spring. Inscriptions are also found near the spring and on the outer
side of the mesa facing the Zuni Road.

For those acquainted with the story of Spanish exploration this national
monument will have unique interest. To all it imparts a fascinating
sense of the romance of those early days with which the large body of
Americans have yet to become familiar. The popular story of this
romantic period of American history, its poetry and its fiction remain
to be written.

The oldest inscription is dated February 18, 1526. The name of Juan de
Onate, later founder of Santa Fe, is there under date of 1606, the year
of his visit to the mouth of the Colorado River. One of the latest
Spanish inscriptions is that of Don Diego de Vargas, who in 1692
reconquered the Indians who rebelled against Spanish authority in 1680.

The reservation also includes several important community houses of
great antiquity, one of which perches safely upon the very top of El
Morro rock.

CASA GRANDE NATIONAL MONUMENT

In the far south of Arizona not many miles north of the boundary of
Sonora, there stands, near the Gila River, the noble ruin which the
Spaniards call Casa Grande, or Great House. It was a building of large
size situated in a compound of outlying buildings enclosed in a
rectangular wall; no less than three other similar compounds and four
detached clan houses once stood in the near neighborhood. Evidently, in
prehistoric days, this was an important centre of population; remains of
an irrigation system are still visible.

[Illustration: CASA GRANDE NATIONAL MONUMENT]

[Illustration: PREHISTORIC CAVE HOMES IN THE BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT

The holes worn by erosion have been enlarged for doors and windows]

The builders of these prosperous communal dwellings were probably Pima
Indians. The Indians living in the neighborhood to-day have traditions
indicated by their own names for the Casa Grande, the Old House of the
Chief and the Old House of Chief Morning Green. "The Pima word for green
and blue is the same," Doctor Fewkes writes me. "Russell translates the
old chief's name Morning Blue, which is the same as my Morning Green. I
have no doubt Morning Glow is also correct, no doubt nearer the Indian
idea which refers to sun-god. This chief was the son of the Sun by a
maid, as was also Tcuhu-Montezuma, a sun-god who, legends say, built
Casa Grande."

Whatever its origin, the community was already in ruins when the
Spaniards