I have sought after the elusive city of
Due to an old document that came my way
several years ago I and my colleagues have searched for what we believe
"may" be connected to this ancient city. Not many years ago my
friend discovered what is no doubt 300 acres of irrigation canals, the problem
is, we cant find the ruins of a city to go with it. We did however notice that
it appears as on one of the canals, it appears the lava when it was flowing
flowed into one of the canals, this has not yet been confirmed. Is it possible
we have another Pompey?
This occurrence has led me to believe and
in addition to much other evidence, that the lava flowed in this place in about
900 AD coinciding with several other sources. It has since come to our attention that through certain recent geologic
studies in that area, geologist have discovered pottery in the lava and have
determined that the lave was flowing about 1000 years ago… Imagine that…
However in our search, one cannot discount other possibilities, two of the many
maps show Abacus nuc
An Apache chief named Esconolea, having no knowledge of the 1924
discovery of the buried Tuscon lead crosses or the story told within them,
believed in the mid nineteenth century on the basis of a tradition
handed down from father to son over an indeterminate time, of the same details
found written upon the artifacts. He could also unerringly locate the rung
valley of the ruined city spoken of within, or at least one of the cities....
A genial, responsible, 22 year old Iowan adventurer, James H.
Tevis, who had done a year's hitch in Central America with the filibuster
William Walker, took charge of the Butterfield Overland Mail station at Apache
Pass in 1858. The stone corralled station stood about halfway, or six miles
along the precarious road of the 5115foot Pass in southeast
Old Jack's young warriors, wearing red headbands, had just
returned from Sonora in the spring of 1858 when Tevis one day descried them
from the top of a divide reinforcing a line of about 200 warriors, thus giving
a decided advantage against Esconolea's force drawn up opposite. When the
battle joined with a whoop, Tevis charged down through the red bands firing his
six shooters, ending up amidst Esconolea's men. Esconolea gave him a good
Mexican hug saying "Ushah slonk" (Very good). Tevis had already
pleased Esconolea by giving a girl of his tribe two sacks of corn on the water
burro during the severe December of 1857 while the men were away on their new
moon foray to
The Apaches say that, at one time, they
were a great war tribe, but that a great army invaded their country with such
terrible war implements that their people were killed before their arrows could
reach the enemy.
Those who did reach close enough for hand to hand fighting could
not match the invaders' broad blade hatchets and broke their lances on the
invaders' shields.
Even though the Apaches numbered twenty to
one, the enemy was successful in every engagement, and kept driving them north.
Behind this vast army came a great number of people in charge of priests. They
settled along all the watercourses, building forts and churches. In the
mountains they also built furnaces and melted the rocks like water. Finally,
the Apaches had to succumb to the tyranny of the invaders, and they were no
better than slaves, for warriors, squaws, and children worked for them.
Esconolea said that about ten days' journey northwest of Apache
Pass lay an abundantly timbered valley somewhat like a tableland, many miles
long and very wide, with a fine stream.
Here a large city was founded. Pack trains
of hundreds of animals would come and go every few days. This went on for
years, and the Apaches became more burdened, until secretly they began planning
their release.
At last they attacked and massacred every one of the foreigners
caught outside the city, halted their farming, drove their livestock away, and
starved the surrounded stronghold into submission in about a year. Those then
still alive were easily captured and, from that time to Esconolea's narration,
the Apaches had resumed sole occupancy of the former foreign empire. Esconolea
did not call Empire their capital or Rhoda but he called it
I told Esconolea I did not think such an
account was to be found in history, and he asked me what history was, and how
old my country was. He laughed.
Tevis said there were churches still standing in Old and
They took horses a few days afterward for about ten days
northwest. Late the ninth day they camped at the foot of a large mountain near
a magnificent spring which spilled into a little valley where an old acequia
(primitive irrigation ditch) ran which had once carried spring water out over
the valley. If this had been Montezuma Well on Wet Beaver Creek southeast
of
It was very hard the first three hours of the early morning, Tevis
said, but through a thick growth of pines they ascended to an old trail that
rose more gradually. They reached the summit about 2 p.m. overlooking a wooded
tableland valley with a fair stream running through it, just as Esconolea had
described; "and there, just a short distance into the valley, lay
After we had ridden about a mile, we began
to pass a great number of mounds of various sizes, which lasted until we
reached the stream, where we camped. Large herds of elk and deer could be seen
on either side, and wild turkeys everywhere. The stream was filled with
mountain trout. Here we spent two days, riding over the valley, examining
mounds which extended for miles on both sides of the stream. The courses of the
acequias were quite discernible. Esconolea took me to a very large mound, where
he said the commander had lived; and as we went around the old crumbled walls,
we found old pottery and copper implements, and some articles which resembled
helmets and breastplates. While I was examining these things, old Esconolea
watched me very intently and said, "Ton, oo, ga," or "What is
the name of it?" I explained to him why their arrows and lances had no
effect upon the invaders of their country. I told him that it was a metal
covering which even the balls of a rifle could not penetrate, much less arrows.
Inside these ruins were signs everywhere of a once populous city. . . .It was
certainly one of the loveliest valleys I had ever seen. . . .
Tevis asked Esconolea why his tribe did not live here. Aghast, he
said this was sacred ground, which the Great Spirit forbade their living
on.
Esconolea stated that the stream running through
He and Tevis took the same trail back except for not turning off
at the thicket of pines." On their left they could see what they took to
be old shafts made by the Jesuits (sic), and a few miles farther on the remains
of an old reduction works. Each day, they kept passing old abandoned shafts,
the last ones between the
This 700 mile or so round trip took place apparently in the summer
or fall of 1858. In 1859 Tevis opened a trading post at the pass station but in
1860 joined the Confederate forces at
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