The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 8, 2007 Page: 4 of 28
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THURSDAYS MARCH 2QD7
NEWS PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECDRD
CANYON MUSEUM'S BURIED CITY EXHIBIT
HAS CENTURY-OLD ORIGINS IN CANADIAN
/
^ oT a, nj
CI'SS
Acad em
Artist's rendering af pre-histaric
site similar ta Buried City
One hundred years ago this week,, a team of tea Canadian
Academy students departed On a scientific expedition to a
group of prehistoric stone ruins discovered along Wolf < 'rook
in Ochiltree, ('ounty.
They were accompanied
by two adults—County
Surveyor Hollis Spiller
and Natural History
Professor T, L. Eyerly.
This expedition—
which set forth from
Canadian on Thursday,
March 7th, 1907—was
the first formal archeo-
logical investigation Re-
ported in the State of
Texas. It is celebrated in
a special exhibit—Pre-
historic Urban. Centers
of the Panhandle-pre-
pared by yet another of
Canadian's native sons, Rolla Shaller, on display through July 8
at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon.
Shaller, who is the museum's AssistantCurator of Arche-
ology, may have been attracted to the story of the Canadian
Academy expedition team because two of its members woro
relatives—Floyd Studer, af whose insistence the exploration
was mounted, and his brother and long-time Canadian resi-
dent, Carl Studer.
The expedition to the "Buried City," as it was called, was
mounted for several purposes:
•To collect relics and specimens for the school museum;
•To give geology students an opportunity for original study
and observation and to collect data for an article on Hemphill
County geology;
•To give the surveying class actual experience in practi-
cal field work, both in the technique of instrumental work and
in plotting and calculating land areas from data taken in the
field;
•To make a careful study of the remains of the Buried City
in order to determine, if possible, its origin and antiquity and to
secure the measurements and material form map and descrip-
tion of the place.
The ruins until then had aroused the interest and curiosity
of all who visited them but had been only superficially exam-
ined. Anglo settlers had known of the archeological sites along
W'oll'Creek since the 1880s, when the first land surveyors re-
marked on the stone-walled ruins while laying out land bound-
aries.
Among those in the 1907 expedition party in addition to
the Studer brothers were Charles McDonald, Thomas Hoover,
Charlie Hamilton, Fred Tepe, Phillip Frank, Sam Carr, Ever-
itt Shahan and Karl Payne, Conveyed by horse-drawn buggy
and a: wagon loaded with bedding and chuck box, the group set
off with tents, camp equipment, surveying instruments, a cam-
era and, according to Kverly's report, "everything necessary
to render the trip a pleasant one."
The trip to the site took two days. The group, camped out
the first night north of the Canadian River on Horse, ('rock,
and stopped around noon the next day at Gibson Creek, a tribu-
tary to Wolf Creek, at a point about 25 miles northwest of:Ca-
nadian.
According to Eyerly, "The deep canyons and the rugged es-
carpment line of the "breaks' were not out of sight during the
remainder of the distance ."'They slept Friday night in James
Fryer's pasture opposite the Buried City,
According to areportby one expedition member, published
in the March 14, 1907 edition of The Canadian Record, "Kach
halt found a weary but jolly crowd of bays busily employed
pitching the tent and preparing for the dangerous ordeal of
eating the meal which the cook had prepared,"
CONTINUED DN NEXT PAGE
THE CANADIAN ACADEMY
THE CANADIAN ACADEMY, established in 1904, en-
compassed Kindergarten through collegiate level work,
with instruction in literature, music, elocution, science
and physical culture,;
In October 1906, a volunteer observation station of the
DSDA's weather bureau was established there, and daily
observations of temperature, rainfall and other weather
conditions were recorded. That data, was published each:
Week in The Canadian Record and sent to the Texas sec-
tion office at Galveston. The records are still on file at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(\'( >,\.\) office in Asheville. N(J^
In February 1907, the Academy received a collection
of268 specimens of non-metallic minerals, ores and fossil
invertebrates from the Smithsonian Institute. During the
Same year, the Science Department acquired 25 volumes
of cloth-bound and 50 volumes of paper-bound scientific re-
ports. Relies and Indian curiosities became the nucleus of
the Academy's museum, to which individuals were invited
to donate their own scientific relies. "Such material3s: in-
dispensable for the successful teaching of the sciences,"ac-
cording to a import in the February 7,1907 edition of The
Canadian Record, "for to train and develop the observa-
tional | towers of the student is to a large extent the proper
sphere of these studies in secondary institutions of learn-
ing."
The Canadian River Valley Served as an excellent source
forseientifie field studies. There were many remains ofpast
Indian culture, as well as remains of much more ancient hu-
man and animal life. During numerous field trips, students
and professors gathered large numbers of fossils and relics
to be added to the museum collection.
The Academy's enrollment never exceeded 150 stu-
dents. The years following 1911 saw declining enrollment
and financial chaos, despite an effort by local businessmen
to raise money, work on the buildings and donate cash.
The Academy closed its doors following the Spring
term of 1913 with every inten-
tion of opening the following
fall. However, The Record
abruptly announced on Sep-
tember 18, 1913, "The Canadian
Academy—will discontinue its work next Friday."
No reason or explanation was given in the newspaper.
But this repor t from the January 30,1908 edition of The
Record provides some measure of the fertile field of educa-
tion explored both within and outside the. Academy's walls,
and the remarkable loss its Suddenly closed doors repre-
sented:
"The Science department of the Canadian Academy
took the first trip of the year last Saturday. The Geology
class chaperoned by Misses Frank and Herrington start-
ed early for the breaks west of the Red Deer, in afour-horse
wagon fully equipped with the necessary tools for excava-
tion and with well-filled baskets prepared by the young la-
dies of the class.
"The objective point was a mastodon field recently dis-
covered by Mr. John Young, a member of the class. A num-
ber of fossil bone and-ivory specimens from this interest-
ing and extinct animal were secured to add to the Acade-
my Museum. In addition to this first field work of the class
in sketching formations was accomplished.
"No mishap worthy of mention to mar the plea-
sure or interest of the day occurred and the party re-
turned home safely at a late hour, all feeling that the
result of the day was new ideas and strengthened, ob-
servational powers, and a revelation of the fact that
not all school knowledge can be obtained from books."
PHDTD AT TDP: Canadian Academy Botany Class
INSET: The Student, a 32-page magazine issued
by the Canadian Academy
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 117, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 8, 2007, newspaper, March 8, 2007; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220773/m1/4/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.