THE ENCHANTED MESA, NEW MEXICO

The colossal church in Acoma is a striking feature. Its walls are ten feet in thickness and sixty feet high, and the church and yard in which it stands consumed forty years in their construction. It was only reached by rude stairs cut in the rock. Dim traditions, which are perhaps hardly more than speculative theory, suggest that these steps of approach were suddenly swept away by some convulsion of nature at a time when the men of this prehistoric pueblo were away hunting, or otherwise engaged in procuring means of sustenance, and that the women and children were thus cut off from all supplies and aid and left to starve. Mr. Lummis has a theory that seems to him possible, if not probable, that there was a ledge of neighboring rocks which served as ladders to the Mesa Encantada, and that these rocks were swept away by some frightful storm, or some sudden convulsion of nature, during the absence of the men; and that a new city—the present Acoma—was then built on the lesser rock on which it now stands. Acoma was old even when Coronado, in 1540, made his expedition through the country, from which period the authentic history of New Mexico begins with the meagre records of the heroic friars and the memorials of the Spanish conquerors. Laguna, a pueblo founded in 1699, lies twenty miles from Acoma on the Santa Fé route, of which it is one of the interesting features. All these old Spanish missions, which are found in more or less degrees of preservation in all this chain of pueblos in the valley of the Rio Grande, contain ancient paintings and statues of saints. Largely, the paintings are crude and worthless, but there exist those that have legitimate claim to art as the work of Spanish artists not unknown to fame. Among these is the painting of San José in the mission at Acoma, a painting presented by Charles II of Spain. This mission was founded by Friar Ramirez, who dedicated it "To God, to the Roman Catholic Church, and to St. Joseph,"—who was the patron saint of this pueblo.

There is an amusing legend that Laguna, submerged in all manner of disasters, looked on the prosperity of Acoma and ascribed it wholly to the influence of this picture of the saint before which the people made their daily adorations and laid their votive offerings. Laguna believed that San José would invest it with the same felicities enjoyed by the neighboring city, could they only secure the portrait, and their urgent plea to borrow it for a time was granted by Acoma. Their confidence in the saint was justified; peace and plenty again smiled on Laguna, and they made their daily devotions before the great picture. At length, so runs the legend, Acoma reminded Laguna that a loan was not a gift,—to be held in perpetual fee, and demanded its return. The faithless people of Laguna declared it was their own,—and the case actually went into litigation and was tried in Court. Judge Kirby Benedict, after hearing all the evidence, decided in favor of Acoma, but the picture had mysteriously disappeared. The messengers sent from Acoma to bring the sacred treasure at last discovered it under a tree half-way between the two pueblos. They instantly recognized that the saint, rejoiced at the righteous decision, had started on his homeward journey of his own volition. The last one of the Franciscan friars to minister in New Mexico was Padre Mariano de Jesus Lopez, whose work was in Acoma, the "city in the sky." Of all the cliff-built cities, Acoma is the most marvellous. Its terraced dwellings seem, as Mr. Lummis so graphically says, to be "the castles of giants," for "the lapse of ages has carved the rocks into battlements, buttresses, walls, columns, and towers, and the view from this cloud-swept city is one never to be forgotten. On this cliff the sand rises and falls like the billows of the sea."

LAGUNA, NEW MEXICO, ON THE SANTA FÉ RAILROAD

No latter-day interest of contemporary life, either in the romantic scenery or the potential development of New Mexico, can exceed the richness of its prehistoric past and the marvels of this ancient civilization that yet remain. Alluding to these wonderful monumental remains, Colonel Max Frost, of Santa Fé, who knows his territory in every aspect of its life and its attractions, says:

"The Pajarito Cliff-dwellers' Park, the Chaco Cañon, the Gila Cañon, western Valencia and Socorro counties abound in cliff and communal buildings, the age of which has puzzled scientists, but which are older than any other ruins on the American continent, and probably in the world. The most accessible cliff-dwellers' region is the Pajarito Park, only one day's overland trip from Santa Fé or Española, in which twenty thousand cliff-dwellings and caves are situated within a comparatively small area. The scenery of this natural park is superb; 'wonderful' is the only adjective that will do justice to the caves in the cliffs, high and inaccessible almost as eagles' nests, but showing many other signs of occupation besides the peculiar picture writings in the soft volcanic tufa of which the cliffs are composed. In addition to the cliffs, there are remains of communal buildings of later occupation, some of them containing as high as twelve hundred rooms. There are also burial mounds with remains of ancient pottery. Along the eastern foot of this steep plateau flows the Rio Grande and lie the villages of San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, and San Juan, while to the west rise the stupendous mountain masses of the Valles, the Cochiti and Jemez ranges, with their deep forests and cañons, their famous hot springs, their Indian villages, and their mines. Where else on earth is there so much of the beautiful in scenery, of romance, of historic monuments, of prehistoric remains, of the ancient, the unique, the picturesque, the sublime, to be found as within a radius of fifty miles of Santa Fé? One day's trip will take the wanderer from the historic Old Palace and San Miguel Church in the City of the Holy Faith, over the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo range, from which rise in full view mountain peaks almost thirteen thousand feet high, into the picturesque Tesuque Valley and by the ancient Indian pueblo of Tesuque. The road winds through sandhills that the air and the rain have cut into grotesque shapes, huge as Titans and weird as the rock formations in the Garden of the Gods. Then come once more fertile fields and the village of Cuymungue, formerly an Indian pueblo, now a native settlement. Along the Nambe River, with its grand falls, close by the Indian pueblo of Nambe to the pueblo of San Ildefonso on the Rio Grande; then along that river through the laughing Española Valley, past the Black Mesa, a famous Indian battleground, into the large Indian pueblo of Santa Clara and its mission church to Santa Cruz, also with a quaint and ancient church building, threads the wagon road across the river into Española. From there the road ascends the wildly beautiful Santa Clara Cañon, along a rippling trout stream up to the steep cliffs of the Puye and the Shufinne, with their hundreds and thousands of prehistoric caves and communal buildings. And all that in one day's journey overland! If the trip be prolonged another day or two, the remarkable hot springs at Ojo Caliente and the hot springs in the deep chasm of the Rio Grande at Wamsley's, the Indian pueblos of Picuris and Taos, the finest trout streams and best haunts of wild game, or the Jicarilla Indian Reservation, as well as busy lumber and mining camps, can be visited. And that is only in one direction from Santa Fé! Going south, one day's trip will pass through the quaint settlements of Agua Fria, Cienega, and Cieneguilla, by the Tiffany turquoise mines, the old mining camp of Bonanza, the smelter at Cerrillos, the Ortiz gold placers, worked a hundred years before gold was discovered in California and still yielding gold dust and nuggets, the coal mines at Madrid, where bituminous and anthracite coal have been mined from the same hillside, the placer and gold mines of Golden and San Pedro, not to speak of sheep and cattle ranches and the beautiful scenery of the Cerrillos, Ortiz, San Pedro, and Sandia mountains.

"Another trip of one day from Santa Fé will take the traveller by the pueblo ruins of Arroyo Hondo over Apache hill, the battlegrounds of Apache Springs, the interesting native settlement of Cañoncito, over Glorieta Pass and the battlefield of Glorieta, to the upper Pecos River, by the ancient and historic Pecos church ruins, the village of Pecos, and through the most beautiful summer-resort country in the Southwest, where trout streams babble in every cañon and where from one summit can be surveyed the hoary heads of eleven of the twelve highest peaks in New Mexico.

"Another day's trip out of Santa Fé will take the visitor up the rugged Santa Fé Cañon, by the large reservoir and the Aztec mineral springs to the Scenic Highway, which crosses the Santa Fé range into the upper Pecos Valley and unfolds at every step new mountain views and panoramas magnificent beyond description. Nor do these trips exhaust the interesting points in and about Santa Fé. Almost every other town in the territory offers sights and scenes of equal interest to the tourist and sightseer.

"The prehistoric ruin of the Chaco Cañon and Pueblo Bonito, in southeastern San Juan County, as well as those at Aztec, in the same county, are more fully excavated than those of the Pajarito Park, and in some respects are more palatial and more impressive. They can best be reached from Gallup or Thoreau on the Santa Fé Railway in McKinley County.

"The prehistoric ruins on the Gila Forest Reserve, as well as those in western Valencia and Socorro counties, have not been thoroughly explored thus far, being distant from the highways of travel; but on this very account they should have a special charm and attraction for the student of archæology.

"Coming to more recent, although still ancient days, the ruins of the Gran Quivira and of nearby abandoned pueblo villages, between the Jumanes Mesa and the Mal Pais and Jornado del Muerto, are of great historic interest. They are best reached from the station of Willard at the junction of the Santa Fé Central and Eastern Railway of New Mexico. Similar ruins are found in western Valencia, Socorro, and other counties, and divide the interest of the tourist with the many present-day Indian pueblos and Spanish settlements boasting of considerable antiquity. The Zuñi, Navaho, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Indian reservations are well worthy a visit, and upon the first two named are many prehistoric ruins.

CLIFF DWELLER RUINS, NEAR SANTA FÉ, NEW MEXICO

STONE TENT, CLIFF DWELLERS, NEW MEXICO

"Foremost in interest and value in historic archæology are the old mission churches of the Franciscans. In every occupied Indian pueblo and at the site of almost every abandoned pueblo, there is one of the monuments of those pioneers of Christianity and civilization, the Franciscan Fathers. Many of these are in a good state of preservation, while others are in ruins, but every one is an object of historic interest.

"The old mission church of San Diego, which is the oldest of the California missions, was founded in 1769. It is almost a total ruin; only the front remains in a good state of preservation. The side walls are still standing, but no portions of the roof or interior remain. This is the most venerable and venerated historic monument in the state of California, and is annually visited by thousands of tourists. It has stood for one hundred and sixty-four years. It marks the beginning of civilization and Christianity in California. And yet, in New Mexico, on the upper Pecos, thirty-five miles west of Las Vegas, at the site of the abandoned Pueblo of Cicuye, are the ruins of the old Pecos church. The church is three hundred years old. It was nearly one hundred and fifty years old when the San Diego mission was founded. It was projected before the Spanish Armada was destroyed and antedates the coming of the Mayflower and the settlement of Jamestown. All that is said of the old Pecos church may be said of that of Jemez. They were built at the same time. The one at Gran Quivira was founded in 1630, and is a fairly well-preserved ruin. The churches at San Ildefonso and Santa Clara are in a complete state of preservation. They are nine years older than the oldest of the California ruins. The old San Miguel mission in Santa Fé has been rebuilt. Its walls date from 1650, the roof from 1694, or possibly a few years later. From the old church at Algodones was taken a bell, cast in Spain in 1356, and at the Cathedral at Santa Fé and other churches are ancient relics and art treasures of old Spanish and Italian masters. These are only a few examples selected at random from the large number of ancient churches of equally great interest scattered over New Mexico. Inscription Rock, on the old road to Zuñi, and every one of the pueblos from Taos on the north to Isleta on the south, and from the Rio Grande pueblos in the central part to Zuñi in the west, are worthy of a visit, both for historic and present-day interest.

"Nor is there any other building in this country to compare in historic interest with the Old Palace at Santa Fé, which has been more to New Mexico than Faneuil Hall to Massachusetts or Liberty Hall to Pennsylvania, nor is there any other town in the United States which offers so much of interest to the tourist as the city of St. Francis d'Assisi."

It is no exaggeration to say that in many respects the archæological interest of New Mexico, its atmosphere, its historic color, is as distinctive as that of Egypt or of Greece, Italy, or Spain. When, on December 15, 1905, the first long-distance telephone in Santa Fé established communication viva voce with Denver, while within a radius of fifty miles, ruins of prehistoric civilization fascinated the tourist,—surely the remote past and the latest developments of the present met and mingled after the fashion of "blue spirits and gray." Very curiously mixed is the civilization of New Mexico. It can almost be said to lie in strata, like geologic testimony. The ancient peoples whose very name is lost,—shrouded in antiquity that has closed the chapters and refuses to turn the pages for the twentieth-century reader; the Indian population; the Spanish, whose explorers—Alvar Nuñez, Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, Juan de Oñate, and others—and whose missionaries, from the ranks of the Franciscan friars, brought to the savage land the first message of modern civilization; and the American, which within almost the past half-century has established itself since that August day of 1846 when General Kearny floated the stars and stripes from the "Old Palace" in Santa Fé. The American civilization and high enlightenment has poured itself into this "Land of the Sun King,"—the "Land of the Turquoise Sky." For now, as Colonel Frost has so ably and comprehensively noted, "New Mexico is strictly up to date in its government, in its hotels, its railroad accommodations, in the protection the law affords, in its universities, colleges, public schools, sanitariums, charitable institutions, its progress, and in its prosperity. Churches are found in every settlement, newspapers in every town, together with fine stores, banking institutions, and every safety, comfort, and luxury that the centres of civilization of the East afford." If that vivid and inspiring group of the Muses,—the muse of History, of Science, of Philosophy, and others,—painted by Puvis de Chavannes to adorn the court of the grand stairway of rich Siena marble in the Public Library of Boston,—an achievement in modern art that alone would immortalize the great painter of France,—if these Muses could visit New Mexico, the specialty of each would be found. The richly historic past that has left its various records; the present, that has impressed into its service every power of science, of engineering, of architectural construction, of agriculture, and of social progress, would furnish to each a vast field in its own especial domain.

A work published in Paris somewhere about the middle of the nineteenth century, entitled "Memoires Historiques sur La Louisiane,"—a book that has never been translated,—gives an account of a French expedition in New Mexico in search of a mine of emeralds and their encounter with the Spanish forces; but although in this engagement the Spanish troops suffered disaster, the Spanish civilization still continues, while there is little permanent trace of the French in New Mexico. It is a curious fact, however, that the present continues this varied and strangely assorted grouping of races which characterized the country in its earliest days.