Evening star., 1935-07-21

place the diabolical Green and Bear
Rivers, running like threads through
the canyon, meet to carve wedge
shaped rock twice as high as the
Flatiron Building. Much of the can
yon is virtually in perpetual twilight
the sun penetrating its mysterious
depths for only two hours each day.
The area once occupied by the
Yampa Canyon cliff dwellers is eight
times larger than Mesa Verde Ma.
tional Park, which, 400 miles to the
south, holds the oest known and mos
carefully preserved collection of cliff
dwellings in the world. The houses
at Mesa Verde, as hundreds of thou
sands of tourists know, are located in
caves strung along many canyons that
cut through a tableland IS miles long
and 8 wide.
First Described in 1874.
The first published account of these
Mesa Verde cliff houses appeared in
the New York Tribune over SO years
ago.
Due to the isolation Of the mesa
and the care with which the cliff
dwellers had hidden their homes, il
was IA years before Cliff Palace, the
most spectacular of all their villages
was discovered On the basis of re-
ports by competent scientists who
have scratched the surface of Yampa
Canyons archaeological deposits IT
seems safe to predict that exploring
parties will work there for years with
important results.
Strangely similar to the discovery OF
Mesa Verde was the finding of the
Yampa Canyon cliff houses. The
canyon had long been known to cattle
men who ran their herds on the open
country above and to the rustlers who
hid in its gloomy depths. That ii
hid the secrets of mans early civil
ization in America was found out by
a tragic accident. In 1911 a Wllo
Irish cowboy named Pat Lynch las
seed a renegade steer close to the rim
of the chasm. The steer, mad with
terror of the rope around his horns
plunged into the abyss, dragging with
him the horse and horseman, to whose
saddle the rope was made fast.
Caught on Tree.
Fortunately for Lynch, pinon tree
stood on the rim of the cliff. This
obstruction caught the rope and for q
moment the steer and horse danglec
like toys from a string. Lynch was
thrown forcibly against the bluff anc
lodged, unconscious, in a niche
above a narrow ledge. Although HI
was seriously hurt, his Gaelic humol
remarked the peculiar predicament oi
the horse and COW suspended above
him. Then the rope snapped like
banjo string and the two animals
hurtled into the depths.
AS soon as he could stand, Pal
tried to find a passage to the top o.
the bluff; but the surface above hin
was as smooth as wall. Below hin
the ledge swelled like an eggshell ane
sloped into space.
Meditating his dilemma, the COWBOY
looked across the canyon. In som'
places the opposite cliff dropped pre-
cipitouSly for thousands of feet. A
others the cliff was broken and ther'
were trails where mountain sheer
Climbed 10 Tile UUp VI U1iC wall.
While studying these sheep trails
Pat discovered round hole in th'
distant cliff with a man-made wal
halfway across its face-the ruins O
a cliff dwelling Inside the cave h
could see three large pottery jars. HI
had seen cliff houses in the South
west, but these were the first he hat
ever come across in this northern
country. If there were cliff house.
on his side of the canyon and h,
could reach one Of them his life wa
saved, for these ancients would hav,
cut steps in the rock.
For hours Lynch sat in his littl'
niche in the cliff. No help would eve
reach him there, but he recoiled from
ending his misery by throwing him
self over the precipice
Then he had desperate idea. !
the canyon wall on which he wa
trapped was similar to the wall op
! posite him. there was onA chance Il