Chapter I

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

A PICTORIAL GUIDE
PHOTOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY—ANSEL F. HALL
MAPS—SKETCHES BY DELLA TAYLOR HOSS & MERRIE HALL WINKLER

DESIGNED AND COPYRIGHTED BY ANSEL F. HALL
PUBLISHED BY MESA VERDE CO., MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLORADO
A MIRRO-KROME ® PRODUCT LITHOGRAPHED BY H. S. CROCKER CO., INC., SAN
FRANCISCO, CALIF.

ENTERING THE PARK: Entering Mesa Verde is a breathtaking experience.
Spectacular views confront the visitor as the road ascends for 5
miles to a high valley. This valley is an important activity
center—the MORFIELD CAMPGROUND-VILLAGE complex. Just off the
entrance road are 500 individual and group campsites, a 1500 seat
amphitheatre, horseback riding and a shopping center. Approximately
10 miles past Morfield the road reaches another important point of
activity. The National Park Service has located there the NAVAJO
HILL VISITOR CENTER. On the gentle summit above the visitor center
is the FAR VIEW MOTOR LODGE. On the road one mile south is Far View
Ruin, a large surface pueblo important to the interpretation of Mesa
Verde. The final four miles of the road descend gently through the
forest to SPRUCE TREE, the Park Headquarters Area. The principal
interpretative activity is here overlooking Spruce Tree Ruin, the
third largest and, perhaps, the best preserved of the classical
pueblo cliff dwellings.]

PLAN YOUR SIGHTSEEING

In the Museum, at Park Headquarters, ranger-archaeologists are on duty to provide maps and guide leaflets, and to advise how to make the best use of your available time. You could spend a week in Mesa Verde’s spectacular environment, seeing something new every day and absorbing the fascinating story of 2,000 years of pre-history of the Stone Age people who built these cliff cities. But if your time is budgeted to only one day or less, the Museum Staff will help you plan your sightseeing so as to see the more important ruins as a prelude to your next—and longer—visit.

THE RUINS ROAD DRIVES

The main sightseeing drives are normally open from 7:00 a. m. to sundown. There are two 6-mile loops starting from the Spruce Tree Museum Area. Use your own car or join the tour-guided sightseeing bus trips. When following the Ruins Road Drives, park your car and walk to overlooks, viewpoints, and down trails to the major ruins where ranger-archaeologists are stationed to explain all details.

ANCIENT HOUSES—SQUARE TOWER—SUN TEMPLE CIRCUIT

Principal features of this very informative trip are: five groups of mesa-top excavations showing the development sequence of prehistoric dwellings; a spectacular close-up rim view of Square Tower, the tallest cliff dwelling structure; rim views of many ruins; and opportunity to climb to the top of Sun Temple. Three to four hours should be allowed to absorb fully the facts interpreted by means of viewfinders, labels, models and maps at various stopping points.

To enter this loop road you will bear right at the first junction beyond the Spruce Tree Museum Park lot. Stops at the sign, “Pit Houses,” and at four additional surface-ruin sites in the next two miles, enable you to look into homes of the pueblo farmers dating from 600 to approximately 1200 A.D. These exhibits warrant more than superficial study.

You must not miss looking down on Square Tower Ruin. To reach the viewpoint from which the photograph on page 7 was taken, leave your car at designated parking space and follow a 200-yard mesa-top trail.

Allow ample time at Sun Point to enjoy the wide panorama and a view of the greatest concentration of big ruins. From this point be sure to note Mummy House clinging to the cliff below Sun Temple, across Fewkes Canyon.

Just west of Sun Point the road parallels the south rim of Fewkes Canyon, named for the famous archaeologist of the Smithsonian Institution who directed the excavation and stabilization of these big ruins between the years 1908 and 1922. Stop at nearby rim viewpoints to look down on Oak Tree House, New Fire House Ruin, and Fire Temple.

Climax of your trip will be the stop at Sun Temple where you may climb to the top of the walls of this great structure that was left uncompleted, at the time of the great drought of 1276-1298.

CLIFF PALACE-BALCONY HOUSE CIRCUIT

Outstanding features of this 6-mile loop are: the opportunity to be guided through Cliff Palace and Balcony House ruins by well-informed ranger-archaeologists; and stops at many overlooks, from which smaller and inaccessible cliff dwellings are pointed out by viewfinders. Before starting, go to the Museum for a time schedule of guided tours. The turn-off to the Cliff Palace loop is the second junction after turning east at the Spruce Tree Crossroads. Rim viewpoints are all marked by rustic signs and provided with viewfinders and other informational material. Allow three to four hours for this spectacular sightseeing trip.

CLIFF PALACE

This majestic ruin, the greatest of all cliff dwellings, is not only an architectural masterpiece, but also a remarkable historical record. Preserved within its walls is a fascinating story of a primitive people who learned to work, and build, and live together in harmony and mutual interdependence while our own European ancestors were struggling under the harsh yoke of feudalism. It is this inspiring story that should be carried away as your principal memory of Mesa Verde, rather than an impression of crumbling walls.

To carry you back through the ages, the National Park Service stations knowledgeable archaeologists here to tell you how the ancient people lived, to point out many significant details of their environment, and to lead you as intimately as possible into the life of this Stone Age community.

The telephoto view of Cliff Palace on the two following pages endeavors to picture the sweep and grandeur of this largest known cliff dwelling.

CLIFF PALACE

THE TRAIL TO CLIFF PALACE

The trail trip through Cliff Palace ruin requires approximately three-quarters of an hour. Leave your car at the designated parking space. Walk first to the railed rock promontory about 100 feet from the road, from which point a splendid panorama view is obtained; then make the 5-minute descent down the foot trail to the Ruin where you will be met by the ranger-archaeologist.

THE TRAIL TO BALCONY HOUSE

Of all Mesa Verde’s cliff dwellings, Balcony House Ruin is the most dramatically situated and offers the most exciting personal exploration experience. National Park Service archaeologist-guides meet visitors at the designated parking space to lead the 1¼-to-1½-hour trip over a half-mile ledge trail, up the famous approach ladder, and through the ruin. Time schedule of trips may be obtained at the Museum.

YOUR TRIP TO THE TOP OF THE “GREEN MESA”

No trip to Mesa Verde National Park is complete without a visit to Park Point Lookout, 8,572-foot summit on the north rim. You must not miss the thrilling and inspiring full-circle panorama of mountains, mesas, and wide reaches of desert.

In many ways, the section of the panorama pictured in the above sketch is most significant: it looks southward and westward into the vast distances of the Navajo and Ute Indian Reservation—the “Four-Corners Country,” where sixty thousand Navajos herd their sheep and live their primitive nomadic life.

The fire guard will point out to you the volcanic spire of Shiprock, 50 miles distant as the buzzard flies. He may also call your attention to the notch just north of the huge bulk of The Sleeping Ute, where the McElmo Canyon Road leads to Hovenweep Ruins—and beyond, to the vast colorful Monument Valley. You will certainly want him to identify the spectacular 14,000-foot peaks of the northern and eastern skyline.

Overshadowed or concealed in all this vastness are many features that determined the very lives of the people who once lived here—factors that literally created their hospitable environment. Earth movements in long-past geologic ages had raised the Mesa’s rocks from beneath the seas; other more violent displacements had thrust up the high peaks of the San Juans and the La Platas to the northeast and, in so doing, elevated and tilted our Mesa. The resulting elevation—8,500 feet at the north, sloping down to 7,000 feet at the south—encouraged the slight margin of rainfall that invited trees and all manner of plants and animals to form a natural community that welcomed the first hunters and Stone Age settlers when they arrived.

There is deep meaning in the lovely unbroken green mesa-top forest you see spread out before you. Stop for a moment and picture how nature has reclaimed the fields of corn and beans and squash that lay hidden between piñon groves a thousand years ago—and how the stream of human life is not lost, but persists through the ages: in this case, in the pueblo dwellers who live today beyond the mesas and distant mountains of the southern horizon.

“May the public interest in America’s remaining wilderness areas
continue to grow in the years ahead, and may the National Parks
forever be able to provide an outlet for those who would adventure in
the wilds far beyond a road’s end.”

CONRAD L. WIRTH, _Director, National Park Service_
Reprinted from “THE NATIONAL PARK WILDERNESS.”

ACTIVITIES IN THE PARK HEADQUARTERS AREA

In this area you will see your first Cliff Dwelling.

You will walk; everything is conveniently near.

You will visit the Museum—probably several times—to plan trips and to better understand what you see here.

You may hike on the Mesa Top, ledge and canyon trails—but be sure to get maps and a permit at the Museum.

You will enjoy the variety of several evening campfires at the canyon rim amphitheatre.

You may worship at the inter-denominational services Sundays.

You will find food and refreshment at the SPRUCE TREE TERRACE.

You may want to relax in the sightseeing bus with the guide driving while you look at the Ruins.

ACTIVITIES AT NAVAJO HILL

An important area is Navajo Hill, 15 miles from the Park Entrance (refer to perspective map on page 4). The Park Visitor Center is located here. This is the junction of the Wetherill and Chapin Roads.

You will find food and refreshment in the Lodge.

You may want to relax in the sightseeing bus with the guide driving while you look at the Ruins.

You may hike to Far View Ruin ¾ mile south.

You will watch a breathtaking sunset over 4 states.

★ ★ ★

GLIMPSES OF THE MESA VERDE STORY

The Mesa Verde story has all the elements of the most thrilling “Western:”

Scene 1. Father Escalante and his cavalcade of Spanish explorers camped at the northeast edge of the Mesa on August 11, 1776—without even suspecting that its deep canyons hid ancient stone cities.

Scene 2. Antonio Armijo, with his caballeros at nearby Mancos Creek, on November 19, 1824, searching for a route from Santa Fe to California.

Scene 3. Secret inroads of the Mountain Men—beaver trappers who may have poached in this remote section of the southern Rockies in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

Scene 4. The hectic rush of the gold and silver prospectors of the 50’s and 60’s into the nearby La Plata Diggings.

Scene 5. Arrival of the pioneer photographer, William Henry Jackson, at the mines; his search for vaguely reported ruins—and his discovery and first photograph of a Mesa Verde cliff dwelling, Two Story House, on September 9, 1874.

Scene 6. The government survey party led by H. H. Holmes, surveying the new West, the next year, and finding a large cliff dwelling which he called Sixteen-Window House.

Scene 7. Pioneer ranchers settling in the Mancos Valley in the 1870’s and 1880’s, especially the Wetherills who made friends with the Utes, and were permitted to run their cattle on the forbidden Mesa Verde.

Scene 8. In 1885, the coming of the first, and possibly the most willful, young lady tourist, Virginia Donahoe, who was given protection by the officers of the Indian fighting cavalry and advised to “go home”; but, instead, stayed at the Wetherill ranch and went hunting arrowheads and prehistoric pottery with the five Wetherill boys—and returned the next summer to equip her own expedition that penetrated Cliff Canyon and “discovered Balcony House Ruin on October 6, 1886.”

Scene 9. The friendly old Ute chief, Acowitz, enjoying the Wetherills’ hospitality and telling them of “Big Cities” in Mesa Verde’s canyons.

Scene 10. Richard Wetherill and his cousin, Charley Mason, searching for lost cattle on the Mesa—and their dramatic “discovery” of Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree Ruins on December 18, 1888—and Square Tower Ruin the following day.

Scene 11. The local cowboys “treasure hunting” in cliff dwellings during the next few years—permissible digging for relics which were beautiful curiosities and sometimes saleable.

Scene 12. Systematic field investigations by Dr. F. H. Chapin, W. R. Birdsall and Baron Gustaf Nordenskiold, whose scientific reports of 1890-93 resulted in the dawning recognition of the scientific importance of these ruins and buried artifacts.

Scene 13. The women of Colorado rallying to the standard of their Cliff Dwellings Association, through the 1890’s and early 1900’s, for the establishment of a national park.

Scene 14. Many congressional postponements and final action establishing Mesa Verde National Park on June 29, 1906.

Scene 15. Subsequent palaver and a treaty with the Utes to rectify the boundaries and to get the big ruins into the Park—and controversy with these recalcitrant neighbors that persists to this day.

Scene 16. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution and a digging crew repairing Spruce Tree Ruin and stabilizing its walls in 1908, and Cliff Palace during the following year, and most of the other big ruins during the next thirteen years—stabilization and research that continues today under the National Park Service, assisted by the National Geographic Society.

Scene 17. George Mills surveying the “carriage road” to the Mesa top which was painfully pioneered from 1907 to 1914.

Scene 18. Announcement: “On May 23, 1921, Mr. Jesse Nusbaum of Colorado, a young archaeologist of great experience and reputation for successful work in the Southwest, was appointed” as Superintendent of Mesa Verde National Park.

★ ★ ★

The new Superintendent’s wide and practical experience enabled him to lead the way in coordinating and directing many important activities: overall plans for the general functional layout; architectural plans; road construction; establishment of public campgrounds; development of water supply and other facilities needed by the vastly increased number of visitors who were beginning to discover this fascinating, unique, and hitherto almost unknown National Park.

Outstanding among the permanent achievements of this constructive decade were the development of the Ranger Guide Service made up for the most part of trained young archaeologists, under the direction of a permanent naturalist-archaeologist; the building and equipment of a museum from funds contributed by public subscription; the establishment of evening campfire lectures, and demonstrations by the Navajos of their tribal chants and dances—activities that today form the pattern of the inspiring interpretive program conducted here by the National Park Service.

THE MUSEUM

An ancient medicine man’s pouch with its magic treasures—mummy of a Basketmaker maiden who lived 1,500 years ago—the primitive hunter’s atlatl—might pique your curiosity and lure you to visit the Mesa Verde Museum. Soon you would discover, however, that this is not just a storehouse for dry-as-dust dead things, but rather a living center of knowledge and its interpretation—the key to your understanding and enjoyment of the real museum which is the Park itself.

Collaborating with the staff of the Mesa Verde Museum, the artist has shown typical activities at 3:00 P.M. on a sunny autumn afternoon in 1270 A.D.

In the left foreground an unmarried girl with butterfly hair-do is husking corn of several colors and gossiping with a married lady who has the matron’s two rolls of hair behind her ears. Three women in the painting wear the pueblo dress, while the others have string aprons; both would have been used in the summer. Nearby is a ladle and a corrugated pot—on the wall top a Classic Mesa Verde mug and a decorated jar.

Between the girl and the wife fixing her husband’s hair lies a snare. Close to the couple are a bowl, a squash, a stone axe, and a peculiar submarine-shaped jar.

Above the couple a dog barks at a youngster who has broken a big jar. Two women are making pottery; behind them two women replaster the lower room of a two-story house, on top of which a man is pointing out to some children that the town crier is making an announcement, and they should keep quiet. Two priests, one with ceremonial kilt and evergreens, climb a one-pole ladder.

Beneath the crier a woman closes the doorway of her house with a stone slab, and below her on the near roof an old lady keeps warm with a rabbit-skin blanket, while her daughter grinds corn. In front of the house a woman, whose baby snoozes in a wooden cradle, bakes blue corn meal “pancakes” on a hot stone slab. The kiva door is closed with a mat, turkeys wander about, and the woman in the right-hand corner, sitting on the beautiful brown textile (to be seen in the Park Museum), strings turquoise beads.

To the right, two bow-and-arrow-makers ridicule a returning unsuccessful hunter, women bring water in jars from the spring, and turkeys pick over the trash pile.

Visible in the painting are a round and a square tower, ten of 23 exceptionally small kivas which occur in the ruin, and rectangular and T-doors. Beyond the square tower with its balcony, people are finishing a third-story room.

Cliff Palace had 200 living rooms and sheltered perhaps 400 persons.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.