Second Expedition--Return to the Sierra--Parrots in the
Snow--Cave-dwellings at Garabato, the most Beautiful in Northern
Mexico--A Superb View of the Sierra Madre--The Devil's Spine
Ridge--Guaynopa, the Famous Old Silver Mine--Aros River--On Old
Trails--Adventures of "El Chino"--Cure for Poison Ivy.
When in the middle of January, 1892, I resumed my explorations,
my party was only about one-third as large as it had been the year
before. In pursuance of my plan, I again entered the Sierra Madre,
returning to it, as far as Pacheco, by the road on which we had come
down to San Diego. We travelled over freshly-fallen snow a few inches
deep, and encountered a party of eight revolutionists from Ascension,
among whom I perceived the hardest looking faces I had ever laid eyes
on. All questions regarding their affairs they answered evasively,
and I could not help feeling some anxiety for three of the men, who
with a Mexican guide, had for some weeks been exploring the country
around Chuhuichupa, a discarded cattle range some forty miles south of
Pacheco. Next day I sent a man ahead to warn them against the political
fugitives. The Mormons told me that for more than a fortnight they
had been keeping track of these suspicious-looking characters who
had been camping in the neighbourhood.
There were repeated falls of snow, and the sierra assumed a thoroughly
northern aspect. Only the multitude of green parrots with pretty
red and yellow heads, chattering in the tree-tops and feasting on
pine cones, reminded us that we were in southern latitudes. As all
tracks had been obliterated by the snow, I secured a Mormon to guide
us southward.
About ten miles south of Pacheco we passed Mound Valley, or
"Los Montezumas," so named after the extraordinary number of
montezumas, or mounds, found in the locality, probably not far from
a thousand. Looking at them from a distance, there seemed to be some
plan in their arrangement, inasmuch as they formed rows running from
north to south. They are small, and nearly all of them are on the
south side of a sloping plain which spread itself over about 500
acres in the midst of densely pine-covered highlands.
On making camp a few miles south of this plateau we found that one
of the mules had strayed off. My dismay over the loss of the animal
was not alleviated by the news that the mule was the one that carried
my blankets and tent, and that I had a good prospect of passing at
least one uncomfortable night on the snow. The American who had been
intrusted with keeping count of the animals on the road immediately
went back to look for the lost one; but not until next day did a
Mexican, who had been sent along with him, bring back the pack,
which the mule had managed to get rid of. The animal itself and its
aparejo were never recovered by us.
On my arrival at Chuhuichupa I found everything satisfactory. There
are extensive grass-lands here, and a few years after our visit the
Mormons established a colony. The name Chuhuichupa is interesting,
as it is the first one we came upon that was of undoubted Tarahumare
origin "chuhui." being the Spanish corruption of "Chu-i," which means
"dead." The name signifies "the place of the dead," possibly alluding
to burial caves.
Here Mr. Taylor had discovered very interesting cave-dwellings, fifteen
miles southeast to east in a straight lilac from the camp, but fully
twenty-five miles by the track he had followed. The Mexicans called
the cave Garabato, a Spanish word, which in Mexico is used in the
sense of "decorative designs," and refers here to ancient paintings
or scrawlings on the house walls. The cave is situated in a gorge on
the northern slope of the Arroyo Garabato, which drains into the Rio
Chico. It is in conglomerate formation, faces east, and lies about 215
feet above the bottom of the gorge. The ascent is steep and somewhat
difficult. At a little distance the high, regular walls of the houses,
with their many door and window openings, presented a most striking
contrast to their surroundings of snow-covered jagged cliffs, in the
lonely wilderness of pine woods. Some of the walls had succumbed to
the weight of ages, but, on the whole, the ruins are in a good state
of preservation, and although I found cave-dwellings as far south as
Zapuri, Chihuahua, none of them were nearly as well preserved nor
on such an extensive scale. Time would not allow me to visit the
cave myself, and the following description is based on notes taken
by Mr. Taylor on the spot, as well as on his photographs and his
verbal explanations.
The space covered by the houses and fallen walls was 125 feet from
side to side, and at the central part the dwellings were thirty-five
feet deep. The roof of the cave, or rather, the overhanging cliff,
was at the highest point eighty feet above the floor. The houses were
arranged in an arc of a circle so large as hardly to deviate from a
straight line. The front row seems to have been of but one story,
while the adjoining row back of it had two stories. The roof of
the houses at no place reached the roof of the cave. Each room was
about twelve feet square, and the walls, which showed no evidence
of blocks or bricks, varied in thickness from fifteen inches at the
base to seven inches at the top of the highest. At some places large
stones were built into the walls; in another wall wooden posts and
horizontal sticks or laths were found. The surface of the walls,
which were protected against the weather, was smooth and even, and
the interior walls showed seven or eight coatings of plaster. The
floors, where they could be examined, were smoothly cemented and so
hard as to effectively resist the spade. The pine poles which formed
the roof were smooth, but not squared; they were three to four inches
in diameter; and some of them were twenty-four feet long. According
to all appearances, they had been hewn with a blunt instrument, as
they were more hacked than cut. Many of them were nicely rounded
off at the ends, and several inches from the ends a groove was cut
all around the pole.
In the centre of the back rooms of the ground floor there was
usually a pine pole, about ten inches in diameter, set up like a
rude pillar. Resting on this and the side walls of the rooms in a
slight curve was a similar pole, also rounded, and running parallel
to the front of the houses; and crossing it from the front to the
rear walls were laid similar poles or rafters about four inches in
diameter. The ends of these were set directly into the walls, and
covering them was a roofing of mud, some three inches thick, hard,
and on the upper surface smooth. The second story, where it had not
caved in, was covered in the same manner. None of the lower story
rooms had an outlet to the apartments above, and the evidence tended
to prove that the second story houses were reached from the bottom of
the cave over the roofs of the front row of houses by means of ladders.
Most of the rooms were well supplied with apertures of the usual
conventional form; sometimes there were as many as three in one
room, each one large enough to serve as a door. But there were also
several small circular openings, which to civilised man might appear
to have served as exits for the smoke; but to the Indian the house, as
everything else, is alive, and must have openings through which it can
draw breath, as otherwise it would be choked. These holes were three or
four inches in diameter, and many of them were blocked up and plastered
over. A large number of what seemed to have been doorways were also
found to be blocked up, no doubt from some ulterior religious reason.
A peculiar feature of the architecture was a hall not less than forty
feet long, and from floor to rafters seven feet high. Six beams were
used in the roof, laid between the north and south walls. There were
rafters of two different lengths, being set in an angle of about
ten degrees to each other. The west wall contained twelve pockets,
doubtless the cavities in which the rafters had rested. They were,
on an average, three inches in diameter, and ran in some six inches,
slanting downward in the interior. The east wall was found to contain
upright poles and horizontal slats, forming a framework for the
building material. The interior was bare, with the exception of a ledge
running along the southern side and made from the same material as the
house walls. It was squared up in front and formed a convenient settee.
At the end of this hall, but in the upper story, was found a house
that was distinguished from the others by a peculiar decoration in
red, while the space around the door was painted in a delicate shade
of lavender.
There seems to have been still another hall of nearly the same length
as the one described, but which must have been at least one foot and
a half higher. It is now almost entirely caved in.
No objects of interest were found that could throw any light on the
culture of the builders of these dwellings, except the fragment of
a stone axe and a piece of matting.
The day after my arrival at Chuhuichupa I continued my journey, now
accompanied by Mr. Taylor and Mr. Meeds. We had as a guide an old
Mexican soldier, who had been recommended to us as a man who knew the
Sierra Madre better than anyone else. He had, no doubt, lived a wild
life; had taken part in many a "scrap" with the Apaches, as his body
showed marks of bullets in several places, and he had prospected for
gold and silver, traversing a good deal of ground in the mountains at
one time or another. But topographical knowledge _per se_ does not
necessarily make a good guide. Although "Don Teodoro," by something
like instinct, always knew where he was, it did not take us long to
discover that he had not judgment enough to guide a pack-train, and his
fatuous recklessness caused us a good deal of annoyance, and even loss.
After leaving the grass-lands of Chuhuichupa, we passed through
extensive pine regions, full of arroyos and cordons, and it struck
me how silent the forest was here. No animal life could be seen
or heard. About ten miles south we caught sight of the Sierra de
Candelaria, which suddenly loomed up in the southeast, while the
Arroyo de Guaynopa yawned on our left. We slowly ascended a beautiful
cordon running toward the southwest. The track we followed, our guide
assured us, was _el camino de los antiguos_, but it probably was
only an Apache trail. The cordon was rather narrow, and from time
to time gave us sweeping views of the stupendous landscape in one
direction or another, as the animals slowly made their way up and
finally reached the summit. A grandly beautiful sight awaited us;
we went a little out of our way to gain a promontory, which, our
guide said, was designated "Punto Magnifico." It was at an elevation
of 8,200 feet, and gave us certainly the most strikingly magnificent
view of the Sierra Madre we yet had enjoyed.
An ocean of mountains spread out before and below us. In the midst
of it, right in front of us, were imposing pine-clad mesas and two
weathered pinnacles of reddish conglomerate, while further on there
followed range after range, peak after peak; the most distant ones,
toward the south, seeming at least as far as eighty miles away. The
course of the rivers, as they flow deep down between the mountains,
was pointed out to us. The principal one is the Arros River, which
from the west embraces most of the mesas, and then, turning south,
receives its tributaries, the Tutuhuaca and the Mulatos, the latter
just behind a pinnacle. West of the Arros River stretches out the
immense Mesa de los Apaches, once a stronghold of these marauders,
reaching as far as the Rio Bonito. The plateau is also called "The
Devil's Spine Mesa," after a high and very narrow ridge, which rises
conspicuously from the mesa's western edge and runs in a northerly
and southerly direction, like the edge of a gigantic saw. To our
amazement, the guide here indicated to us where the camino real from
Nacori passes east over a gap in the "Devil's Spine" ridge, and then
over several sharp buttes that descend toward the mesa. An odd-looking
mesa lay between Rio Bonito and Rio Satachi. Farthest to the west
were the big hogbacks near Nacori, standing out ominously, like a
perpetuated flash of lightning. The sun was nearing the horizon; the
air was translucent, and the entire panorama steeped in a dusky blue.
Immediately below us, to our left, lay Guaynopa. The mountainside
looked so steep that it seemed impossible for us to descend from
where we were. But we already heard the voices of our muleteers
singing out to the animals 1,000 feet below, and that reminded us
that we also had better reach camp before darkness should overtake
us. We descended 2,500 feet, and, leaving the pines behind, found
ourselves in a warmer climate. It never snows here, according to our
guide. That the precipitation took the shape of rain we learned when
we were impeded by it for two days.
There were yet eighteen miles between us and the deserted
mines of Guaynopa. It was a laborious journey over the hills,
mostly ascent. Finally we came to a steep slope covered with oaks,
along which there was a continuous descent toward Guaynopa. While
zigzagging our way down, we caught sight of a large cave with houses
and some white cone-shaped structures staring at us across an arroyo
midway up the opposite side, which was at least two thousand feet
deep. Through my field glasses I could make out very distinctly a
group of houses of the usual pattern; and the large, white structures
could without difficulty be recognised as granaries, similar to those
observed in Cave Valley. It was my intention to go back and examine
this cave more closely, as soon as I had found a camping place; but
circumstances interfered. Several years later the cave was visited
by Mr. G. P. Ramsey, to whom I owe the following brief description.
The cave is situated about twenty-five miles in a straight line south
of the Mormon colony of Chuhuichupa. There are indications of a spring
in the cave, and there is another one in the arroyo itself. The
buildings are in a very bad condition, owing to the action of the
elements and animals; but fifty-three rooms could be counted. They were
located on a rocky terrace extending from the extreme right to the
rear centre of the cave. This extreme right extended slightly beyond
the overhanging cliff, and contained groups of two-storied houses. In
the central part of the cave were a number of small structures, built
of the same material and in a similar manner as those I described
as granaries in Cave Valley. They were still in excellent condition,
and, as will be seen at a glance, they are almost identical with the
granaries used to the present day in some southern States of Mexico.
We continued our descent, and, having dropped altogether some 2,000
feet, at last found ourselves alongside some lonely and unattractive
old adobe houses. They were built by the Spaniards and are reputed
to have once been the smelter of the now abandoned silver mine of
Guaynopa. Only the naked walls remain standing on a decline, which
was too steep to give us sufficient camping ground. So we went still a
little further, to the top of a hill near by, where we made a tolerably
good camp.
This then was the famous locality of Guaynopa, credited with hiding
such fabulous wealth. There was still another mine here of the same
repute, called Tayopa, and both of them are said to have been worked
once by the Jesuits, who before their expulsion from Mexico were
in possession of nearly all the mines in the country. According to
tradition, the Apaches killed everybody here, and the mines were
forgotten until recent times, when ancient church records and other
Spanish documents revealed their existence. Several expeditions have
been sent out, one, I believe, by the Government for the purpose of
locating them; but being situated in the roughest and most inaccessible
part of the Sierra Madre, they are still awaiting their rediscovery,
unless, contrary to my knowledge, they have been found in recent
years. There is no doubt that the country carries very rich silver
ore, and we ourselves found specimens of that kind; but the region
is so difficult of access that it probably would require too great
a capital to work the mines.
There was now a plain track leading along the hillside down toward
the Rio Aros, which is scarcely two miles off; but the country was so
wild and rugged that the greatest care had to be exercised with the
animals to prevent them from coming to grief. The path runs along the
upper part of a steep slope, which from a perpendicular weathered cliff
drops some 400 feet down into a gorge. As the declivity of the slope
is about forty-five degrees, and the track in some places only about
a foot wide, there is no saving it if an animal loses its foothold,
or if its pack slips. All went well, however, until we reached a point
where the track commenced to descend, when our villain of a guide tried
to drive some burros back on the track, instead of leading each one
carefully. The result was that one of the poor beasts tumbled down,
making immense bounds, a hundred feet at a time, and, of course,
was killed.
We had no difficulty in fording the Guaynopa Creek near its junction
with the Aros River, and selected a camping place on a terrace 200 feet
above it. The stream, which is the one that passes the cave-dwellings,
carries a good deal of limpid water, and there are abundant signs
that at times it runs very high. The elevation of the ford, which
is here about the same as that of Aros River, 3,400 feet, was the
lowest point we reached in our crossing of the Sierra Madre between
Chuhuichupa and Temosachic. It took us almost the entire day to move
the animals the one mile and a half to this camp. On the way we had
found some good quartz crystals in the baryte, about four inches high
and one inch in width.
The country before us looked more forbidding than ever, as if it
did not want us to penetrate any further into its mysteries, but our
guide seemed to be quite at home here.
Our march toward Rio Chico was about thirty miles of ups and downs,
ascending to a height of 7,600 feet and descending again some 3,000
feet. In the beginning it was almost impossible to make out the track;
where it did not lead over bare rocks, it was nearly obliterated
by overgrown grass. The first ascent was over a mile long in a
straight line; then, after a little while, came the most arduous
climbing I had until then ever attempted. Following the slope of the
mountain, the track rose higher and higher in long zigzags, without
any chance for the animals to rest, for at least three-quarters of
a mile. It was necessary to push them on, as otherwise the train
would unavoidably have upset, and one or the other have rolled down
the declivity. One large white mule, El Chino, after it had almost
climbed to the top, turned giddy at the "glory-crowned height" it
had reached, and, sinking on its hind legs, fell backward and rolled
heels over head down, with its two large canvas-covered boxes, like
a big wheel. As luck would have it, it bumped against a low-stemmed
old oak that cropped out of the hillside in an obtuse angle to it,
some ninety feet below. Making one more turn up the stem, the mule was
nicely caught between the forked branches, which broke the momentum,
loosened the cargo, and caused the animal to fall back into the high
grass. One box landed close by, the other, containing our library,
pursued its course downward 200 feet further, bursting open on the
way and scattering the wisdom of the ages to the winds, while the
mule escaped without a scratch.
The burros came into camp three hours after us, and the drivers
explained how they had succeeded in bringing them up the long slope
only by constantly punching them to prevent them from "falling asleep."
As we continued our journey toward Rio Chico the panorama of the
sierra changed continuously. We got a side view of the big Mesa de
los Apaches, and many weathered pinnacles of eroded conglomerate were
seen standing out like church spires in this desert of rock, varying
in colour from red to lead gray. Once we caught sight of a stretch of
the Rio Aros deep down in a narrow, desolate valley, some 3,000 feet
below us. The geological formation of the region is mostly volcanic;
then follows conglomerate, and on the high points porphyry appears.
We camped on the crest of the eastern side of the Rio Chico Canon,
in an ideal place with bracing air. A fine, sloping meadow afforded
quite an arcadian view with the animals peacefully grazing and resting;
but looking westward, the eye revelled in the grand panorama of the
sierra. The two sides of the Rio Chico Valley rise here evenly from
the bottom of the gorge so as to suggest the letter V. In many places
its brow is overhung by precipitous cliffs, and further down still
more steeply walled chasms yawn up from the river bed.
My chief packer now became ill from the effects of poison ivy. He was
one of those unfortunate individuals who are specially susceptible to
it. According to his own statement it sufficed for him to pass anywhere
near the plant, even without touching it, to become afflicted with the
disease. In this case he did not even know where he had contracted it,
until the cook showed him some specimens of the plant near an oak tree
close by the kitchen tent. The poor fellow's lips were badly swollen;
he had acute pains in his eyes, and felt unable to move. Sometimes, he
said, the disease would last ten days, and his skin become so tender
that he could not endure the weight or contact of his clothes. But
by applying to the afflicted parts of his body a solution of baking
soda in water, I was able not only to relieve his suffering, but to
enable him, after two days, to continue with us on our journey.
In the meantime we had investigated some caves in the conglomerate
of the steep canon side, about 250 feet above the bottom of the
gorge, and rather difficult of access. The house group occupied the
entire width of a cave, which was eighty feet across, and there was
a foundation wall made of stone and timber underneath the front
part. The walls were made of stone, with mortar of disintegrated
rock that lined parts of the cave and were plastered inside and out
with the same material. Lintels of wood were seen in the windows,
and rows of sticks standing in a perpendicular position were found in
two of the walls inside of the plastering. On one side of the cave,
some two feet off, was a small tower, also in ruins, measuring inside
four feet in diameter, while the walls were about six inches thick.
Pinnacles of eroded conglomerate are a prominent characteristic of
the landscape west of the Rio Chico; further on, the usual volcanic
formation appears again. After fully twenty miles of travel we found
ourselves again in pine forests and at an altitude of 7,400 feet. Here
we were overtaken, in the middle of February, by a rain and sleet
storm, which was quite severe, although we were sheltered by tall
pine trees in a little valley. It turned to snow and grew very cold,
and then the storm was over. Here a titmouse and a woodpecker were
shot, and the bluebirds were singing in the snow.
Travelling again eleven miles further brought us to the plains of
Naverachic, where we camped. It was quite a treat to travel again
on comparatively level land, but, strange to say, I felt the cold so
much that I had to walk on foot a good deal in order to keep warm. The
word Naverachic is of Tarahumare origin; nave means "move," and rachi
refers to the disintegrated trachyte formation in the caves.
We had just emerged from a district which at that time was traversed
by few people; perhaps only by some illiterate Mexican adventurers,
though it had once been settled by a thrifty people whose stage of
culture was that of the Pueblo Indians of to-day, and who had vanished,
nobody knows how many centuries ago. Over it all hovered a distinct
atmosphere of antiquity and the solemnity of a graveyard.