The skeleton found on Ridge Road was the subject of two local newspaper reports. The first, entitled "Skeleton Found in Garden of the Gods," was printed in the 2 November 1925 issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette:
"An Indian tragedy of 100 years ago or more was revealed shortly after 8 o'clock last night when the skeleton of an Arapahoe Indian was dug up in a fissure in the Garden of the Gods, about 200 yards west of the Ridge road, near the Gateway rocks. An Indian arrow found between the third and fourth left ribs, provided the key to the story of the redskin's death. Near the left hand of the Indian was a bone bow, and in the grave many worn and decomposed arrows."The Indian was found by Chief of Police Harper, Inspector I.B. Bruce, Dectectives Robert Wraith and Robert Martin, Howard Swan, Coroner, and a Gazette reporter. The officers left Colorado Springs about 6 o'clock last night to inspect the skeleton, which was first discovered at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon by H.J.N. Hemy of San Francisco, Calif., who was making his first visit to the Garden of the Gods. Hemy left the main road to take a photograph of an odd boulder. He noticed a skull in a fissure after he had walked about 200 yards. Three-fourths of the surface of the skull were exposed and the joints were visible.
"Hemy started to dig with his hands, and the head dropped to the ground. The vertebrae of the neck was visible, but, as a shovel was needed to dig up the skeleton, he left the burial place of the Indian.
"About 6 o'clock Hemy arrived at the Gazette and Telegraph office and told his story. The police were then informed of the discovery....
"Coroner Swan, after examining the skull and other parts of the skeleton, declared the Indian had been killed at least 100 years ago. The Indian, whose eternal slumber was disturbed by the police last night, probably was killed in a war between the Ute and Arapahoe tribes. Authorities on Indian lore offered the solution that the redskin probably was high in the ranks of the Arapahoe tribe, as he was an exceptionally large Indian and had been buried, apparently with honors. Only the chiefs and their officers were buried, the authorities pointed out. The type of the arrows found also indicate that the Arapahoe was of considerable importance during his day....
"Only a part of the skeleton was removed from the grave last night. The upper jaw bone, three vertebrae, the left collar bone,the left shoulder and the lower jaw, which was in two pieces, and the teeth, which were all intact, were taken by Coroner Howard Swan...The two front teeth were exceptionally long and resembled tusks. Each was about an inch in length.... "The remainder of the skeleton will be dug up today and given to a museum. Indian skeletons are very rare. Hundreds of years ago the Garden of the Gods was not only a battleground of Indians, but an assembly field when the peace pipe was smoked by chiefs of warring tribes. It was in the Garden of the Gods, after an armistice had been delared that the dead heroes of the battle were buried...."
The discovery of this skeleton in 1925 immedately led to a rash of imaginative speculations - The skeleton might be pre-Adamite since it possessed an extra rib. The gravsite might indicate the presence of an old, lost city under the Garden of the Gods. The author of these speculaions seems to have been a certain Professor Keyte of Colorado College, who was interviewed for an article published in the Colorado Springs Gazette on 3 November 1925:
"Does the Garden of the Gods antedate the Garden of Eden?"This question may becme one of country-wide interest as a result of the discovery Sunday in the Garden of the Gods of what is beleived to be the skeleton of either an Indian or a cliff dweller....
"I. Allen Keyte, Professor of geology at Colorado college, following an examination of the grave yesterday, suggested that the place be guarded so that none but the hands of scientists may uncover the remainder of the skeleton...J. Allard Jeancon, who had done much work in the Mesa Verde country, and who is one of the best informed experts in the west, will be asked to look at it.
"The park commission has guaranteed the expenses of Professor Jeancon's trip here for the investigation, which is expected to reveal what age in the world's history the man may have belonged.
"Professor Keyte spent considerable time in the vicinity of the grave yesterday in an effort to find pottery, relics and other discoveries which indicate whether or not there is near the grave and under the Garden of the Gods an old and lost city, which, if found, would be a find as momentous as the discovery of the lost island of Atlantis. Nothing was found, however, which would indicate that a buried city exists in the Garden of the Gods.
"The skeleton is believed to be that of either an Indian or cliff dweller. At firts it was supposed to be the remains of an Indian. Professor Keyte, after examination of the skulls of cliff dwellers in the Colorado college museum, said the skeleton might be that of a cliff dweller, altho they usually were not so large and so long....
"The man apparently was pre-Adamite as he had one rib more than the man of today. This fact, however, has not been definitely establishd as some ribs were broken yesterday morning by two persons, who were excavating the skeleton before police arrived at the grave and saved the valuable bones.
"Interested persons declare that the discovery may lead to a widespread interest such as that engendered by the discovery of the Piltdown man, which for a time caimed the attention of anthropologists and evolutionists the world over. "All solutions advanced thus far, however, are merely suppositions, and the actual facts cannot be ascertained until the arrival of Professor Jeancon, who has done much work of this nature in the Mesa Verde country."