RUINS NEAR BLACK DIAMOND RANCH
Black Diamond Ranch is 13 miles north of Hosta Butte. Mr. Bruce Draper, who owns the ranch, pointed out near the mouth of a neighboring canyon several comparatively large ruins. In one of the largest of these ([pl. 3, b]) near the ranch house, no walls are visible above ground, but the surface presents abundant evidence of a buried ruin. In one corner of this ruin ([pl. 3, b]) Mr. Bruce dug out a small room which has good plastered walls, several feet high, and found decorative bowls, some of which are here figured (figs. [4], [5]). About 50 feet south of this ruin, a low mound suggests a cemetery, and about the same distance still farther south, a depression on the surface indicates a circular subterranean room or reservoir.
Following up this canyon nearly to its head, there is a small ruin hardly worth mentioning save for a spiral incised pictograph 3 feet in diameter identical with the snake symbols widely distributed throughout the Southwest.
In all the region north of the high ridge of eroded Wingate sandstone there are several other groups of ruins with most of the walls very much broken down. It would probably be conservative to state that there were over 200 ruins, large and small, in this region, showing evidence of a considerable population, if they were inhabited simultaneously. Fragments of pottery occur on almost every ridge overlooking the trails, especially along the road from Gallup to Crown Point. The forms of these ruins vary and can be made out only by systematic excavation.
So far as limited exploration about Gallup has gone, the investigations by the author show that the ruins were inhabited by Zuñi clans, as indicated in the structure of the buildings and the symbols on the pottery. It would be important to determine the relative age of these ruins compared with those about Zuñi; as to whether they were peopled by colonies from Zuñi, or whether their inhabitants joined the Zuñi population after deserting these houses. Although there is not sufficient evidence to prove the latter proposition, the author is inclined to accept it.