Don Watson

“ As one explores the canyons and enters more and more of the ruins a surprising fact becomes evident. Ruins which at first glance seem small can turn up a surprising number of rooms. A distant view across a canyon may reveal only a few broken walls. Upon gaining access to the cave, perhaps by swinging down on a long rope, the first glance still reveals little. Then, as the ruin is studied carefully, it begins to grow.
The only evidence of a three or four story structure may be rows of small holes in the cliff where the ends of roof beams once rested. ”

“ The excavated cliff dwellings that visitors enter are empty. Seven centuries ago the Indians themselves walked away, driven to the south by enemies and a great drouth. Most of their belongings were left behind but the early explorers and later archeologists removed them.
Because of this a cliff dwelling may seem, at first glance, to be an empty house. Too often visitors see only the stone walls and fail to see the people who built them. One must always remember that a cliff dwelling is the architectural expression of a settled, industrious agricultural people. ”

“ Because of its location visitors are able to get better views of Cliff Palace than of any of the other cliff dwellings. Several points on the opposite rim of the canyon offer striking distant views and the high cliffs at each end of the cave are perfectly located for spectacular closeups.
Seen from any angle Cliff Palace is a magnificent structure and visitors sometimes have difficulty in believing that it is real. Here in the midst of a vast wilderness of canyons is this great ruin, sheltered for seven centuries by the enormous cave. ”

“ It is impossible to look at the cliff dwellings without wondering why the Pueblo Indians chose to build their homes in the cliffs. A few of the ruins are in large, open, airy, easily accessible caves, that to the casual observer might seem like rather decent places in which to live. But most of the caves are not of this type. The majority are high on the cliff faces—many are merely narrow high ledges on which a few rooms could be perched.
For many centuries the Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde area lived on the open mesa tops and in the broad fertile valleys. ”

“ The term “living room,” as we use it today, is really not a good term for the rooms in the cliff dwellings. Actually these were, for the most part, sleeping and storage rooms. Probably few of the activities of daily life took place in them. The real “living space” was the great open areas in the villages, the kiva courts and the terraced housetops. The cave itself served as a roof over the entire village and the people probably spent most of their active life outside the rooms. ”

“ Some of the villages were at the base of the cliff and were easily accessible. But the inhabitants of such towns had to defend only the front of the cave and their thick walls would have suffered no damage from arrows. The men of a large village, such as Spruce Tree House or Cliff Palace, could have repulsed a small raiding party without too much difficulty. The small high villages were comparatively safe because of the difficulty of access. Some caves were reached by ladders; others by toe-holds cut in the cliff. In many of the small high cliff dwellings no evidence of a trail can be found. ”

“ They did not look to them for leadership for certainly there was no union among the people. Probably there were never more than a few thousand Pueblo Indians in the Mesa Verde at any one time. They lived in hundreds of more or less independent villages. While some of these villages seem large and impressive today, they may have had little real importance in ancient times for only a small percentage of the people lived in them. The bulk of the population was in the hundreds of small towns each of which was an independent community that contained no more than a few dozen people. ”

“ As we drop down to the smaller ruins the actual number of ruins increases. In the many canyons of the area almost every cave was utilized by the Indians. There were far more small caves than large ones and as a result there are far more of the smaller cliff dwellings.
It is not even wise to try to estimate the number of cliff dwellings that contain from six to twenty rooms. Certainly it doesn’t take much of a ruin to contain six rooms. No one has the slightest idea how many there may be so we will say hundreds, which means anything from 200 up. ”

“ Of the hundreds of cliff dwellings probably not more than a score had springs within the cave. In almost every case the women carried water from nearby, or distant springs. In all probability the people did not have to worry about actual sieges. The enemy people were hunters who traveled in small bands. Word of a raiding party would have spread quickly for there were few isolated villages where the people could not call to the next village and so on along the canyon. It was possible to call across even the largest canyons and warnings would have traveled well in advance of the raiders. ”

“ Sometimes visitors to the Mesa Verde find it difficult to see the Indians who once lived in the cliff dwellings. It is not always easy for the imagination to carry one back through the centuries to the time when there was life in the caves. Minds geared to the frantic pace of modern times are not always able to see the thousands of Indians who once lived in the cliff dwellings. ”

“ If one enters a cave and counts the rooms that are in evidence it is usually safe to assume that many more have disappeared completely.
Another difficulty is that little of the Mesa Verde has been explored in modern times. The remote parts of the mesa, over half of which is Ute Indian Reservation, have had little exploration since the days of the cowboys. Hundreds of the ruins have not been entered in modern times. It is doubtful if any living person has been in one hundred of the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. ”

“ That the ruins suffered greatly from the work done during the early years is everywhere evident. Below is Long House, probably the saddest example of what careless excavation did to the ruins. Long House was, without doubt, the second largest cliff dwelling in the Mesa Verde, rivaling Cliff Palace in size. Now little remains standing. But careful study of foundations, broken bits of masonry and the outlines of rooms on the cave walls indicates that the cave was once full of high structures. ”

“ As you look at Cliff Palace today, it is difficult to see it as it was when it was alive. Many of the walls have fallen and only small bits of masonry remain as indications of houses that once were there. Rebuild these walls in your imagination and then, most important of all, place flat adobe roofs on the houses. ”

“ Tales have come down to us indicating that dynamite was used by some of the early explorers in opening up the ruins. Dynamite fuse found in Long House lends support to these stories.
The work of some of the diggers was careless and ruthless. They had no consideration for the ruins for their only thought was of the sales value of the artifacts recovered. An indication of this can be seen in the fact that a banker in a nearby town “grub staked” men to dig in the ruins. Supplying them with food and equipment he received a percentage of their profits from the sale of artifacts. ”

“ From a modern viewpoint a cave might not appear to be a safe place for a home. All thought of modern warfare must be forgotten, however, and ancient methods must be kept in mind. When it is considered that the cliff dwellers lived in bow and arrow times it is not difficult to see the cliff dwellings as defensive structures. ”

“ It is no longer a ruin—it has become a terraced apartment house, fitted into the sheltering cave. The more than 200 rooms rise in at least eight levels from the front of the cave to the high structures in the rear.
As your imagination restores the village to its original condition the people begin to appear. Since it is evening all of them have returned to the security of their cave home. The men have come back from the fields and from the hunt. ”

“ Near the south end of the ruin a kiva was in perfect condition except that the roof was missing. Stretching a piece of canvas over it the men moved in and for three weeks the ancient ceremonial room served as living quarters as they excavated the great cliff dwelling. This was the beginning of serious excavation by the cowboys. The discovery of the large ruins made them feel that the recovery of articles left behind by the Indians might be a profitable business. As Charles Mason stated later in referring to one of their expeditions, “This time we went at it in a more business-like manner. ”

“ It is impossible to picture life in one of the large cliff dwellings unless the architectural unit shown below is taken into consideration. This small section of Spruce Tree House consists of a kiva partially surrounded by a group of rooms. ”

“ The T-door is simply a standard door with the added notch at the bottom. It is a much more convenient door for if the hands are placed on the two ledges it is quite easy to fold the legs and swing through the opening. ”

“ Cliff Palace, with its 23 kivas and more than 200 rooms is, of course, the largest, but originally Long House may have been a close rival in size. Long House was so badly knocked about by the early explorers that it is impossible even to estimate how large it once was. Certainly it was second in size. The other two that fall into this group are Spruce Tree House and Spring House. Excavation and careful counting of rooms would perhaps add one or two more to this group but at present one can not be certain. ”

“ In the winter there may have been more crowding into the rooms. However, it must be remembered that fires were seldom built in the houses so there was little warmth unless a person actually bundled up in skins and blankets and went to bed. ”

“ A village of less than twenty rooms did not house many families. It would seem to have been a poor defensive unit for there would have been only a few men in such a village. In most cases the location made up for the small number of defenders. ”