The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-03-29
DWELT IN CLIFFS
Interesting Theory to Account for
Their Lofty Homes.
Protected Against FIoods-Warned by the
Destruction OF Their People, the
Survivors May Have Chosen
the Cliffs for Safety.

Survivors May Have Chosen
the Cliffs for Safety.
Important explorations, which are all
the time going on in Colorado. Arizona
and New Mexico, in connection with
the remarkable structures known as
''cliff dwellings," have not yet resulted
in any discoveries concerning the rea-
son why they We're built and inhabited.
These cliff dwellings. says the New
York Herald, are found in very large
numbers in the rock bluff; that wall
in the principal canyons of the territory
where the Colorado, Mancos and other
rivers make their way toward the sea-
The most important of these situations
is the Mesa Verde, plateau extending
through southwestern Colorado and
New Mexico. and rising to a height of
from one thousand to two thousand
feet from its base, which is, again, sew
en- thousand TO eight thousand feet
above the sea level. 1t was very well
described four or five years ago by DIR.
w. r. Birdsall in a scientific publicl-
ton. The area investigated for cliff
dwellings is about three hundred square
miles.
This mesa. or tablehand, is covered
with scrub oak and cedars, and broken
by perpendicular canyons, so that it
looks as though the ground had been
split into innumera bic assures. In
certain spots the overhanging rock,
which seems to run in layers, has made
galleries. varying between few feet
IN extent and as much as thousand
feet in length and fifty in width. On
these narrow lodges the cliff jewellers,
like swallows, fastened their stone
houses, and the question is often asked:
''Why did they build 50 high?"
The only answer that science vouch-
safes is the simple one that they built
where they found caverns in which to
build" That this answer is insufficient
is shown by the fact that the base of
these canyons has, from time 10 time,
afforded cave accommodations for diff
ferent races. while more than a thou
sand square miles, not far from this
very locality, but on the lower lands,
show signs of occupancy at some time
by hundreds of cities and towns, pre-
historic and forgotten. The answer
given is, therefore, not sufficient TO
satisfy the mind
And certainly it must have taken
some powerful motive to induce the
prehistoric races To climb so high for
dwelling place, when this could have
been obtained at the expense of so
y. l.
planting them simply where tens and
hundreds of thousands did at some
time, two or three Thousand feet lower
down. Evidently the reason for their
not doing so was that they lived and
builded at a period far anterior to that
of ces autres. and when the existing
conditions must have been widely diff
ferent. At present these localities are
unfit for the use of man or beast on
account of the complete absence of
fresh water-eXcept whatever rain and
melted Snow may be caught in hollows
worn in the rocks.
Winding around the bluff or sheer
wall by narrow lodges, the explorer at
length comes upon great cliff, tower
ing upward, beneath which, on the
lodges below. rise the ruins of cliff
town. Then it is seen that the dwell
ings present an appearance of infinite
variety. There are little corners OF the
rock which evidently formed the houses
of the lower classes; others there are,
complete structures of stone taken from
the cliffs above and around. and fash
toned into substantial buildings, made
to adapt themselves TO the shape of the
caves and TO the limitations of space.
In some instances the ruins of these
buildings indicate towers, or communal
houses, of large extent They are all
built of blocks of sandstone broken or
cut into regular forms, laid in an adobe
cement, and the crevices between filed
in with stone chips. Where curves in
the gallery existed the walls were also
curved, or angled, to utilize the space.
Anyone who viii take The tronble to
read and collate the existing writings
concerning the traditions of the ex-
treme western and Pacific coast In
idians. viii find that the tribes all
agree in the possession Of traditions con
cerning great deluge which, at some
long past period, covered all their terri
tory, and from which but few escaped.
Such traditions extend from Oregon TO
Mexico. OF course, in such case,
those only would escape who reached
the highest lands. The idea that those
who are responsible for the cOnstruc-
ton of the cliff dwellings were the ones
who escaped from the great American
food is certainly not without probable
reason on its side. though writer's on
the subject generally give it wide
berth, being unwilling TO accept the
conclusion which must necessarily foL
low the adoption of so startling an
event as an actual fact Of prehistoric