The geographical position of the country about Gallup renders it a very important area in the study of the migration of aboriginal peoples in the Southwest. It lies midway between the Rio Grande on the east and the Little Colorado on the west, and between the San Juan on the north and the Zuñi on the south. In their intercommunication, the trails of migration in prehistoric times must have crossed this region, and as this migration was marked by successive stages where buildings were constructed we should expect here to find remains of former migratory peoples. Ruins in the vicinity of Gallup have been so much neglected by students that our knowledge of this region is very fragmentary. To remedy this condition the author made a few trips in this vicinity with Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Bruce Draper, local students, who furnished important aid. A number of pueblo sites and small cliff houses within a few miles of the city were visited and superficially examined, but no intensive work was done upon them. The ruins mentioned below are only a few of those in this region that could be brought to light by systematic scientific exploration. From his examination of them, it is the author’s impression that the majority were inhabited by ancestors of clans now domiciled in Zuñi.
ZUÑI HILL RUINS
This extensive ruin (pl. 3, [a], [c]), 6 miles south from Zuñi station on the Santa Fe railroad, and about 11 miles from Gallup, lies almost directly opposite a conspicuous pinnacle of Wingate sandstone called the Navaho Church. Its site is a low ridge extending north and south for several hundred yards. None of the walls rise above the mounds which are highest on the west side. There are numerous depressions scattered among the mounds which suggest subterranean rooms of circular form. A round depression 40 feet in diameter shows the remnant of a wall on one side. On a “flat” north of the ruin several piles of stone can be seen, which are interpreted as isolated houses; near one of them is a small fireplace made of slabs of rock set on edge surrounding an enclosure filled with ashes. This is without exception the largest cluster of mounds in the immediate neighborhood of Gallup, and would well repay excavation and further study.
KIT CARSON GROUP
This group of mounds has received its name from Kit Carson Spring which lies in their neighborhood. It is situated north of Navaho Church on an elevation overlooking the road from Gallup to Crown Point. The members of the group are numerous, but each mound is comparatively small. In no case were walls found rising above the mounds, but as nearly as could be judged from their shape, the buildings covered had rectangular outlines and were accompanied by circular depressions. Fifty feet south of the largest mound of this group there is a semicircular pile of rocks which measures 42 feet on the south side, and with a radius of 30 feet from this side to the curved wall. The main ruin has lateral extensions on the north and south ends, and measures 70 feet by 41 feet. The lateral extensions give the mounds the shape of the letter E and enclose a square room of rectangular form measuring 20 by 15 feet.
RUINS IN HEMLOCK CANYON
Hemlock Canyon, north of the road from Gallup to Crown Point, has the general features of other canyons in this neighborhood. At its mouth there are fertile fields, and a good spring which a Navaho has appropriated by building a hogan and fencing off the entrance. About a half mile from this spring following the right bank of the arroyo, which rarely contains water, there is a house ([pl. 11, a]) built in a recess of the cliff about 10 feet above small scrub trees which here grow in abundance. Its foundation is about 6 feet long, and the wall is slightly curved and well constructed, showing a doorway shaped like the letter T. This house is not regarded as a dwelling, for it is too small for a family, and no household implements have been found within the enclosure. It belongs rather to a type of cave-house called “ledge rooms,” many examples of which occur near larger dwellings. It was probably a storeroom, although possibly a retreat where priests retired to pray for rain, as was once the custom among the Hopi. The people to whom this house belonged probably dwelt near their farms a short distance from the base of the cliff. There is a similar room known to have been constructed by Navahos a few feet off the road from Gallup to Crown Point, which is still used for a granary, indicating the probable use of the small building here described.
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.