who designed them. How they could be built is not a matter of conjecture, as the materials are close at hand. But there is one ruin, although still in a good state of preservation, which is a mystery, no matter in what light it is considered. It is in the Huachuca mountains, not far frpm the military reservation, in a northeasterly direction. Nothing is known of its origin, and the wonderful part is the material of which it is constructed. It is about 200 miles from the ocean and surrounded on all sides by hills of sand and rocks covered with cacti. There is no water for miles, except the excuses for rivers that run during the rainy season. There is not even the suggestion of water, and yet the house is built of sea-shells laid in a sort of cement. Where the shells were obtained is a mystery that may never be solved. It does not seem possible that the builder of the house would carry the material over hundreds of miles of desert when there were plenty of rocks near by that would answer the purpose just as well, even though they were not so unique The house is built in the shape of the straw huts of the Papago Indians, at/d is about the same size. There is room inside for five or six persons, but at present nobody occupies it, except, perhaps, some prospector who uses it for a temporary shelter in cold weather. There are a dozen varieties of shells in the walls, and one over the door is of extraordinary size. The age of the building will never be known, but there is little doubt that it is as old as the oldest in the territory.