Yuku free message boards

Appendix B - Don Maguire Archeological Findings and Exhibits

One of Maguire's passions was archeological ruins, several of which he personally visited throughout the West and later determined to be of Puebloan influence. Perhaps his first encounters with such sites were during his employment in the company of Major Wesley Powell in 1873. In addition, Maguire researched several ruins while conducting his Arizona expeditions from 1876 - 1879. Many Utah ruins were investigated during Maguire's commission as Utah's mining and antiquities expert for the Columbian Exposition of the Chicago World Fair. This section provides an overview of Maguire's archeological findings in Utah; accounts of other antiquities found in Utah are not addressed.

The following comes from the Millard County Chronicle dated February 26, 1931. The information was provided by Maguire, but as an introduction to him, the article quotes the words of Dr. Neil M. Judd, a representative of the Smithsonian Institute, as written in Bulletin 82 of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institute entitled, Archeological Observations North of the Rio Colorado: "Mr. Don Maguire a consulting and mining engineer became interested in American Archeology during the course of vocational travels in Mexico and Central America. Between 1880 and 1905 he gathered a considerable private collection as a result of excavations in prehistoric ruins throughout Utah.

"Among those who contributed to the success of these observations especial acknowledgement is due to Mr. Maguire who furnished helpful notes regarding numerous archeological sites in Utah explored by him. And in the course of the volume Mr. Maguire is quoted several times.

"For 45 days in 1873 Mr. Maguire was associated with Major John Wesley Powell explorer of the Colorado River and founder and first director of the Bureau of American Ethnology. He was employed by the state of Utah to gather prehistoric material to be exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago held in 1893 and because of his professional duties came to know prehistoric Utah as only a lover of archeology would.

Of this time spent with Major Powell, Maguire writes, "yet never forgetting the great open valley around Fillmore, Kanosh, Oak Creek, and Holden to the north and Paragonah [Paragonah] toward the south; for the evidence of prehistoric occupancy around these places made such an impression on the mind as to their being the proof yet remaining of there having been in Utah at one time, a people that had developed far, and long enjoyed an important semi-civilization.

"About 1855 ranchmen and cowboys in going hither and thither up and down through Utah's waste places observed many strange mounds existing in groups having from ten to as many as a hundred in each locality, and around and also over the surface of each mound those who examined them observed broken pottery, flint chippings, and fragments of obsidian or volcanic glass made into arrow points or spear heads. Such relics were usually broken. Also at times they found articles made of jasper, beads of stone or bone, and rarely a stone pipe or hammer stone, and in some few localities stone axes. There were also found stone balls, channeled stone brickets, the use of which for long was not understood.

"Besides such objects as here named they found in such places numbers of stone mills made from granite, gneiss, sandstone, or slate, and usually with each one a milling stone or mano with which to reduce grass seeds, wild oats, peas, or acorns into meal for bread.

"Inquiries made to Indians of the valleys as to when did their ancestors carve the markings on the rocks elicited the reply most usually made by the Indian. Injun no manik, maybe so Shinob manik. Shinob is their name for the inferior deity. Neither could the Utes, Paiutes, or Paiedes account for the rock pictures so frequently found scattered on rock surfaces over most of Utah, far into southern Nevada, and extending into Arizona, southern Colorado, and New Mexico.

"About 1870 the subject of the studying the rock pictures and rock etching and as well the mounds of Utah valleys became a work or subject of much interest to travelers, mining engineers, and men of learning visiting Utah.

"Be it remembered here that the mounds with their pottery flint and obsidian object remains as well as their stone mills were so far found in all the open valleys from the town of Willard on the east side of Great Salt Lake down southward into the neighborhood of St. George near to the line in Arizona.

"At Willard they occur immediately west of that town in considerable numbers. A few occur along the Weber River west of Ogden. In Ogden, at what is now 28"' Street and Jefferson Avenue, and also at Riverdale near Ogden, mounds were found and in the vicinity of Farmington, in Davis County; also, near Salt Lake City, just north of where now stands the ruins of the old copper plant on the east bank of the Jordan River.

"A very prominent group of mounds were found near Grantsville, of which a few yet remain. Grantsville is in Tooele County. Again, mounds were found west of Provo, near the shores of Utah Lake and near the banks of the Provo River, also near Spanish Fork, and at Payson, Santaquin, and at Summit. Mounds with their associated potter were found in San Pete and in all the open valleys down into where Garfield County lies.

"Going from Nephi southwestward, those prehistoric town sites continued down into Sevier County, and over the mountain range into Millard County, where, at Fillmore, Oak Creek, Meadow Creek, and Kanosh we find a region where the long vanished and forgotten race produced much of their finest work in rock picture etchings, and made much of the most perfect and really beautiful potter, which was also the case with their work in bone, stone, and wood fabrics.

"From Kanosh going southward we find this work to continue along the Beaver River and over to the site of old Fort Cameron, northeast from Beaver a few miles. Again, southward from Beaver, traveling the old stage and wagon road toward St. George, we reach the old fortress at Paragonah, where stood the most important group of ruins to be found in the open valleys of Utah.

"Evidently at Paragonah there was a city or town having a population of 700 to 1500 people. It is said that when the first of the Mormon Pioneers in 1855 went down into Iron County to settle at Cedar City, there were 107 mounds lying on both sides of Paragonah Creek. The chief feature amongst these remains was a huge mound, raised in the form of a square in its outline, 150 feet to east and west and north and south, and to this a projection which measured 75 feet each way. It showed that to each of these two masses of walls there was an inner court or patio. In the larger one, this open space or patio was evidently 75 feet each way; and in the smaller one, there was another open space about 30 feet each way."

Maguire first encountered these ruins while employed by Major Wesley Powell. He states: "How distinctly I remember that Major Powell, who accompanied the train, surveyed and went carefully over this group of ancient ruins that evening. He had one of his draftsmen sketch a half dozen views of the entire place, and he said that later, should time and means at his disposal permit, he would come back and undertake the exploration of this wonderful group of ancient ruins.

"At that time the main mound or fortress stood about 20 to 25 feet above the surrounding country. Its sides sloped at an angle of about 45 degrees, and evidently it had been a structure of three or four stories."

Details of Archeological Investigations of Willard Ruins

Concerning the mounds in Willard, Maguire states "the spot lies just east of the old Central Pacific Railway, a sort of high bench or plateau lying there within the pastures and fields west of Willard." They were first brought to Maguire's attention by a man named Dalton who lived in Willard. Mr. Dalton, a Mormon, was confident the ancient remains were those of the Nephites.

Maguire states further, "Going there I soon found evidence proving that this was a prehistoric city or town site. Mounds that marked the foundation of buildings, broken pottery in abundance, broken arrow and spear point heads of flint, jasper, obsidian, and nephrite also entered into the make-up of these same broken objects. Several score or more of stone mills or metates of the Toltec or Aztec pattern were found, as well as the mano, or hand stone to each mill.

"These milling stones were exceedingly well made, very artistic, and quite symmetrical. They were dressed out of the hardest gneissic granite. Going carefully over the area of this old city, I estimated the site to have covered twenty acres more or less."

Nearby, an aged Indian couple were warming themselves from the late October chill. As Maguire approached them, the man stood and in the course of their broken conversation, raised his hand and pointed to several features of the ruins and cried out, "'KUBLIK! KUBLIK! KUBLIK!. This was the only word that he uttered that to the writer could have a possible meaning, so the word Kublik was taken as the name of the old spot, and so it is still locally called. (True, the word Kublik may signify anything else, and not the name of the ruins, but it was taken under the circumstances as the name of the spot.) These ruins stand as the most northerly place in Utah, Wyoming, or Nevada, where are found white lined pottery, symmetrical and well made, stone mills, and a hundred other proofs of its having been an important ancient town site. That was in October 1885, and since then no more northerly town site has been discovered (Millard County Chronicle, February 26,1931."

In his autobiography, As I Recall Theen, Charles Strevell wrote: "I was privileged to make the acquaintance of Don Maguire who afterwards called on me, saying, 'I understand you are a curio collector.' I stated that I had a small collection, but as yet it had not been unpacked. When we were living at the Reid Hotel the collection was placed in the lobby. When shown to Mr. Maguire and others it created much favorable comment.

"Mr. Maguire later told me that Dr. Talmage of the University of Utah had stated that in his opinion there were no burial mounds, or evidences of villages north of Salt Lake City. He added that he knew of some mounds near Willard - twelve miles north of Ogden, which he believed were burial mounds and asked if I would be interested in going with him and excavating the same. I gladly accepted and a few days later we were opening the mound.

"At a depth of seven and one-half feet we found the skull of a woman, a very large and well made metate with manos placed on top of the same, several pieces of pottery, bone awls, obsidian flakes and burned clay, probably used as "chinking" to fill space between the logs which stood upright and burned when the dwelling was destroyed by fire. This clay shows impressions of fingerprints, split and round logs and grass. A split log means that it was probably split with a stone axe.

"When I called the attention of Dr. Douglas to a statement by an eastern scientist, 'that the talk of cutting trees with a stone axe was all "bosh"/ we agreed that even a scientist might not know that when the tree is freshly cut and full of sap it may be cut or split with comparative ease, but when dry and hard, even a steel axe needs an extra strong man, and many times only powder will split it.

"Before leaving the field, I asked Mr. Maguire if there was any name for these mounds and, without hesitation, and, as I thought, drawing on his knowledge and imagination he replied, 'Oh, yes, The King's Mound at Kublic.'

"Our work at Kublic demonstrated to us that the statement made by Dr. Talmage was made without a thorough knowledge of the conditions in northern Utah (Strevell 7943)."

Of this visit to the Willard ruins, the OSE, May 24, 1892, headlined the following: "Mounds of ancient inhabitants discovered, north of Ogden near Willard. The crumbling remains of a once civilized and wonderful people are brought to light." The article continues "On May 11, Mr. Strevell, of the hardware firm of Miles, Strevell and Ulmer of this City, and Don Maguire made a journey to Willard to open the old ruins that exist by the lakeside near that place. The site of this forgotten city is a beautiful one, and few if any of the inhabitants of Willard until of late were aware that what to them seemed but so many knolls formed by nature were the ruins of a prehistoric city. Nor did they for a moment think that the long lines of earth running parallel with each other had been the wall that protected a city now in the dust.

"Fields of Lucerne cover the region around the mounds, dotting an area of high land about two square miles in extent. Two of the most prominent of these were chosen and men with plows and scrapers were set to work in opening the ancient structures. It was done in this wise: A space twelve feet wide was plowed across the highest part of the mound and the dirt thus loosened was removed with the scrapers. In this way the opening was rapidly made and as the black earth to a depth of seven feet was opened, from time to time broken pottery and other proof of human handiwork were brought to light. At a depth of almost seven feet the base of the first mound was reached and on its ancient floor was found a disjointed human skeleton. The shape of the skull was long and narrow, the jaws heavy and wide, the teeth were large and well preserved.

"In the skull what is known as the bump of veneration was very prominent, combativeness small, philoprogenitiveness very full. The frontal bones of the forehead projected very much. What was very strange, also, there had gathered on this skull spots of manganese, drawn doubtless, from the earth in which it lay.

"The skeleton lay upon a bed of charred wood and rushes; some of the bones were burned, but the skull was not. Near to the skeleton was placed a very handsome hand mill made from the hardest granite; also earthen pots, which were badly broken and a quantity of what resembled dried blood. There were also bone bodkins and awls, stone clubs, stone knives and quite a number of objects fashioned from stone, differing from anything found in mounds elsewhere. The pottery was quite well made and the various designs found among the broken fragments prove the inhabitants to have been a people of great skill.” The stone mills are made from a quality of granite which is very difficult to work with the best steel tools, yet this old race dressed these mills beautifully and the other objects show no small degree of advance in knowledge and civilization.

"These discoveries have brought to light near Ogden what are without doubt some of the very oldest human remains on the face of the earth. The writer believes them to be older than anything we find in Mexico or Central America, inasmuch as the stone mills and pottery are of the self-same designs and quality of those found in the great valleys of Mexico and Yucatan; and the certainty of these old races having passed from north to south prove that we have here what was once one of the peaceful cities built by one of the old races as they wandered from their ancient homes- on the plains of northern Asia. Moisture never reached the skeletons found at Willard, and yet so vast was the period of their sepulture that when they were exposed to the atmosphere they fell to pieces in exactly the same manner as do the bones of the mastodon when found in the dry gravel pits of Snake River.

"For three days the excavating party worked at Willard and brought back with them a collection which is very interesting as well as valuable to the antiquarian or student of American archaeology. It proves, also, that on the shores of Great Salt Lake there dwelt in prehistoric times a people peaceful and industrious, and that they must have been driven out by a numerous and more warlike horde of savages, who were probably the Attabascan, from whom descended the present Navajos, Apaches and Wallapis of Arizona.

"When time will allow more work will be done in the ruins of what is known by the native Indians Cublick. This name was first heard by the writer while conversing with a Piede Indian who, when asked if he knew anything about the builders of the mounds, pointed at them and said: "Cublick," "Cublick;" at the same time showing a spirit or expression that indicated that he looked upon the spot as a place accursed or marked for evil destiny. We learned from other Indians, that it is shunned by them as though some curse or awful crime rests upon the land around it. When asked about the people who built the mounds and made the stone implements, they either pointed to the South or say they do not know, but positively assert that the 'Ingens no make em.'

"Suiting the words to circumstance, the place where the mounds lie was named by us Cublick, and as such will doubtless be known to the future antiquarians. Thanks are hereby returned to the people of Willard, who showed every aid in their power to this work of exploration, and we trust that they will be ever found willing to assist in the work of investigation as upon the occasion of our visit"

Supposedly, these mounds lie in the fields which were flooded when Willard Bay Reservoir was constructed. In addition, according to a hand-drawn map of Willard in the Willard Centennial booklet, cliff dwellers lived in the area of Willard Canyon.

Details of Archeological Investigation of Central and Southern Utah Ruins

"Don Maguire, chief of the mining and archaeological departments of the Utah World's Fair exhibit, E. W. McDaniel and James H Crockwell, official photographer, will leave this morning on a trip through eastern Utah in search of specimens and views. They will visit the famed cliff dwellings near Price station and in San Juan county and secure accurate reproductions of the picture writing. Several mounds which have never been thoroughly explored will be opened and any curiosities which may be found will be carefully preserved and placed in the collection which is rapidly growing and assuming magnificent proportions (OSE, September 8,1892)."

"Don Maguire is at present out in Emery county seeking after archaeological treasures for the Utah exhibit at the World's Fair and has uncovered several mounds which contain many splendid specimens (OSE, September 24,1892)."

"Don Maguire will leave for the south this morning. He expects to make some rich finds in the vicinity of St. George where many mounds have been opened (OSE, January 3,1893)."

Of the investigation of the Paragonah mounds, Charles Strevell makes the following comments: "In 1892 as part of the material he (Don Maguire) was gathering for the World's Columbian Exposition, Maguire visited these ruins including those at Kanosh near Fort Cameron and Oak Creek with a group of laborers, horses, and a photographer. At the Paragonah mounds they worked seventeen days, excavating the fortress and eleven of the mounds. Within the fortress toward the southwest comer of the inner patio they found the piled remains of 58 skeletons. They were huddled together and buried under about five feet of broken walls and charred timbers. No unbroken pottery or arrowheads and spearheads were found, Maguire concluding that these items were carried away by the victors (Strevell 1943)."

The Salt Lake Tribune, October 29, 1893, provided a detailed listing of the archeological exhibits at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago from the able pen of Maguire. Concerning the Colorado exhibit Maguire vents: "Let me here make note that the Colorado collection of antiquities, taken from the cliff-dwellers, is made up chiefly of the discoveries made by Mr. Charles McLeod in San Juan County, Utah. The collection is one of the finest and most wonderful ever made in any country, and bears undoubted proof of great antiquity. This was bargained for by the chief of the Utah archaeological department, but the man McLeod, reaching Colorado, was weak-minded enough to break his contract and turn them over to Colorado parties, who, without a blush of shame, stuck them all up in the Colorado space, simply marking them "'The Remains of the Cliff-Dwellers.'

"These relics and discoveries consist of fifteen very well-preserved mummies of the ancient cliff-dwellers, and a great variety of their pottery, stone weapons and wooden implements, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage, tanned leather, bone and shell work, haircloth, hair cordage, and husk matting and carpets, corn, cotton seed, squash, pumpkin and gourd seed; in a word, it represents that ingenious and lost people as they were, and the mummies are as they lie there, about as interesting, repulsive and ill-odored a lot of human junk as ever startled a weak-nerved mortal of this world."

Having stated his mind about the Colorado display, Maguire then writes about the Utah exhibit: "I will next touch upon the Utah exhibit, which consists of four well-preserved mummies and two skeletons, four of which were taken from the ancient city of Paragonah in Iron County, and the rest from the regions of the cliff-dwellers of Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah."

"There is one of these, a man of fine stature, whose frame was taken from the cave tombs and castles o£ Butler's Wash, in San Juan County, Utah. This is the same one which was exhibited to a few persons in Salt Lake City in March 1893. It is the finest specimen of desiccated humanity ever discovered on the American continent, and with him were found the most interesting and valuable lot of relics yet brought forth from a cliff-dwellers tomb. They consist of pottery, corn, beans, cotton cloth, feather cloth, cordage of various kinds, wooden implements, pipes, arrow and lance heads. There was no blessing of a material nature possessed by him in life that his friends did not place a part of the same with him after death.

Mummies of the American class are usually found in a crouching posture, or often doubled up, but the King of the Blue Mountains, as we were pleased to call him, was laid out full length, wrapped in his robes, and encased in a wicker work covering, which are in turn surrounded with corn husks, and over this lay clay and gravel, as if he was lying in a peaceful and artistic position.

"At one side of his head there stood a large earthen pot filled with corn, and on the other side of his head there stood a small but beautiful jug which doubtless at one time contained some kind of liquor. No doubt he was a man of greatness amongst his people, and when his remains were secured it was resolved to place him on exhibition to Utah's credit at the World's Columbian Exposition. If he was a king in life he certainly has gained additional greatness in death, for in Chicago we had a magnificent glass burial case prepared for him, in which he was placed, together with his personal property, and as he lies there hundreds of thousands of people for the past six months have looked at him. The great and the mighty from the Ganges River in India to the inhabitants of Australia have looked upon him with wonder and surprise. Men have ceased to call him by any other name than the Emperor, for as he lies there in the quiet, unbroken sleep of centuries his attitude is truly imperial.

"The other mummies from Utah are small but interesting, and all of the lot exhibited from Utah are as one long chain whose varied objects were as so many links in the ancient history of the land, a history that began and ended centuries before Columbus put foot on American soil.

"I am please to learn that this splendid specimen has been secured by one of the institutions of Utah, and that when this great Exposition has ended that he will return to his ancient realm, and there as a monarch rest forever."