The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1901-05-03
a CLIFF RUIN Pa j i
sE''' ssrvattono ct Nvond erful Rsmains2
=ssS in the N esa verde, Colo.
& RADIO, Assured s6$ $E.s5s5 5E;

s
The sundry civil bill, which became d
law on the 18th Of March, contains pro-
vision for Cliff Ruin park, in Colo {
RADIO, the purpose Of which is to preserve
the wonderful ruins Of that region from
further spoliation by relic hunters and
collectors. The Colorado Cliff Ruin as
ISOLATION is authorized to lease from the
Wi-minuchi Ute Indians. for a term Of
ten years, the whole Of the Mesa Verde
tract, which is part of the reservation
Of that tribe. the lease to Include and
cover all ruins and prehistoric remains
situated therein" The association is
authorized to occupy the tract and to
preserve and protect the RUINS.
This action by Congress-, although a
little late in the day, will preserve what
remains of the best cliff ruin region in
the United States The Mesa Verde,
IN the southwestern corner of Colorado,
is an irregular table land comprising
some 19O square miles. Through its center
about thirty miles long and between
5l00OEand 1000 feet deep, with sinnumer-
able branch canyons and gorges ,jutting
OH from either side into the body Of the
mesa. In these canyons and on the fat
table land above them there are hun
dreds of ruins of houses, ranging in size
from mere cubby holes in the cliffs to
extensive villages on the canyon bottom.
fractlcal!y every type found in other
regions is represented in the Mancos
canyon. =. .v>s,. s,~,..' ,.r
Wonders of the Mesa Verde.
region were visited by ". H. Jackson Of.
the then geological survey, in 1874, and
a syeart later by w. II. Holmes .,of the
same organization. The region is diff
this time has not been Thoroughly cx-
plored. Some Of: the largest and finest
ruins. were entirely overlooked by the
first investigators. Within recent years
q family of ranchmen living in the vicin-
ity has taken up the exploitation of the
from tourists and as mine for .archae-
illogical collections. Many of the ruins
have been completely Quilted in the
search for specimens, of which several
large COLLECTIONS have been sold in Den
yer and other Western cities, but hun
dition in which they were LETT by the old
cliff jewellers when they departed for
other regions or were exterminated by
the Utes or other tribes.
The most important Of all the ruins
remains Of large villages situated on the
fiat bottoms. of the canyons, have been but
little disturbed so far, as they are in
conspicuous and have not attracted the
attention Of the vandals. Systematic ex-
cayation in them would undoubtedly
yield yield large returns. The, cliff ruins
high up in the canyon walls, have been
pretty well cleaned out. but the walls
remain, and one can still form an ade
quate idea Of the conditions under which
the former inhabitants of that strange
region lived.
One of the distinctive features Of the
Mesa Verde region is the large number
Of ruins Of circular towers found there.
These are not seen anywhere else in the
same abundance. There is hardly half
mile in the whole e,1 region without one or
still mystery, the most plausible idea
being that they were watch towers, from
which the harassed cliff-dwellers kept
watch against the foes of whom they
were apparently in constant dread. .y-G
These towers are, the most pretentious
much as forty feet in diameter and in
many cases having double or triple walls.
Some examples are still standing to a
height Of several stories. They are built
solidly, of hewn stone, dressed on the out
mortar. How old they are and what part
they played in the life Of the ancient peo-
pie of that region is yet to be determined.
That they had some purpose in addition
to their use as watch towers is apparent
from the ground plans, or arrangement CT.
rooms: which can be made out even now.
In the larger towers the space between
the circulars walls is always divided by
heavy partitions into a number of small
rooms. while the center of the structure
shows depression, circular in form, like
q. well partly filed up. The extraor-
these towers indicates that they were not
designed for dwellings and as among
nearly all races the grandest and most
imposing works Of art are the offspring
Of religious feeling, it is probable that
the towers had an important place in the
the people that built them.
Strange Groups of Rooms.
Another class Of ruins which reaches
fine development in the Mesa Verde re-
glon, and is represented there by hun
dreds of examples, is the cave dwelling,
IN which the cliffs are actually carved
out to. make room for small rooms or
groups of rooms, the fronts of which are
usually walled up, to make them flush
with the face of the rock. It seems in
credible that any human being should live
in such places as those occupied by these
ruins. many of the rooms in which are
less than five feet high and only a few
feet square. In one place in the Mancos
SdnJOh lucIc - IcSuldT IOWu OF IleSe
odd homes, a picturesque outstanding
promontory being literally honeycombed
with them. Neither the outer openings,
the doorways, nor the windows are large
enough to permit the passage Of person
Of ordinary size, and it does not seem pos
sible that these hooks in the cliffs, some
Of them several hundred feet above the
bottom Of the canyon, could have been &C.
cupied as dwellings. Probably they were
used in some way in connection with the
large villages which occupied the canyon
bottom, as they are always found assoc
ciated with the remains of such large set
Elements. ne
: Throughout the Mancos canyon and on
the. neighboring cliffs there are numerous
rock carvings and paintings, left by the
race that built the cliff ruins and other
dwellings Some OF them are Clipped into
the face Of the rock with rude imple-
ment, doubtless Of stone, and represent
the human figure and various kinds Of
animals. The work on some Of the larger
groups must have entailed AN immense