The Dolores star., 1901-05-17
A cuFr.oweLLINe PARK IN COLORADO
BY COSMOS MINDELErr.
Fmm the scientific American.

DAYS of the session which ended March
4 last renders certain the preservation
of the most interesting cliff ruins In
this country, and their protection from
future spoilation. The region known
as the Mesa Verde, in Colorado, in
which there are hundreds of ruins, is
to be set aside as a public park, and
steps are to he taken to put n stop to
the commercial exploitation of the
| works of the ancient cliff dwcllers.
Discovered some twenty-five years
| ago, the ruins on the Mesa Verde and
| in the Mancos Canon, which cuts
through the heart of the elevated table
land, rested for long time undisturbed
and even unvisited, owing to the inac-
cessibility of the place. Within the
| past ten years, however, ranchmen liv-
ing in the vicinity found that speci-
| mems from the ruins had a commercial
value, and active work began on the
stripping of the remains of everything
which could be carried of. Under the
Act of Congress this destruction will
soon cease. The Mesa Verde is an ele-
waited tableland of the type which
charactcrizes southwestern Colorado
and northern New MyNico and Ari-
IONA. 1t is in irregular form, compris-
ing about seven hundred square miles,
approximately flat on top, but cut into
innmerable canons and gorges 10y the
Mancos River and its tributaries. The
great development of the art of build
ing among the ancient cliff dwellers
was due in large measure TO the pc
culiar geological features of the coun-
try, nowhere better illustrated than in
the Mesa Verde.
The Mancos Canon is about thirty
miles long and from 1000 10 1000 feet
in depth, the narrow, irregular river
bottom being bounded by long, steep
slopes of debris, which merge into n
succession of sleeps and slopes, culmi-
mating above in series of lofty cliffs.
Traces of the old cliff dwellers are to be
found throughout the region, along the
bottoms, in the cliffs and ON the high
tablelands. Taken altogether, there is
no region which surpasses the Mesa
Verde country in its archaeological inter-
ests, or which is better worth preserva-
ton, although ii should be noted that
the Indians have tradition of another
and better region TO the south.
Practically all the more important
types of ancient dwellings are repre-
sented in the remains found in the
Mesa Verde region, and, in addition,
there are others which reach a develop
ment there not attained elsewhere.
Even the large valley settlements, com7
prising several hundred rooms, and To-
Gated without reference to defense the
highest type of the ancient builders
architecture, are found here and there
in favorable sites on the canyon bot
tom.
These valley settlements merge al
most insensibly into the cliff dwellings
proper through another type which
might be termed cliff villages, type
which appears to have reached its
highest development in the Mesa
Verde region. One of the most impos-
ing of these cliff villages, discovered in
comparatively recent times, is a ruin
which has been called the "Cliff Pal
ace" found in the upper part of Cliff
Canon, one of the principal gorges
which join the Mancos Canon from the
north. The ruin is 425 feet long and
occupies a cove in the cliff about SO
feet high and about the same in depth.
Some of the rooms are circular, some
oval in shape, but most of them were
rectangular, and in places the structure
was at least three stories high. Access
to the settlement could be had only
from above, by the aid of a series of steps
cut into the face of the cliff. Eight
miles above the mouth of the Nance.
there are the ruins of another large elf
village. In this case the houses occu
pied two narrow lodges in the cliffs
one about thirty feet above the other
and at least 500 feet above the canol
| bottom.
The cliff villages always contained
one or more circular rooms, the use o
which was doubtless religious, for SINH
lar structures are found in the vale,
ruins and in some of the inhabited
pueblos, where they are known u
estufas. In them are performed man,
of the most sacred ceremonies of tn
tribe. Besides the cliff villages, how
ever, there are hundreds of cliff dwell
ings in the Mancos Canon and it
branches, ranging in size from singl
rooms up to groups of considerable i'm
portance, in which no circular room
are found. Many of them are on site
so inaccessible that it seems incredibl
that human beings should select sucl
places for homes.
A type closely related to the clit
IL