Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-14

Over these beams the floor was formed of
punches of willow twigs tied with cedar
bark string and overlaid with clay, which
is still almost as hard as rock, making a
floor light. cool and about six inches thick
There were no stairways.
In one corner of each upper room Is a
square hole. originally entered by pole lad
ders, drawn I'D at night. The doors on the
ground floor were only about twenty by
thirty inches and since the dweller had to
crawl in a notch in the sill was cut for his
knee to fit into. A terrifying wall two feet
thick and apparently twenty feet high,
originally stretched before the base of the
block. Above this rose two watch towers.
one thirty feet high, with a platform on top,
presumably for the sentinel. The other
tower was a sort of block house, with front
wall pierced by small loopholes for archers.
Several mummies found in sealed rooms,
also considerable pottery, ornaments and
weapons have been taken from these rooms
at odd times by cowboys who camped there
between roundups.
The balcony house" in this same valley,
contains about twenty-five rooms. some of
them in perfect condition. 1t stands upon
a ledge, jutting out like a balcony from a
steep wall of rock. and was reached by
climbing down the wall from the top, by
means of foot and hand holes chiseled in the
cliff. Back of this house is a ruined poultry
barn. with five perches still In place. The
ledge by which the village was approached
Is lined with ruined sentry boxes and strong
manding q pass in the main approach, hav-
ing loon hole slanting downward to carry
the arrows which would NOW down in
truders. These famous cliff houses of the
has been endeavoring for several years to
have included in national park.
Casa Blanca
Casa Blanca. which means White House.
is an equally famous cliff ruin of the north
ar Of arz IN thn 10 do
Chiefly This seems to have. been first seen
by Lieut.. Simpson. United States army In
1S49. Upon a smooth. vertical cliff, thirty
five feet high there is a ledge rooted over
by a dark cave. and upon this sheltered
shelf stand the imposing ruins of once i'm
penetrable prehistoric apartment house
with fiat. evenly built front walls of stone
masonry. dotted with windows. Upon the
valley floor below the precipice lie the re-
mains of a larger cluster of rooms, origi-
naliy built against this vertical cliff Some
of these lower houses seem to have been
four stories high. the whole connected ruin
at the base of the precipice being $50 by so
feet, including originally about sixty rooms
and a circular chapel or ceremonial lodge.
The upper ruin composed about twenty
rooms more. the principal one occupying
the center of the cave. having walls two
feet thick and from seven to twelve feet
high. The exterior of this portion was fin
ished in whitewash-whence the name
white House"-and against the white was
a decorative band of yellow. One window
shows the remains of an appliance for clos
ing 1t. Each of these buildings was contin-
uous, and among them are found the re-
mains of four chimney-like structures. This
cliff dwelling, according to the ethnologist
Cosmos Mindeleff, who has studied them
for the bureau of ethnology, was probably
the last of the many in the Canyon de
Chiefly to have been abandoned. 1t afforded
sufficient space for fifty or sixty persons
and contained in all eighty separate cham
bers.
Montezuma Castle.
Montezuma castle, in the Rio Verde val
ley of Arizona, much farther on to the
southwest, is another of these great cliff
dwellings now to be protected. 1t was sup
posed to have been constructed by the
Aztecs on their journey to the far north
Owing to it's location on the steep cliffs
1t was inaccessible by ordinary means
Some years ago soldiers from the nearby
military reservation dashed two or three
ladders together for the convenience of Wis
ftors, who after thus gaining the upper
most walls ripped. out the stout old tim
bers and sent them crashing into the can
yon far below that they might hear the
echoes caused by the impact
In the Chaco canyon, west of Santa Fee
New Mexico, and across the Continental
divide there is more extenive group of
masonry ruins than elsewhere in the entire
country Included among these are the
CHI houses OF fueDiO BOnltO, Pretty
Village" situated in great cleft or cove
of the canyon side The American Museum
of Natural History has had an excavation
expedition at work here with marvellous
results.
The cliff dwellers built also what are
known as "cayate houses" These We're
dug In the cliffs, the typical habitation of
this kind being entered through a small
hewn doorway and consisting of one or
more round or rectangular chambers The
walls are sometimes plastered. and in
few cases simple ornamental dado in
colors Is carried around a principal room
These homes also included fireplaces,
porcheS alcoyes, storage chambers and
chinlneys or smoke vents The cayate cliff
dwellings to be set aside as national monu-
ments are most numerous on the east side
Of the Jemez plateau, facing the Rio
Grande. where the cliffs are honeycombed
with them They are also numerous along
the San Juan river and it's tributaries in
New Mexico and Colorado; also in the val
ley of the Rio Verde.
How Old Are Theyp
''The antiquity of the cliff dwellings can
only be surmised.'' said Prof. Holmes
'-Just when the occupancy of the cliffs be-
gan. whether 500 or 5000 years ago, must
for the present remain question. 1t may
be safely said that to the present time
no evidence of the former general occu-
pancy of the region by peoples other than
those now classed as Pueblo Indians or
other neighbors today has been furnished.
The old notion that the cliff jewellers were
a mysterious race, distinct from the In
dams. has thus given place to the theory
that they were the much hunted ancestors
Of the pueblo tribes. the red men who built
and who still occupy many of the ceie-
brated pueblos of the southwest
These Pueblos. too are to be made ma
tional monuments, those ct least which are