increasing population, and generations of peace had wrought a confidence
which had not existed when the pioneers had sought safety in caves,
these people ventured to move out of cliffs and to build upon the tops
of the mesa. Whether all the cave-dwellers were descended from the
original pilgrims or whether others had joined them afterward is not
known, but it seems evident that the separate communities had found some
common bond, probably tribal, and perhaps evolved some common
government. No doubt they intermarried. No doubt the blood of many
cliff-dwelling communities mingled in the new communities which built
pueblos upon the mesa. In time there were many of these pueblos, and
they were widely scattered; there are mounds at intervals all over the
Mesa Verde. The largest group of pueblos, one infers from the number of
visible mounds, was built upon the Chapin Mesa several miles north of
the above-mentioned cliff-dwelling near a reservoir known to-day as
Mummy Lake. It is there, then, that we shall now go in continuation of
our story.
[Illustration: PREHISTORIC POTTERY FROM MESA VERDE
Coloring and design as well as form show high artistic sense and clean
workmanship]
Mummy Lake is not a lake and no mummies were ever found there. This
old-time designation applies to an artificial depression surrounded by a
low rude stone wall, much crumbled, which was evidently a storage
reservoir for an irrigation system of some size. A number of conspicuous
mounds in the neighborhood suggest the former existence of a village of
pueblos dependent upon the farms for which the irrigation system had
been built. One of these, from which a few stones protruded, was
excavated in 1916 by Doctor Fewkes, and has added a new and important
chapter to the history of this people. This pueblo has been named Far
View House. Its extensive vista includes four other groups of similar
mounds. Each cluster occurs in the fertile sage-brush clearings which
bloom in summer with asters and Indian paint-brush; there is no doubt
that good crops of Indian corn could still be raised from these sands
to-day by dry-farming methods.
Far View House is a pueblo, a hundred and thirteen feet long by more
than fifty feet wide, not including a full-length plaza about
thirty-five feet wide in which religious dances are supposed to have
taken place. The differences between this fine structure and the
cliff-cities are considerable. The most significant evidence of
progress, perhaps, is the modern regularity of the ground-plan. The
partitions separating the secular rooms are continuous through the
building, and the angles are generally accurately right angles.
The pueblo had three stories. It is oriented approximately to the
cardinal points and was terraced southward to secure a sunny exposure.
The study of the solar movements became an advanced science with these
people in the latter stages of their development. It must be remembered
that they had no compasses; knowing nothing of the north or any other
fixed point, nevertheless there is evidence that they successfully
worked out the solstices and planned their later buildings accurately
according to cardinal points of their own calculation.
Another difference indicating development is the decrease in the number
of kivas, and the construction of a single very large kiva in the middle
of the building. Its size suggests at once that the individual clan
organization of cliff-dwelling days had here given place to a single
priestly fraternity, sociologically a marked advance. Drawing parallels
with the better-known customs of other primitive people, we are at
liberty, if we please, to infer similar progress in other directions.
The original primitive communism was developing naturally, though
doubtless very slowly, into something akin to organized society,
probably involving more complicated economic relationships in all
departments of living.
While their masonry did not apparently improve in proportion, Far View
House shows increase in the number and variety of the decorative figures
incised on hewn stones. The spiral, representing the coiled serpent,
appears a number of times, as do many combinations of squares, curves,
and angles arranged in fanciful design, which may or may not have had
symbolic meanings.
A careful examination of the neighborhood discloses few details of the
irrigation system, but it shows a cemetery near the southeast corner of
the building in which the dead were systematically buried.
Large numbers of minor antiquities were found in this interesting
structure. Besides the usual stone implements of the mason and the
housekeeper, many instruments of bone, such as needles, dirks, and
bodkins, were found. Figurines of several kinds were unearthed, carved
from soft stone, including several intended to symbolize Indian corn;
all these may have been idols. Fragments of pottery were abundant, in
full variety of form, decoration, and color, but always the most ancient
types. Among the bones of animals, the frequency of those of rabbits,
deer, antelope, elk, and mountain-sheep indicate that meat formed no
inconsiderable part of the diet. Fabrics and embroideries were not
discovered, as in the cliff-dwellings, but they may have disappeared in
the centuries through exposure to the elements.
Far View House may not show the highest development of the Mummy Lake
cluster of pueblos, and further exhumations here and in neighboring
groups may throw further light upon this interesting people in their
gropings from darkness to light. Meantime, however, returning to the
neighborhood of the cliff-dwellings, let us examine a structure so late
in the history of these people that they left it unfinished.
Sun Temple stands on a point of Chapin Mesa, somewhat back from the
edge of Cliff Canyon, commanding an extraordinary range of country. It
is within full view of Cliff Palace and other cliff-dwellings of
importance and easy of access. From it, one can look southward to the
Mancos River. On every side a wide range of mesa and canyon lies in full
view. The site is unrivalled for a temple in which all could worship
with devotion.
When Doctor Fewkes, in the early summer of 1915, attacked the mound
which had been designated Community House under the supposition that it
covered a ruined pueblo, he had no idea of the extraordinary nature of
the find awaiting him, although he was prepared from its shape and other
indications for something out of the usual. So wholly without parallel
was the disclosure, however, that it was not till it was entirely
uncovered that he ventured a public conjecture as to its significance.
The ground-plan of Sun Temple is shaped like the letter D. It encloses
another D-shaped structure occupying nearly two-thirds of its total
area, within which are two large kivas. Between the outer and the inner
D are passages and rooms, and at one end a third kiva is surrounded by
rooms, one of which is circular.
Sun Temple is also impressive in size. It is a hundred and twenty-one
feet long and sixty-four feet wide. Its walls average four feet in
thickness, and are double-faced, enclosing a central core of rubble;
they are built of the neighborhood sandstone. The masonry is of fine
quality. This, together with its symmetrical architectural design, its
fine proportions, and its many decorated stones, mark it the highest
type of Mesa Verde architecture.
[Illustration: _From a photograph by George L. Beam_
SUN TEMPLE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK
Built by prehistoric people to their god, the sun, and unfinished when
they suddenly disappeared]
[Illustration: _From a photograph by George L. Beam_
SPRUCE TREE HOUSE FROM ACROSS THE CANYON
Showing the overhanging rock roof and the forest which tops the Mesa
Verde]
It was plainly unfinished. Walls had risen in some places higher than
in others. As yet there was no roofing. No rooms had been plastered. Of
internal finishing little was completed, and of contents, of course,
there was none. The stone hammers and other utensils of the builders
were found lying about as if thrown down at day's close.
The kivas, although circular, are unlike those of Cliff Palace, inasmuch
as they are above ground, not subterranean. The mortar used in pointing
shows the impress of human hands; no trowels were used. The walls
exhibit many stones incised with complicated designs, largely geometric;
some may be mason's marks; others are decorative or symbolic. These
designs indicate a marked advance over those in Far View House; in fact
they are far more complicated and artistic than any in the southwest.
Bare and ineloquent though its unfinished condition left it, the
religious purposes of the entire building are clear to the archaeologist
in its form. And, as if to make conjecture certainty, a shrine was
uncovered on the corner-stone of the outer wall which frames in solid
stone walls a large fossil palm-leaf whose rays strongly suggest the
sun!
It requires no imagination to picture the effect which the original
discovery of this image of their god must have had upon a primitive
community of sun-worshippers. It must have seemed to them a divine gift,
a promise, like the Ark of the Covenant, of the favor of the Almighty.
It may even have first suggested the idea of building this temple to
their deity.
This is all the story. Go there and study it in detail. Enlightened,
profoundly impressed, nevertheless you will finish at this point. The
tale has no climax. It just stops.
What happened to the people of the Mesa Verde?
Some archaeologists believe that they emigrated to neighboring valleys
southwest. But why should they have left their prosperous farms and fine
homes for regions which seem to us less desirable? And why, a profoundly
religious people, should they have left Sun Temple unfinished?
What other supposition remains?
Only, I think, that, perhaps because of their prosperity and the
unpreparedness that accompanies long periods of peace, they were
suddenly overwhelmed by enemies.
XV
THE HEALING WATERS
HOT SPRINGS RESERVATION, ARKANSAS. PLATT NATIONAL PARK, OKLAHOMA
I
From a hillside on the edge of the Ozark Mountains in central Arkansas
issue springs of hot water which are effective in the alleviation of
rheumatic and kindred ills. Although chemical analysis fails to explain
the reason, the practice of many years has abundantly proved their
worth. Before the coming of the white man they were known to the
Indians, who are said to have proclaimed them neutral territory in time
of war. Perhaps it was rumor of their fame upon which Ponce de Leon
founded his dream of a Fountain of Youth.
In the early years of the last century hundreds of settlers toiled many
miles over forest trails to camp beside them and bathe daily in their
waters. The bent and suffering were carried there on stretchers. So many
and so striking were the cures that the fame of these springs spread
throughout the young nation, and in 1832, to prevent their falling into
hands outstretched to seize and exploit them for private gain, Congress
created them a national reservation. The Hot Springs Reservation was our
first national park.
Previous to this a couple of log houses built by visitors served for
shelter for the pilgrims at the shrine of health. Soon after, other
buildings quite as primitive were erected. A road was constructed
through the forests from the settled portions of the State, and many
drove laboriously in with tents and camping outfits. I have seen a copy
of a photograph which was taken when photographs were new, showing
several men and women in the odd conventional costume of that period
sitting solemnly upon the banks of a steaming spring, their clothes
drawn up, their bare legs calf deep in the hot water.
Once started, Hot Springs grew rapidly. Unfortunately, this first act of
national conservation failed to foresee the great future of these
springs, and the reservation line was drawn so that it barely enclosed
the brook of steaming vapors which was their outlet. To-day, when the
nation contemplates spending millions to beautify the national spa, it
finds the city built solidly opposite.
Railroads soon pushed their way through the Ozark foothills and landed
thousands yearly beside the healing waters. Hotels became larger and
more numerous. The government built a public bathhouse into which the
waters were piped for the free treatment of the people. Concessioners
built more elaborate structures within the reservation to accommodate
those who preferred to pay for pleasanter surroundings or for private
treatment. The village became a town and the town a city.
Boarding-houses sprang up everywhere with accommodations to suit the
needs of purses of all lengths. Finally, large and costly hotels were
built for the prosperous and fashionable who began to find rare
enjoyment in the beautiful Ozark country while they drank their hot
water and took their invigorating baths. Hot Springs became a national
resort.
It will be seen that, in its way, Hot Springs has reflected the social
development of the country. It has passed through the various stages
that marked the national growth in taste and morals. During the period
when gambling was a national vice it was noted for its high play, and
then gamblers of all social grades looked forward to their season in the
South. During the period of national dissipation, when polite
drunkenness was a badge of class and New Year's day an orgy, it became
the periodic resort of inebriates, just as later, with the elevation of
the national moral sense, it became instead the most conservative of
resorts, the periodic refuge of thousands of work-worn business and
professional men seeking the astonishing recuperative power of its
water.
True again to the spirit of the times, Hot Springs reflects to the full
the spirit of to-day. It is a Southern mountain resort of quiet charm
and wonderful natural beauty set on the edge of a broad region of hills,
ravines, and sweet-smelling pines, a paradise for the walker, the hiker,
and the horseback rider. Down on the street a long row of handsome
modern bath-houses, equipped with all the scientific luxuries, and more
besides, of the most elaborate European spa, concentrates the business
of bath and cure. Back of this rise directly the beautiful Ozark hills.
One may have exactly what he wishes at Hot Springs. He may live with the
sick if that is his bent, or he may spend weeks of rich enjoyment of the
South in holiday mood, and have his baths besides, without a suggestion
of the sanitarium or even of the spa.
Meantime the mystery of the water's potency seems to have been solved.
It is not chemical in solution which clears the system of its ills and
restores the jaded tissues to buoyancy, but the newly discovered
principle of radioactivity. Somewhere deep in Nature's laboratory these
waters become charged with an uplifting power which is imparted to those
who bathe according to the rules which many years of experience have
prescribed. Many physicians refuse to verify the waters' virtues; some
openly scoff. But the fact stands that every year hundreds who come
helpless cripples walk jauntily to the station on their departure, and
many thousands of sufferers from rheumatic ills and the wear and tear of
strenuous living return to their homes restored. I myself can testify to
the surprising recuperative effect of only half a dozen daily baths, and
I know business men who habitually go there whenever the stress of
overwork demands measures of quick relief.
[Illustration: ON HOT SPRINGS MOUNTAIN, HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS]
[Illustration: BATH HOUSE ROW, HOT SPRINGS OF ARKANSAS]
It is not surprising that more than a hundred thousand persons visit
Hot Springs every year. The recognized season begins after the winter
holidays; then it is that gayety and pleasuring, riding, driving,
motoring, golfing, and the social life of the fashionable hotels reach
their height. But, for sheer enjoyment of the quieter kind, the spring,
early summer, and the autumn are unsurpassed; south though it lies, Hot
Springs is delightful even in midsummer.
Two railroads land the visitor almost at the entrance of the
reservation. A fine road brings the motorist sixty miles from the lively
city of Little Rock. The elaborate bath-houses line the reservation side
of the principal street, opposite the brick city. But back of them rises
abruptly the beautiful forested mountain from whose side gush the
healing waters, and back of this roll the beautiful pine-grown Ozarks.
The division is sharply drawn. He who chooses may forget the city except
at the hour of his daily bath.
The plans for realizing in stone and landscape gardening the ideal of
the great American spa, which this spot is in fact, contemplate the work
of years.
II
In southern Oklahoma not far from the Texas boundary, a group of thirty
healing springs, these of cold sparkling water, were set apart by
Congress in 1904 under the title of the Platt National Park. Most of
them are sulphur springs; others are impregnated with bromides and other
mineral salts. Many thousands visit yearly the prosperous bordering city
of Sulphur to drink these waters; many camp in or near the reservation;
the bottled waters bring relief to thousands at home.
Through the national park, from its source in the east to its entry into
Rock Creek, winds Travertine Creek, the outlet of most of these springs.
Rock Creek outlines the park's western boundary, and on its farther bank
lies the city. Springs of importance within the park pour their waters
directly into its current. All these Platt springs, like those of Hot
Springs, Arkansas, were known to the Indians for their curative
properties for many generations before the coming of the white settler.
The park is the centre of a region of novelty and charm for the visitor
from the North and East. The intimate communion of prairie and rich
forested valley, the sophistication of the bustling little city in
contrast with the rough life of the outlying ranches, the mingling in
common intercourse of such differing human elements as the Eastern
tourist, the free and easy Western townsman, the cowboy and the Indian,
give rare spice to a visit long enough to impart the spirit of a country
of so many kinds of appeal. The climate, too, contributes to enjoyment.
The long spring lasts from February to June. During the short summer,
social life is at its height. The fall lingers to the holidays before it
gives way to a short winter, which the Arbuckle Mountains soften by
diverting the colder winds.
The pleasures are those of prairie and valley. It is a great land for
riding. There is swimming, rowing, and excellent black-bass fishing in
the larger lakes. It is a region of deer and many birds. Its altitude
is about a thousand feet.
The rolling Oklahoma plateau attains in this neighborhood its
pleasantest outline and variety. Broad plains of grazing-land alternate
with bare rocky heights and low mountains. The creeks and rivers which
accumulate the waters of the springs scattered widely among these
prairie hills are outlined by winding forested belts and flowered
thickets of brush. Great areas of thin prairie yield here and there to
rounded hills, some of which bear upon their summits columns of flat
rocks heaped one upon the other high enough to be seen for miles against
the low horizon.
These, which are known as the Chimney Hills, for many years have been a
cause of speculation among the settlers who have nearly replaced the
Indians since the State of Oklahoma replaced the Indian Territory with
which we became familiar in the geographies of earlier days. Who were
the builders of these chimneys and what was their purpose?
"At a hearing in Ardmore a few years ago before a United States court
taking testimony upon some ancient Indian depredation claims," writes
Colonel R.A. Sneed, for years the superintendent of the Platt National
Park, "practically all the residents of the Chickasaw Nation, Indian and
negro, whose memories of that country extend back fifty years or more,
were in attendance. In recounting his recollections of a Comanche raid
in which his master's horses were stolen, one old negro incidentally
gave a solution of the Chimney Hills which is the only one the writer
ever heard, and which probably accounts for all of them.
"He said that his master lived at Big Sulphur Springs, farthest west of
any of the Chickasaws; that the Kiowas and Comanches raided the country
every summer and drove out horses or cattle wherever they could find
them unprotected; that he had often gone with his master to find these
stolen cattle; that these forages were so frequent that the Chickasaws
had never undertaken to occupy any of their lands west of Rock Creek,
north of Big Sulphur Springs, nor west of the Washita River south of the
springs; that the country west of Sulphur Springs was dry, and water was
hard to find unless one knew just where to look; and that the Comanches
had a custom of marking all the springs they could find by building rock
chimneys on the hills nearest to the springs. Only one chimney would be
built if the spring flowed from beneath the same hill, but if the spring
was distant from the hill two chimneys would be built, either upon the
same hill or upon two distant hills, and a sight along the two chimneys
would indicate a course toward the spring.
"The old man said that every hill in their pasture had a Comanche
chimney on it and that his master would not disturb them because he did
not want to make the wild Indians mad. There never was open war between
the Chickasaws and the Comanches, but individual Chickasaws often had
trouble with Comanche hunting-parties.
"The Big Sulphur Springs on Rock Creek in the Chickasaw Nation
afterward became the centre around which the city of Sulphur was built,
and after the town was grown to a population of two thousand or more it
was removed bodily to make room for the Platt National Park, around
which has been built the new city of Sulphur, which now has a population
of forty-five hundred.
"Many of the Comanche monuments are extant and the great bluff above the
Bromide Springs of the national park looks out toward the north and west
over a prairie that extends to the Rocky Mountains; the monument that
stood on the brow of that bluff must have been visible for many miles to
the keen vision of the Comanche who knew how to look for it."
The Indian Territory became the State of Oklahoma in 1907; the story of
the white man's peaceful invasion is one of absorbing interest; the
human spectacle of to-day is complex, even kaleidoscopic. In the
thirties and forties the government had established in the territory the
five civilized Indian nations, the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws,
Creeks, and Seminoles, each with its allotted boundaries, its native
government, its legislatures, and its courts. In many respects these
were foreign nations within our boundaries. Besides them, the Osage
Indians had their reservation in the north, and fragments of no less
than seventeen other tribes lived on assigned territory.
Gradually white men invaded the land, purchased holdings from the
Indian nations, built cities, established businesses of many kinds, ran
railroads in all directions. In time, the nations were abolished and
their remaining lands were divided up among the individuals composing
them; the Indians of these nations became American citizens; their negro
slaves, for they had been large slaveholders, received each his portion
of the divided land. Then came Oklahoma.