The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

URBAN ANTIQUITIES.
elusive evidence, that nearly the whole area of the Territory
was formerly settled by a vast population far advanced in
civilization, who, like the early dwellers in New Mexico, have
entirely disappeared, leaving behind them no written history.
Within the past few months, extensive ruins have been
discovered in the Ancha Mountains, which are in a far better
state of preservation than any previously known in the Territory; and the remains of several large arastras, found in
their immediate vicinity, would seem to indicate that the
inhabitants must have been familiar with the science of
reducing silver ore.
Articles of painted pottery, knives of tempered copper,
pipes, &c., have been found at a depth of more than a hundred and fifty feet beneath the surface of the earth; and
upon the Rio Verde are immense rooms, excavated high up
in its perpendicular banks of sandstone; in other portions of
the Territory, rocks have been found covered with hieroglyphics, which have as yet been undeciphered.
It is to be hoped, that, when these vast ruins can be properly excavated, discoveries will be made that will throw more
light upon their early history; and it would seem eminently
proper that these explorations should be undertaken by the
general Government, with a view to ascertaining the real
facts concerning the early settlement of this portion of our
country, which bears the most irrefragable proof of having
been made more than a thousand years ago.
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