Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-10
RELICS OF CLIFF JEWELLERS.
One Building That Sheltered PrObabl y
Six Thousand People.

From the Los Angeles Times.
Laden with relics of the vanished race Of
the Cliff Dwellers, the Rev. DR.. George l..
Cole has returned from a Journey to the
ruIned cities of southeastern Colorado and
New Mexico. Valuable results were secured
by excavations In an ancient communal
dwelling as yet unnamed, which STANDS on
the cliffs of the Santa Fe river, fourteen
miles from Espanola n. NJ. This is the
largest pueblo yet discovered in the Unltei
States and Dr. Cole was practically the
first to visit 1t with scientific objects III
view He found stone implements and pot
terry of extreme rarity, and the bones OF
race all of whose teeth were molars or
grinders. Among the bones eXcaVated from
a burial mound on the mesa were "a Wo-
mans femurs measuring nineteen inches, a
length which indicates that this aboriginal
giantess must have been at least seven anu
a half feet tall
During the journey just completed which
is the fifth DIR. Cole has made to study the
former habtations of the Cliff Dwellers, ne
and his son, Fay c. Cole. visited the Man
cos the Chaco, and other clih dwellings,,
but they found the less visited ruins more
interesting than any others.
The cliff on which the unexplored ruins
stand rises a thousand feet above the sur
roundinl, country on one SIDE of the hso-
lated rocky mass Is the valley of the Santa
Fe river, on the other that OF the Santa
Clara to GOO feCt Is q smell WHICH Iuf-
nished a nesting place for the CHI Dwell
ers of nobody knows how many centuries
ago. In the soft pumlce stone they pur-
rowed dens for their families. Eventual
the original shelters in the cliffs grew TO be
a great warren. Room after room was
hewn out until the rows were four or nve
deep. Under the shelter OF the overhanslng
cliff walls were built extending the rows OF
rooms The Cliff Dwellers were shei;e'e ed
from rain or storm and their homes were
Inaccessible for their enemies.
tfNafr 20 al he
Cliff Dwellers climbed upward, and on the
mesa 400 feet above the shelf on which the
caves opened. built communal dwell ng.
This mesa is about three-Quarters or a
mile wide and a mile and half long. with
cliffs all about and the best of opportunities
for defense. On its edge was reared a
watch tower of granite, whose height DR..
Cole believes to have been not less than
sixty feet The blocks were painfully car
ried up the 1.OOO-foot cliff, for the nearest
granite deposits are at a considerable dis
lance. For greater security wall was
built across the middle of the mesa.
on this rock platform, loo feet up in the
air there stands today the RUNS OF TWO com
munal dwellings, one evidently much older
than the other. The older dwelling is as
yet untouched. and what little exploration
of the more modern one DR.. Cole had time
for amounts to mere scratch on the sur
face.
There were not less than LOCO rooms in
the larger building in its prime. says DR..
Cole and probably 1900. The building
measured 24Ox3OO feet. 1t was of blocks OF
stone measuring six by six by ff cen
inches, quarried from the cliffs below, ard
carried UP by the workmen. The rooms
were rooted with timber, and the walls
then carried higher. In the center was a
great court, a common kitchen for all, from
which radiated immense numbers of rooms.
The building spread with the growth of the
community until 1t was three stories gh
and the rooms stretched away twelve deep
from the central court with smaller courts
here and there. DIR. Cole estimates that The
population averaged about three to room,
which would make between 4.aO and 6,UoO
people dwelling in the immense pueblo, be-
sides those who lived in the cliff caves.
The rooms at the sides of the communal
dwelling averaged about fourteen feet In
size. On the upper stories they were most
iy smaller some being only seven by four
teen, others seven by twenty-one. Some
rooms were found as large as fourteen by
twenty-one feet.
Today the ancient pueblo is mass of
ruins The walls have been shaken down
by storms or earthquakes and the rooms
are filed with debris. The Indian tribes
that dwell In the vicinity have forgotten
the history Of the cliff dwellings, If, indeed