”Mr. Eugene L. Ware, one of the civil engineers in the employ of the Union Pacific company, and a zealous antiquarian, to whom I am much indebted for help in the preparation of this essay, while professionally engaged in the construction of the railroad now running up the Loup, was struck with the immense number of these potsherds which strewed the ground for miles. Many of the largest he secured; and a collection of them, made by him, is, or should be, now in the museum of the state university. The ornamentation of these pieces consists of lines and figures rudely indented in the clay, while plastic, by a stick or finger. In this respect they differ from the work of the modern Pueblo Indians, who usually, after baking or drying, draw with a brush their uncouth devices upon the surface. But they correspond, in a remarkable degree, with some of the more ancient specimens still to be found about the ruined cities of Cibola, which Coronado visited. A little fragment from the edge of a plate or bowl, shown me by Mr. Ware, so closely resembles a piece of similar size picked up near the deserted village of Pecos, that it is difficult to distinguish them.”

Reference Data:

Publications, Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 2, by Nebraska State Historical Society, 1887, pages 127-8