Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved.
Typographical and punctuation errors have been silently corrected.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 70

PREHISTORIC VILLAGES, CASTLES, AND
TOWERS OF SOUTHWESTERN
COLORADO

BY
J. WALTER FEWKES

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1919

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY,
_Washington, D. C., January 23, 1919_.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit the accompanying manuscript,
entitled “Prehistoric Villages, Castles, and Towers of
Southwestern Colorado,” by J. Walter Fewkes, and to recommend its
publication, subject to your approval, as Bulletin 70 of this Bureau.

Very respectfully,
J. WALTER FEWKES,
_Chief_.

DR. CHARLES D. WALCOTT,
_Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution_.

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction 9
Historical 10
Classification 14
Villages 16
Rectangular ruins of the pure type 16
Surouaro 16
Goodman Point Ruin 17
Johnson Ruin 18
Bug Mesa Ruin 19
Mitchell Spring Ruin 19
Mud Spring (Burkhardt) Ruin 20
Ruin with semicircular core 22
Wolley Ranch Ruin 22
Blanchard Ruin 23
Ruins at Aztec Spring 23
Great open-air ruins south and southwest
of Dove Creek post office 28
Squaw Point Ruin 28
Acmen Ruin 29
Oak Spring House 29
Ruin in Ruin Canyon 30
Cannonball Ruin 30
Circular ruins with peripheral compartments 31
Wood Canyon Ruins 32
Butte Ruin 32
Emerson Ruin 33
Escalante Ruin 36
Cliff-dwellings 37
Cliff-dwellings in Sand Canyon 38
Double cliff-house 38
Scaffold in Sand Canyon 38
Unit type houses in caves 39
Cliff-houses in Lost Canyon 40
Great houses and towers 40
Masonry 40
Structure of towers 42
Hovenweep district 44
Ruin Canyon 44
Square Tower Canyon 45
Classification of ruins in
Square Tower Canyon 46
Hovenweep House (Ruin 1) 46
Hovenweep Castle 47
Western section of Hovenweep Castle 47
Eastern section of Hovenweep Castle 48
Ruin 3 48
Ruin 4 49
Ruin 5 49
Ruin 6 49
Eroded bowlder house (Ruin 7) 49
Twin Towers (Ruin 8) 50
Ruin 9 50
Unit type House (Ruin 10) 50
Stronghold House (Ruin 11) 51
Ruins in Holly Canyon 52
Ruin A, Great House, Hackberry Castle 52
Towers [C and D] 52
Holly House 53
Ruins in Hackberry Canyon 53
Horseshoe House 53
Towers in the Main Yellow Jacket Canyon 54
Davis Tower 55
Lion (Littrell) Tower 55
McLean Basin 55
Tower in Sand Canyon 57
Towers in Road (Wickyup) Canyon 57
Towers of the Mancos 58
Holmes Tower 58
Towers on the Mancos River below the bridge 59
Tower A 59
Tower B 59
Megalithic and slab house ruins at McElmo Bluff 60
Grass Mesa Cemetery 64
Reservoirs 64
Pictographs 65
Minor antiquities 66
Historic remains 68
Conclusions 68
Index 77

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES
1. _a_, Butte Ruin.
_b_, Aztec Spring Ruin.
_c_, Surouaro, Yellow Jacket Spring Ruin.
2. _a_, Blanchard Ruin.
_b_, Blanchard Ruin, Mound 2.
_c_, Surouaro, Yellow Jacket Spring Ruin.
3. _a_, Acmen Ruin.
_b_, Mud Spring Ruin.
4. _a_, Building on rock pinnacle, near Stone Arch, Sand Canyon.
_b_, Stone Arch, Sand Canyon.
5. _a_, Tower in Sand Canyon.
_b_, Unit type House in Sand Canyon.
6. _a_, Stone Arch House, Sand Canyon.
_b_, Cliff-house, showing broken corner.
7. _a_, Scaffold in Sand Canyon.
_b_, Storage cist in Mancos Valley.
_c_, Pictographs near Unit type House in cave.
8. Double cliff-dwelling, Sand Canyon.
9. _a_, Cliff-dwelling under Horseshoe Ruin.
_b_, Cliff-dwelling, Ruin Canyon.
10. _a_, Kiva of cliff ruin, Lost Canyon.
_b_, Cliff ruin, Lost Canyon.
11. _a_, Square Tower in Square Tower Canyon.
_b_, Tower in McLean Basin.
_c_, Ruin in Hill Canyon, Utah.
12. Head of South Fork, Square Tower Canyon.
13. North Fork of Square Tower Canyon, looking west.
14. _a_, Hovenweep House and Hovenweep Castle, from the south.
_b_, Hovenweep Castle, from the west.
_c_, Hovenweep Castle, from the south.
15. _a_, West end of Twin Tower, showing small cliff-house.
_b_, Twin Towers, Square Tower Canyon, from the south.
_c_, Tower 4, junction of North and South Forks,
Square Tower Canyon.
16. _a_, Hovenweep Castle, with Sleeping Ute Mountain, South Fork,
Square Tower Canyon.
_b_, Entrance to South Fork, Square Tower Canyon.
17. Stronghold House, Square Tower Canyon.
18. _a_, Head of Holly Canyon.
_b_, South side of Hovenweep Castle, Square Tower Canyon.
19. _a_, Holly Canyon group, from the east.
_b_, Great House at head of Holly Canyon, from the north.
_c_, Unit type Ruin, from the east.
20. _a_, Great House at head of Holly Canyon, from the south.
_b_, Ruin B at head of Holly Canyon, from the west.
_c_, Great House at head of Holly Canyon.
21. _a_, Great House, Holly Canyon.
_b_, Stronghold House and Twin Towers, Square Tower Canyon.
22. _a_, Hovenweep Castle.
_b_, Southern part of Cannonball Ruin, McElmo Canyon.
23. _a_, Square tower with rounded corners, Holly Canyon.
_b_, Holly Tower in Holly Canyon.
_c_, Horseshoe House.
24. _a_, Horseshoe Ruin.
_b_, Bowlder Castle, Road (Wickyup) Canyon.
25. _a_, Closed doorway in Bowlder Castle, Road (Wickyup) Canyon.
_b_, Broken-down round tower, Square Tower Canyon.
26. _a_, North side of tower, Square Tower Canyon.
_b_, D-shaped tower near Davis ranch, Yellow Jacket Canyon.
_c_, Model of towers in McLean Basin.
27. Round tower and D-shaped tower in McLean Basin.
28. _a_, D-shaped tower in McLean Basin,
showing cross section of wall.
_b_, Round tower in McLean Basin, showing standing stone slab.
29. _a_, Holmes Tower, Mancos Canyon.
_b_, Lion Tower, Yellow Jacket Canyon.
30. _a_, Tower above cavate storehouses, Mancos Canyon,
below bridge.
_b_, Tower on mesa between eroded cliffs and bridge over Mancos
Canyon, on Cortez Ship-rock Road.
31. _a_, Tower above cavate storehouses, Mancos Canyon,
below bridge.
_b_, Eroded shale formation in which are small walled cavate
storehouses.
32. _a_, Reservoir near Picket corral, showing retaining wall.
_b_, Kiva, Unit type House, Square Tower Canyon.
33. Pictographs, Yellow Jacket Canyon.

TEXT FIGURES
Page
1. Ground plan of Aztec Spring Ruin 26
2. Ground plan of Wood Canyon Ruin 32
3. Metes and bounds of Emerson Ruin 34
4. Schematic ground plan of Emerson Ruin 35
5. Ground plan of Unit type House in cave 39
6. Square Tower Canyon 45
7. Ground plan of Hovenweep House 46
8. Ground plan of Hovenweep Castle 47
9. Ground plan of Twin Towers 50
10. Ground plan of Unit type House 51
11. Holly Canyon Ruins 52
12. Horseshoe (Hackberry) Canyon 53
13. Ground plan of Horseshoe House 54
14. Ground plan of Davis Ruin 55
15. Ground plan of Lion House 55
16. Ground plan of ruin with towers in McLean Basin 56
17. Doorway in Round Tower, McLean Basin 57
18. Megalithic stone inclosure, McElmo Bluff 61

PREHISTORIC VILLAGES, CASTLES, AND TOWERS OF SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO

By J. WALTER FEWKES

INTRODUCTION

The science of archeology has contributed to our knowledge some of the most fascinating chapters in culture history, for it has brought to light, from the night of the past, periods of human development hitherto unrecorded. As the paleontologist through his method has revealed faunas whose like were formerly unknown to the naturalist, the archeologist by the use of the same method of research has resurrected extinct phases of culture that have attained a high development and declined before recorded history began. No achievements in American anthropology are more striking than those that, from a study of human buildings and artifacts antedating the historic period, reveal the existence of an advanced prehistoric culture of man in America.

The evidences of a phase of culture that had developed and was on the decline before the interior of North America was explored by Europeans are nowhere better shown than in southwestern Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, the domain of the Cliff-dwellers, or the cradle of the Pueblos. There flourished on what is now called the Mesa Verde National Park, in prehistoric times, a characteristic culture unlike that of any region in the United States. This culture reached its apogee and declined before the historic epoch, but did not perish before it had left an influence extending over a wide territory, which persisted into modern times. Through the researches of archeologists the nature of this culture is now emerging into full view; but much material yet remains awaiting investigation before it can be adequately understood. The purpose of this article is to call attention to new observations bearing upon its interpretation made by the author, under the auspices of the Bureau of American Ethnology, on brief trips to Colorado and Utah in 1917 and 1918.

The peculiar cliff-dwellings and open-air villages of the Mesa Verde are here shown to be typical of those found over a region many miles in extent. They indicate a distinct culture area, which is easily distinguished from others where similar buildings do not exist, but not as readily separated from that of adjacent regions where the buildings are superficially similar but structurally different. In order to distinguish it from its neighbors and determine its horizon, we must become familiar with certain architectural characteristics. As our knowledge of the character of buildings in this area is incomplete, the intention of the author is to define the several different types of buildings that characterize it.

When, in 1915, there was brought to light on the Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, the mysterious structure, Sun Temple, the author recalled well-known descriptions of towers and other related buildings that have been recorded from other localities in southwestern Colorado and Utah. The published descriptions of these structures did not seem to him adequate for comparisons, and he planned an examination of these great houses and towers, hoping to gather new data that would shed some light on his interpretation of Sun Temple. During the field work in 1917, thanks to an allotment from the Bureau of American Ethnology for that purpose, he undertook a reconnoissance in the McElmo district, where similar buildings are found and where he believed cultural relatives of the former inhabitants of Mesa Verde once lived. In 1918 he extended his field work still farther. He investigated ruins as far as the western tributaries of the Yellow Jacket Canyon, penetrating a short distance beyond the Colorado border into Utah. The object of the following pages is to make known the more important results of this visit, and interpret the evidence they present as a contribution to our knowledge of the extension in prehistoric times of the Mesa Verde culture area.

HISTORICAL

Attention was first publicly called, about 40 years ago (1875-1877), by Messrs. Jackson,[1] Holmes, Morgan, and others, to some of the ruins here considered. It is difficult to identify all of the ruins mentioned or described by these pioneers. Their “Hovenweep Castle” is supposed to lie in about the center of the district here considered, possibly on Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon, although the large castellated building[2] in Holly Canyon would also fulfill conditions equally well. Their “Pueblo” may have been situated on the McElmo near the mouth of Yellow Jacket Canyon. Early writers rather vaguely refer to a cluster of castles and towers as situated some distance from the “Burial Place,” which is readily identified on the promontory at the mouth of the McElmo, as probably those in Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon, but the cluster may be either at Square Tower or Holly Canyon, both of which are about the same distance from this site. As “Pueblo” is not indicated on the map accompanying the Hayden report, the sites of rock shelters “some 7 miles from ‘Pueblo’ and 3 miles from the McElmo” remain doubtful. The author retains the name “Hovenweep Castle” for the ruin in Square Tower Canyon.

[1] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. Rept. U.S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1874, Washington, 1876.

[2] The situation of a spring near Hovenweep Castle indicates that the Great House may be the Hovenweep Castle of early writers.

In his account of ruins in the region visited, Prof. W. H. Holmes[3] considers several other ruins, as “the triple-walled tower” (here called Mud Spring village, p. 20), ruins at Aztec Spring (p. 23), cliff-dwellings and towers of the San Juan and Mancos, the “slab cysts” or burial places on the Dolores, and the promontory at the junction of the Hovenweep and McElmo (p. 60). The best preserved towers and castellated buildings which his article considers occur on the San Juan and Mancos Canyons, districts on the periphery of the region covered by this account.

[3] Report on the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado. Tenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1876, Washington, 1879.

These pioneer reports of Jackson and Holmes not only called attention to a new archeological field, but also introduced to the archeologist several new types of prehistoric American architecture of which nothing was previously known. They have been repeatedly quoted and are still constantly referred to by writers on southwestern archeology.

Although Jackson made many photographs of the castles and towers of the Hovenweep, none of these were published in his reports, possibly because halftone methods of reproduction were then unknown. The illustrations that appear in the text of early reports are mainly reproductions of sketches. These reports, in which the discovery of the tower type of architecture and its adjacent cliff-dwellings were announced, should thus rightly rank as the first important steps in the scientific investigations of the stone-house builders of this district of our Southwest; although the allied “Casas Grandes” or great houses of the Chaco had been described a few years before by Gregg, Stimpson, and others.

We have, in addition to these pioneer reports, several magazine articles of about the same date, the material for which was largely drawn from them. One of the most important newspaper articles of that date was written by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, published in the New York Tribune, and another, of anonymous authorship, is to be found in the Century Magazine for the year 1877. New forms of towers and castellated buildings were added in these accounts to those of the earlier authors.

One of the most important contributions to the antiquities of the region about Mesa Verde was made by the veteran ethnologist, Morgan, who published notes contributed by Mr. Mitchell on a cluster of mounds near his ranch. As no name was given this village it is here called the Mitchell Spring Village. Morgan likewise mentions the ruin at Mud Spring and a tower in the ruin near his spring. Professor Newberry was the first author to affix the name Surouaro to a ruin situated at the head of the Yellow Jacket Canyon.

Several of these ruins were described and figured by Mr. Warren K. Moorehead as “The Great Ruins of Upper McElmo Creek” in the Illustrated American for July 9, 1892, the sixth of a series of articles under a general title “In search of a Lost Race.” He gives descriptions of a “cave shelter” found near Twin Towers, Square Tower in “Ruin Canyon,” a building (Hovenweep Castle), and the tower at the junction of the North and South Forks of Ruin Canyon. This paper is accompanied by a map of Ruin Canyon by Mr. Cowen. In Moorehead’s discussion of these remains, individual towers and other ruins are designated by capital letters, A-V, to some of which are also affixed the names “Hollow Boulder,” “Twin Towers,” “Square Tower,” etc. Details of structure and measurements of the more striking buildings and a discussion of certain features of structure, some of which will be considered later under individual ruins, are likewise given.

The most important general article yet published on the prehistoric remains of the region here considered is by Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden,[4] who also mentions several of the ruins here treated. His most important contribution is a description of what he calls the “unit type,” which he recognized as a fundamental structural feature in the pueblos of this region. He also showed that the kiva in Montezuma Valley villages is identical with that of cliff-dwellings in the Mesa Verde, and emphasized, as an important feature, the union of the tower and the pueblo, a characteristic of the highest form of pueblo architecture.

Doctor Prudden has followed his comprehensive paper above mentioned with an account[5] of the excavation of one of the mounds at Mitchell Spring in which he adds to our knowledge of the structure of his “unit type.”

In “A Further Study of Prehistoric Small House Ruins in the San Juan Watershed,”[6] Doctor Prudden has furnished important additional data which shows the uniformity of the unit type over a large area of the San Juan drainage.

[4] The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico., Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 2, 1903.

[5] The Circular Kivas of Small Ruins in the San Juan Watershed. Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. xvi, no. 1, 1914.

[6] Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Asso., vol. v, no. 1, 1918.

The following among other prehistoric remains in the district mentioned or described by Doctor Prudden are covered by the author’s reconnoissance:

1. Ruins at Dolores Bend (Escalante Ruin).
2. Wolley Ranch Ruin.
3. Burkhardt Ruin (Mud Spring Village).
4. Goodman Point Ruin.
5. Unnamed ruin west of Goodman Lake.
6. Ruin at junction of McElmo and Yellow Jacket.
7. Group on Yellow Jacket nearly opposite mouth of Dawson Canyon
(Davis or Littrell Tower).
8. Surouaro.
9. Cannonball Ruin.
10. Towers and buildings of Ruin and Bridge Canyons.
11. Pierson Spring Ruin.
12. Bug Spring Ruins.

The following towers can be identified from his figures:[7]

1. “Square building opposite mouth of Dawson Creek.”
Prudden, pl. xviii, fig. 2. (This building is not
square, but semicircular.)

2. Cannonball Ruin. Prudden, pl. xxi [xxii].

3. “Small tower-like structure ... at the head of Ruin
Canyon, in the Yellow Jacket group.” Prudden, pl.
xxiii, fig. 2. (This building is not in Ruin Canyon,
but in Holly Canyon.)

4. “Tower ... about the head of Ruin Canyon.” Prudden,
pl. xxiii, fig. 1. (This is the most eastern of the
Twin Towers, but not about the head of the canyon.)

5. Sand Canyon Tower. Prudden, pl. xxiv, fig. 2.

Although mainly devoted to descriptions of the cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde, Baron G. Nordenskiöld’s “Cliff-Dwellers of the Mesa Verde” discusses in so broad a manner the relationship of pueblo ruins and cliff-houses that no student can overlook this epoch-making work. In fact, Nordenskiöld laid the foundations for subsequent students of pueblo morphology, although some of his comparisons and generalizations were premature because based on imperfect observations which have been superseded by later investigations.

The partial excavation of the excellent ruin at the head of Cannonball Canyon by S. G. Morley[8] sheds considerable light on the morphology of prehistoric buildings in the McElmo district. Unfortunately no attempt was made by him to repair the walls of this ruin for permanent preservation, but it is not too late still to prevent their further destruction and preserve them for future students and visitors. Morley’s description of the buildings is accompanied by good photographs and a ground plan. He brought to light in this ruin examples of the characteristic unit type kiva.

[7] Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 2, 1903.

[8] The Excavation of the Cannonball Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. x, no. 4, 1908.

The latest work on the McElmo Ruins, one part of which has already appeared, is a joint contribution by Morley and Kidder.[9] In this publication accurate dimensions and sites of ruins in the McElmo and Square Ruin Canyons are given, with other instructive data. Morley and Kidder have designated the ruins by Arabic numbers, and in a few instances by names. The author has preserved these numbers so far as possible in his account.

The following ruins in Ruin Canyon and neighboring district covered by this reconnoissance are described by Morley and Kidder:

No. 1. Wickyup Canyon, Ruin 1 and Ruin 2, “Boulder Castle.”
No. 2. Two towers in Ruin Canyon: 1ᵃ, near the mouth; 1ᵇ,
Towers on or near forks, No. 1 [Hovenweep Pueblo],
No. 2 [Hovenweep Castle.]
No. 3. [Square Tower.]
No. 4. [Oval Tower.]
No. 5. [Tower.]
No. 6. [6.]
No. 7. [Boulder Cliff-house.]
No. 8. Twin Towers.
No. 9. [9.]
No. 10. [Unit type House.]
No. 11. Gibraltar House and ruin. [Stronghold House.]
No. 12. [12.]

The pueblos and cave dwellings of the “Pivotal group” (those on or near the promontory at the junction of the McElmo and Yellow Jacket Canyons) were also studied by the authors.

Almost the whole article by Morley and Kidder, which the editor announces will be completed in a future number of “El Palacio,” is devoted to descriptions of buildings[10] in Ruin and Road (Wickyup) Canyons and the ruins of the “Pivotal group” at the base of a promontory between the junction of the Yellow Jacket and McElmo.

[9] The Archaeology of McElmo Canyon, Colorado. El Palacio, vol. iv, no. 4, Santa Fe, 1917.

[10] The dimensions of buildings and towers given in this article are welcome additions to our knowledge, but from lack of ground plans one can not fully determine the arrangement of rooms designated in individual ruins.

CLASSIFICATION

In the classification by Morley and Kidder and the majority of writers, sites rather than structural features are adopted as a basis although all recognized that large cliff-dwellings like Cliff Palace are practically pueblos built in caves. In the following classification more attention is directed to differences in structure than to situation, notwithstanding the latter is convenient for descriptive purposes.

1. Villages or clusters of houses, each having the form of the pure pueblo type. The essential feature of the pure type is a compact pueblo, containing one or more unit types, circular kivas of characteristic form, surrounded by rectangular rooms. These units, single or consolidated, may be grouped in clusters, as Mitchell Spring or Aztec Spring Ruins; the clusters may be fused into a large building, as at Aztec or in the community buildings on Chaco Canyon.

2. Cliff-houses. These morphologically belong to the same pure type as pueblos; their sites in natural caves are insufficient to separate them from open-sky buildings.

3. Towers and great houses. These buildings occur united to cliff-dwellings or pueblos, but more often they are isolated.

4. Rooms with walls made of megaliths or small stone slabs set on edge.

In reports on the excavation of Far View House[11] on the Mesa Verde, the author called attention to clusters of mounds indicating ruined buildings in the neighborhood of Mummy Lake, a little more than 4 miles from Spruce-tree House. This cluster he considers a village; Far View House, excavated from one of the mounds, is regarded as a prehistoric pueblo of the pure type. The forms of other buildings covered by the remaining mounds of the Mummy Lake site are unknown, but it is probable that they will be found to resemble Far View House, or that all members of the village have similar forms.

[11] A Prehistoric Mesa Verde Pueblo and its People. Smithson. Rept. for 1916, pp. 461-488, 1917. Far View House—a Pure Type of Pueblo Ruin. Art and Archaeology, vol. vi, no. 3, 1917.

This grouping of small pueblos into villages at Mummy Lake on the Mesa Verde is also a distinctive feature of ruins in the Montezuma Valley and McElmo district. In these villages one or more of the component houses may be larger and more conspicuous, dominating all the others, as at Goodman Point, or at Aztec Spring. The houses composing the village at Mud Spring were about the same size, but at Wolley Ranch Ruin only one mound remains, evidently the largest, the smaller having disappeared.

The third group, towers and great houses, includes buildings of oval, circular, semicircular, and rectangular shapes. Morphologically speaking, they do not present structural features of pueblos, for they are not terraced, neither have they specialized circular ceremonial rooms, kivas with vaulted roofs surrounded by rectangular rooms, or other essential features of the pueblo type. The group contains buildings which are sometimes consolidated with cliff-houses and pueblos, but are often independent of them. In this type are included castellated buildings in the Mancos, Yellow Jacket, McElmo, and the numerous northern tributary canyons of the San Juan.

VILLAGES

RECTANGULAR RUINS OF THE PURE TYPE

As the word is used in this report, a village is a cluster of houses separated from each other, each building constructed on the same plan, viz, a circular ceremonial room or kiva with mural banquettes and pilasters for the support of a vaulted roof, inclosed in rectangular rooms. When there is one kiva and surrounding angular rooms we adopt the name “unit type.” When, as in the larger mounds, there are indications of several kivas or unit types consolidated—the size being in direct proportion to the number—we speak of the building as belonging to the “pure type.” Doctor Prudden, who first pointed out the characteristics of the “unit type,”[12] has shown its wide distribution in the McElmo district. The Mummy Lake village has 16 mounds indicating houses. Far View House, one of these houses, is made up of an aggregation of four unit types and hence belongs to the author’s “pure type.”

[12] The situation of the cemetery, one of the characters of Prudden’s “unit type,” appears constant in one kiva buildings, but is variable in the pure type, and, as shown in the author’s application of the unit type to the crowded condition in Spruce-tree House and other cliff-houses, does not occur in the same position as in pueblos of the pure type open to the sky.

While villages similar to the Mummy Lake group, in the valleys near Mesa Verde, have individual variations, the essential features are the same, as will appear in the following descriptions of Surouaro, and ruins at Goodman Point, Mud Spring, Aztec Spring, and Mitchell Spring. Commonly, in these villages, one mound predominates in size over the others, and while rectangular in form, has generally circular depressions on the surface, recalling conditions at Far View mound before excavation. These mounds indicate large buildings in blocks, made up of many unit forms of the pure type, united into compact structures. One large dominant member of the village recalls those ruins where the village is consolidated into one community pueblo. The separation of mounds in the village and their concentration in the community house may be of chronological importance, although the relative age of the simple and composite forms can not at present be determined; but it is important to recognize that the units of construction in villages and community buildings are identical.

SUROUARO

The cluster of mounds formerly called Surouaro, now known as Yellow Jacket Spring Ruin, is situated near the head of the canyon of the same name to the left of the Monticello road, 14 miles west of Dolores. This village (pls. 1, _c_; 2, _c_) contains both large and small houses of the pure pueblo type, covering an area somewhat less than the Mummy Lake group, on the Mesa Verde. The arrangement of mounds in clusters naturally recalls the Galisteo and Jemez districts, New Mexico, where, however, the arrangement of the mounds and the structure of each is different. The individual houses in a Mesa Verde or Yellow Jacket village were not so grouped as to inclose a rectangular court, but were irregularly distributed with intervals of considerable size between them.[13]

The largest mound in the Surouaro village, shown in plate 1, _c_, corresponds with the so-called “Upper House” of Aztec Spring Ruin, but is much larger than Far View or any other single mound in the Mummy Lake village.

Surouaro was one of the first ruins in this region described by American explorers, attention having been first called to it by Professor Newberry,[14] whose description follows: “Surouaro is the name of a ruined town which must have once contained a population of several thousands. The name is said to be of Indian (Utah) origin, and to signify desolation, and certainly no better could have been selected.... The houses are, many of them, large, and all built of stone, hammer dressed on the exposed faces. Fragments of pottery are exceedingly common, though like the buildings, showing great age.... The remains of _metates_ (corn mills) are abundant about the ruins. The ruins of several large reservoirs, built of masonry, may be seen at Surouaro, and there are traces of acequias which led to them, through which water was brought, perhaps from a great distance.”

[13] In his valuable study, Pueblo Ruins of the Galisteo Basin, New Mexico (Anthrop. Papers of the Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. XV, pt. 1, 1914), Mr. Nelson figures (Plan I, _B_) an embedded circular kiva in what he calls the “historic part” of the Galisteo Ruin, but does not state how he distinguishes the historic from the prehistoric part of this building. The other kivas at Galisteo are few in number and not embedded, but situated outside the house masses as in historic pueblos.

[14] Report of the exploring expedition from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Junction of the Grand and Green Rivers of the Great Colorado of the West in 1859, under the command of Capt. J. N. Macomb, p. 88, Washington, 1876.

GOODMAN POINT RUIN

This ruin is a cluster of small mounds surrounding larger ones, recalling the arrangement at Aztec Spring. They naturally fall into two groups which from their direction or relation to the adjacent spring may be called the south and north sections.

The most important mound of the south section, Block A, measures 74 feet on the north, 79 feet on the south, and 76 feet on the west side. This large mound corresponds morphologically to the “Upper House” at Aztec Spring (fig. 1, _A_). About it there are arranged at intervals, mainly on the north and east sides, other smaller mounds generally indicating rectangular buildings. The southeast angle of the largest is connected by a low wall with one of the smaller mounds, forming an enclosure called a court, whose northern border is the rim of the canyon just above the spring. A determination of the detailed architectural features of the building buried under Block A is not possible, as none of its walls stand above the mass of fallen stones, but it is evident, from circular depressions and fragments of straight walls that appear over the surface of the mound, that the rooms were of two kinds, rectangular forms, or dwellings, and circular chambers, or kivas. This mound resembles Far View House on the Mesa Verde before excavation.

A large circular depression, 56 feet in diameter, is situated in the midst of the largest mounds. A unique feature of this depression, recognized and described by Doctor Prudden, are four piles of stones, regularly arranged on the floor. The author adopts the suggestion that this area was once roofed and served as a central circular kiva, necessitating a roof of such dimensions that four masonry pillars served for its support. The mound measures about 15 feet in height, and has large trees growing on its surface, offering evidence of a considerable age. Several other rooms are indicated by circular surface depressions, but their relation to the rectangular rooms can be determined only by excavation.

JOHNSON RUIN

This ruin, to which the author was conducted by Mr. C. K. Davis, is about 4 miles west of the Goodman Point Ruin near Mr. Johnson’s ranch house, in section 12, township 36, range 18. It is said to be situated at the head of Sand Canyon, a tributary of the McElmo, and is one of the largest ruins visited. The remains of former houses skirt the rim of the canyon head for fully half a mile, forming a continuous series of mounds in which can be traced towers, great houses, and other types of buildings, and numerous depressions indicating sunken kivas. The walls of these buildings were, however, so tumbled down that little now remains above ground save piles of stones in which tops of buried walls may still be detected, but not without some difficulty. In a cave under the “mesa rim” there is a small cliff-house in the walls of which extremities of the original wooden rafters still remain in place.

In an open clearing, about 3 miles south and west of Mr. J. W. Fulk’s house, Renaraye post office, there is a small ruin of rectangular form, the ground plan of which shows two rectangular sections of different sizes, joined at one angle. The largest section measures approximately 20 by 50 feet. It consists of low rooms surrounding two circular depressions, possibly kivas. Although constructed on a small scale, this section reminds one of the Upper House of Aztec Spring Ruin. The smaller section, which also has a rectangular form, has remains of high rooms on opposite sides and low walls on the remaining sides. In the enclosed area there is a circular depression or reservoir, corresponding with the reservoir of the Lower House at Aztec Spring Ruin.

BUG MESA RUIN

The author was guided by Mr. H. S. Merchant to a village ruin, one of the largest visited, situated a few miles from his ranch house. This village is about 10 miles due south of the store at the head of Dove Creek, and consists of several large mounds, each about 500 feet long, arranged parallel to each other, and numerous isolated smaller mounds. Not far from this large ruin there is a prehistoric reservoir estimated as covering about 4 acres. Many circular depressions, indicated kivas, and lines of stones showed tops of buried rectangular rooms. Excavations in a small mound near this ruin were conducted by Doctor Prudden.[15]

The canyon which heads near the corral on the road to Merchant’s house revealed no evidence of prehistoric dwellings.

MITCHELL SPRING RUIN

This ruin takes its name from the earliest known description of it by Morgan,[16] which was compiled from notes by Mr. Mitchell, one of the early settlers in Montezuma Valley. Morgan’s account is as follows:

“Near Mr. Mitchell’s ranch, and within a space of less than a mile square, are the ruins of nine pueblo houses of moderate size. They are built of sandstone intermixed with cobblestone and adobe mortar. They are now in a very ruinous condition, without standing walls in any part of them above the rubbish. The largest of the number is marked No. 1 in the plan, figure 44, of which the outline of the original structure is still discernible. It is 94 feet in length and 47 feet in depth, and shows the remains of a stone wall in front inclosing a small court about 15 feet wide. The mass of material over some parts of this structure is 10 or 12 feet deep. There are, no doubt, rooms with a portion of the walls still standing covered with rubbish, the removal of which would reveal a considerable portion of the original ground plan.”

The author paid a short visit to the Mitchell Spring village and by means of Morgan’s sketch map was able to identify without difficulty the nine mounds and tower he represents. The village at Mitchell Spring differs from that at Mud Spring and at Aztec Spring mainly in the small size and diffuse distribution of the component mounds and an absence of any one mound larger than the remainder. It had, however, a round tower, but unlike that at Mud Spring village, this structure is not united to one of the houses. The addition of towers to pueblos, as pointed out by Doctor Prudden[17] several years ago, marks the highest development of pueblo architecture as shown not only in open-air villages but also in some of the large cliff pueblos, like Cliff Palace. Isolated towers are as a rule earlier in construction.

[15] Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Asso., vol. V, no. 1, 1918.

[16] Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines. Cont. N. Amer. Ethn., vol. IV, pp. 189-190, 1831.

[17] Prudden excavated a unit type ruin from one of the Mitchell Spring mounds. (Amer. Anthrop., vol. XVI, no. 1, 1914.)

The unit type mound uncovered by Doctor Prudden is one of the most instructive examples of this type in Montezuma Canyon, but the author in subsequent pages will call attention to the existence of the same type in Square Tower Canyon. All of these pueblos probably have kivas of the pure type, practically the same in structure as Far View House on the Mesa Verde National Park.

MUD SPRING (BURKHARDT) RUIN

The collection of mounds (pl. 3, _b_), sometimes called Burkhardt Ruin, situated at Mud Spring, belongs to the McElmo series. This ruin, in which is the “triple-walled tower” of Holmes, for uniformity with Mitchell Spring Ruin and Aztec Spring Ruin, is named after a neighboring spring. Like these, it is a cluster of mounds forming a village which covers a considerable area. The arroyo on which it is situated opens into the McElmo, and is about 7 miles southwest from Cortez, at a point where the road enters the McElmo Canyon.

The extension of the area covered by the Mud Spring mounds is east-west, the largest mounds being those on the east. These latter are separated from the remainder, or those on the west, by a shallow, narrow gulch. There are two towers united to the western section overlooking the spring, the following description of one of which, with a sketch of the ground plan, is given by Holmes.[18]

[18] Op. cit., pp. 398-399.

“The circular structures or towers have been built, in the usual manner, of roughly hewn stone, and rank among the very best specimens of this ancient architecture. The great tower is especially noticeable.... In dimensions it is almost identical with the great tower of the Rio Mancos. The walls are traceable nearly all the way round, and the space between the two outer ones, which is about 5 feet in width, contains 14 apartments or cells. The walls about one of these cells are still standing to the height of 12 feet; but the interior can not be examined on account of the rubbish which fills it to the top. No openings are noticeable in the circular walls, but doorways seem to have been made to communicate between the apartments; one is preserved at _d_.... This tower stands back about 100 feet from the edge of the mesa near the border of the village. The smaller tower, _b_, stands forward on a point that overlooks the shallow gulch; it is 15 feet in diameter; the walls are 3½ feet thick and 5 feet high on the outside. Beneath this ruin, in a little side gulch, are the remains of a wall 12 feet high and 20 inches thick.... The apartments number nearly a hundred, and seem, generally, to have been rectangular. They are not, however, of uniform size, and certainly not arranged in regular order.”

Morgan[19] gives the following description of the same ruin which seems to the author to be the Mud Creek village:

“Four miles westerly [from Mitchell ranch], near the ranch of Mr. Shirt, are the ruins of another large stone pueblo, together with an Indian cemetery, where each grave is marked by a border of flat stones set level with the ground in the form of a parallelogram 8 feet by 4 feet. Near the cluster of nine pueblos shown in the figure are found strewn on the ground numerous fragments of pottery of high grade in the ornamentation, and small arrowheads of flint, quartz, and chalcedony delicately formed, and small knife blades with convex and serrated edges in considerable numbers.

“This is an immense ruin with small portions of the walls still standing, particularly of the round tower of stone of three concentric walls, incorporated in the structure, and a few chambers in the north end of the main building. The round tower is still standing nearly to the height of the first story. In its present condition it was impossible to make a ground plan showing the several chambers, or to determine with certainty which side was the front of the structure, assuming that it was constructed in the terraced form.... The Round Tower is the most singular feature in this structure. While it resembles the ordinary _estufa_, common to all these structures, it differs from them in having three concentric walls. No doorways are visible in the portion still standing, consequently it must have been entered through the roof, in which respect it agrees with the ordinary _estufa_. The inner chamber is about 20 feet in diameter, and the spaces between the encircling walls are about 2 feet each; the walls are about 2 feet in thickness, and were laid up mainly with stones about 4 inches square, and, for the most part, in courses. There is a similar round tower, having but two concentric walls, at the head of the McElmo Canyon, and near the ranch of Mr. Mitchell [Mitchell Ruin].”

As the name Mud Spring is locally known to the natives, especially to employees of livery stables and garages, the ruin is here called Mud Spring. The tower and the other circular buildings are united to other rooms as in similar groups of mounds. The presence of surface depressions, thought to indicate circular kivas,[20] shows that the Mud Spring mounds are remains of a village of the same type as the Mummy Lake group, but with towers united to the largest mounds.

[19] Op. cit., p. 190.

[20] Although the kivas of Mud Spring Ruin have not been excavated there is little doubt from surface indications that they belong to the unit type.

The time the author could give to his visit to the Mud Spring Ruin (pl. 3, _b_) was too limited to survey it, but he noticed in addition to the two circular buildings already recorded, a large mound situated on the west side of the gulch, and numerous small mounds on the east side of the same, each apparently with a central depression like a kiva. All these mounds have been more or less mutilated by indiscriminate digging, but many mounds, still untouched, remain to be excavated before we can form an adequate conception of the group. The “triple-walled tower” is now in such a condition that the author could not determine whether it was formerly circular or D-shaped; the “small tower” is in even worse condition and its previous form could not be made out. The Mud Spring mounds cover a much larger area than descriptions or ground plans thus far published would indicate.

Originally Mud Spring Ruin consisted of a cluster of pueblos of various sizes, each probably with a circular kiva and rectangular rooms, combined with one or more towers at present too much dilapidated to determine architectural details without excavations. Like the other clusters of pueblos in the McElmo and Montezuma Valley, the cemetery near Mud Spring Ruin has suffered considerably from pothunters, but there still remain many standing walls that are well preserved.

RUIN WITH SEMICIRCULAR CORE

This ruin is situated on the San Juan about 3 miles below the sandy bed of the mouth of the Montezuma, on a bluff 50 feet above the river. The ground plan by Jackson[21] indicates a building shaped like a trapezoid, 158 feet on the northeast side, 120 on the southeast, and 32 on the northwest side. The southwest side is broken midway by a reentering area at the rim of the bluff over the river.

[21] Tenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1876, pl. xlviii, fig. 2, 1879.

In the center of this trapezoidal structure there is represented a series of rooms arranged like those of Horseshoe House, but composed of a half-circular chamber surrounded by seven rooms between two concentric circular walls. Thus far the homology to Horseshoe House is close but beyond this series of rooms, following out the trapezoidal form, at least five other rooms appear on the ground plan. The position of these recalls the walls arranged around the tower at Mud Spring village. In other words, the ruin resembles Horseshoe House, but has in addition rectangular rooms added on three sides, forming an angular building. So far as the author’s information goes, no other ruin of exactly this type, which recalls Sun Temple, has been described by other observers.

WOLLEY RANCH RUIN

Wolley Ranch Ruin, situated 10 miles south of Dolores, is one of the largest mounds near Cortez. There are evidences of the former existence of a cluster of mounds at this place, only one of which now remains. This is covered with bushes, rendering it difficult to trace the bounding walls.

BLANCHARD RUIN

Several years ago private parties constructed at Manitou, near Colorado Springs, a cliff-dwelling on the combined plan of Spruce-tree House and Cliff Palace. The rocks used for that purpose were transported from a large mound on the Blanchard ranch near Lebanon, in the Montezuma Valley, at the head of Hartman’s draw, about 6 miles south of Dolores. Two mounds (pl. 2, _a_, _b_), about three-quarters of a mile apart, are all that now remain of a considerable village; the other smaller mounds, reported by pioneer settlers, have long since been leveled by cultivation. As both of these mounds have been extensively dug into to obtain stones, the walls that remain standing show much mutilation. The present condition of the largest Blanchard mound, as seen from its southwest angle, is shown in plate 2, _b_. About half of the mound, now covered with a growth of bushes, still remains entire, exposing walls of fine masonry, on its south side. The rooms in the buried buildings are hard to make out on account of this covering of vegetation and accumulated débris; but the central depressions, supposed to be kivas, almost always present in the middle of mounds in this district, show that the structure of Blanchard Ruin follows the pure type.

RUINS AT AZTEC SPRING

The mounds at Aztec Spring (pl. 1, _b_), situated on the eastern flank of Ute Mountain, at a site looking across the valley to the west end of Mesa Verde, were described forty years ago by W. W. Jackson[22] and Prof. W. H. Holmes.[23] The descriptions given by both these pioneers are quoted at length for the reason that subsequent authors have added little from direct observation since that time, notwithstanding they have been constantly referred to and the illustrations reproduced.

[22] Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1874, Washington, 1876.

[23] Op. cit.

As a result of a short visit, the author is able to add the few following notes on the Aztec Spring mounds. The ruin is a village consisting of a cluster of unit pueblos of the pure type in various stages of consolidation. No excavations were made, but the surface indications point to the conclusion that the different mounds indicate that these pueblos have different shapes and sizes.

The author’s observations differ in several unimportant particulars from those of previous writers, and while it is not his intention to describe in detail the Aztec Spring village he will call attention to certain features it shares with other villages in the Montezuma Valley.

The best, almost the only accounts of this village are the following taken from the descriptions by Jackson and Holmes published in 1877. Mr. Jackson gives the following description:[24]

“Immediately adjoining the spring, on the right, as
we face it from below, is the ruin of a great massive
structure [Upper House?] of some kind, about 100
feet square in exterior dimensions; a portion only
of the wall upon the northern face remaining in its
original position. The _débris_ of the ruin now
forms a great mound of crumbling rock, from 12 to 20
feet in height, overgrown with artemisia, but showing
clearly, however, its rectangular structure, adjusted
approximately to the four points of the compass. Inside
this square is a circle, about 60 feet in diameter,
deeply depressed in the center. The space between
the square and the circle appeared, upon a hasty
examination, to have been filled in solidly with a
sort of rubble-masonry. Cross-walls were noticed in
two places; but whether they were to strengthen the
walls or divided apartments could only be conjectured.
That portion of the outer wall remaining standing is
some 40 feet in length and 15 in height. The stones
were dressed to a uniform size and finish. Upon the
same level as this ruin, and extending back some
distance, were grouped line after line of foundations
and mounds, the great mass of which is of stone but
not one remaining upon another.... Below the above
group, some 200 yards distant, and communicating by
indistinct lines of _débris_, is another great
wall, inclosing a space of about 200 feet square [Lower
House?].... This better preserved portion is some 50
feet in length, 7 or 8 feet in height, and 20 feet
thick, the two exterior surfaces of well-dressed and
evenly laid courses, and the center packed in solidly
with rubble-masonry, looking entirely different from
those rooms which had been filled with _débris_,
though it is difficult to assign any reason for its
being so massively constructed.... The town built about
this spring is nearly a square mile in extent, the
larger and more enduring buildings in the center, while
all about are scattered and grouped the remnants of
smaller structures, comprising the suburbs.”

The description by Professor Holmes[25] is more detailed and accompanied by a ground plan, and is quoted below:

[24] Op. cit., pp. 377-378.

[25] Op. cit., p. 400.

“The site of the spring I found, but without the least appearance of water. The depression formerly occupied by it is near the center of a large mass of ruins, similar to the group [Mud Spring village] last described, but having a rectangular instead of a circular building as the chief and central structure. This I have called the _upper house_ in the plate, and a large walled enclosure a little lower on the slope I have for the sake of distinction called the _lower house_.

“These ruins form the most imposing pile of masonry yet [1875] found in Colorado. The whole group covers an area about 480,000 square feet, and has an average depth of from 3 to 4 feet. This would give in the vicinity of 1,500,000 solid feet of stonework. The stone used is chiefly of the fossiliferous limestone that outcrop along the base of the Mesa Verde a mile or more away, and its transportation to this place has doubtless been a great work for a people so totally without facilities.

“The upper house is rectangular, measuring 80 feet by 100 feet, and is built with the cardinal points to within a few degrees. The pile is from 12 to 15 feet in height, and its massiveness suggests an original height at least twice as great. The plan is somewhat difficult to make out on account of the very great quantity of _débris_.

“The walls seem to have been double, with a space 7 feet between; a number of cross-walls at regular intervals indicate that this space has been divided into apartments, as seen in the plan.

“The walls are 26 inches thick, and are built of roughly dressed stones, which were probably laid in mortar, as in other cases.

“The enclosed space, which is somewhat depressed, has two lines of _débris_, probably the remains of partition-walls, separating it into three apartments, _a_, _b_, _c_ [note]. Enclosing this great house is a network of fallen walls, so completely reduced that none of the stones seem to remain in place; and I am at a loss to determine whether they mark the site of a cluster of irregular apartments, having low, loosely built walls, or whether they are the remains of some imposing adobe structure built after the manner of the ruined pueblos of the Rio Chaco.

“Two well-defined circular enclosures or _estufas_ [kivas] are situated in the midst of the southern wing of the ruin. The upper one, A, is on the opposite side of the spring from the great house, is 60 feet in diameter, and is surrounded by a low stone wall. West of the house is a small open court, which seems to have had a gateway opening out to the west, through the surrounding walls.

“The lower house is 200 feet in length by 180 in width, and its walls vary 15 degrees from the cardinal points. The northern wall, _a_, is double and contains a row of eight apartments about 7 feet in width by 24 in length. The walls of the other sides are low, and seem to have served simply to enclose the great court, near the center of which is a large walled depression (_estufa_ B).”

The number of buildings that composed the Aztec Spring village (fig. 1) when it was inhabited can not be exactly estimated, but as indicated by the largest mound, the most important block of rooms exceeds in size any at Mitchell Spring Ruin. While this village also covered more ground than that at Mud Spring, it shows no evidence of added towers, a prominent feature of the largest mound of the latter. Two sections (fig. 1, _A_, _B_) may be distinguished in the arrangement of mounds in the village; one may be known as the western and the other as the eastern division.