DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST CLIFF DWELLINGS

Although the Spaniards were in the Mesa Verde region as early as 1765, there is no record of their having seen the cliff dwellings. It is probable, however, that they gave the great mesa its name, which in Spanish means, “green table.” First mention of the name was made by Professor J. S. Newberry, a geologist, who climbed to the summit of the mesa in 1859. From the manner in which Newberry used the name, “Mesa Verde,” in his report there can be no doubt that it had been applied prior to that time.

In 1874, Mr. W. H. Jackson, later famous as the “Pioneer Photographer,” came into the region. Immediately upon reaching the mining camps of the La Plata Mountains, Jackson, who was making a photographic survey for the government, began to hear of ancient ruins in the Mesa Verde. Intrigued by these stories he hired a garrulous miner, John Moss, to guide him to the ruins which were said to be in the cliffs of the canyon of the Mancos River.

Entering the canyon on September 9, 1874, the party traveled slowly, carefully scanning the cliffs far above. According to John Moss the ruins would be found in caves in the sheer sandstone faces. Although many weary miles were covered no cliff dwellings were seen and by the time evening camp was made the men were beginning to lose faith in their guide. Impatiently one of the men asked Moss where the ruins were. Without looking up from the campfire Moss waved his arm at the cliff above.

Suddenly the discovery came. Just as the last rays of the sun lighted the uppermost cliff one of the men spied a small dwelling. Seven hundred feet above them it clung to the face of the cliff. The men began to scramble up the canyon wall and just as darkness fell Jackson and another man entered the little ruin. The next morning Jackson returned for his pictures. Thus fame came to the little cliff dwelling shown in the picture below. Not only was it the first Mesa Verde cliff dwelling known to have been entered by white men but it was definitely the first ever to be photographed and the first to be named. Jackson called it Two-Story Cliff House. Although Jackson discovered more small cliff dwellings in the Mancos Canyon, Two-Story Cliff House was the finest and the only one he named.

A year later, in 1875, another government survey party passed through the Mancos Canyon. Only a mile from Two-Story Cliff House the leader of the party, Mr. W. H. Holmes, discovered a much larger and more imposing cliff dwelling that Jackson had missed. To this ruin, shown in the picture below, he gave the name Sixteen Window House.

THE DISCOVERY OF CLIFF PALACE

Although the small cliff dwellings of the Mancos Canyon were discovered in 1874, fourteen years passed before the largest of the cliff dwellings was found. Very little is known about that intervening period of fourteen years. There is considerable evidence that a number of prospectors and cattlemen were in the canyons of the Mesa Verde. Without doubt ruins were seen but the evidence is fragmentary and indefinite. We must move up to the year 1888, for the discovery of the greatest of the ruins.

At this point one name becomes especially prominent in this story of discovery, the name Wetherill. It is encountered in almost every tale of early exploration and it is found in a great many of the ruins, carved or written on cave walls. In 1881, Mr. B. K. Wetherill moved into the Mancos Valley and settled on a ranch a few miles north of the Mesa Verde. In the Wetherill family were five sons, Richard, John, Alfred, Clayton and Win. Addition of a brother-in-law, Charles Mason, rounds out the group of men who did the most work in discovering and exploring the ruins of the Mesa Verde.

The Wetherills were noted for their friendliness toward the Ute Indians who occupied the Mesa Verde and surrounding areas. In the early eighties the Utes began to allow them to winter their cattle in the Mancos Canyon, which bordered the Mesa Verde on the east and south. Immediately the men began to notice small cliff dwellings. They entered a number and even scratched about to see what was buried in the ruins. Rapidly their interest grew, especially when a Ute, named Acowitz, told them that in one of the canyons to the north was a cliff dwelling that was larger than all the others. His description of its size sounded unbelievable but from that time on the Wetherills had it in mind as they worked with their cattle. Once Al thought he saw it. Walking along a canyon bottom one evening he saw in the cliff, far above, the arching roof of a great cave. But darkness was coming and he did not climb up to it.

Actual details of the discovery of the greatest cliff dwelling are somewhat confusing for as the different men told the story in later years there was some variation in the minor details. On one point, however, there was no disagreement. Credit for being the first white men to enter Cliff Palace goes to Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law, Charles Mason. Many years later Mason, in an article in the Denver Post, told of this stirring event which took place on December 18, 1888.

“In December 1888, Richard and I started out to explore. We followed the Indian trail down Chapin Mesa, between Cliff and Navaho Canyons, and camped at the head of a small branch of the Cliff Palace fork of Cliff Canyon.... We rode out to the point of the mesa.... From the rim of the canyon we had our first view of Cliff Palace, just across the canyon from us. To me this is the grandest view of all among the ancient ruins of the Southwest.”

CLIFF PALACE—THE FIRST WHITE MEN ENTER THE RUIN

After first sighting Cliff Palace from the opposite canyon rim, the two cowboys decided to enter the great cliff dwelling. Again we go to the words of Charles Mason for this part of the story.

“We rode around the head of the canyon and found a way down over the cliffs to the level of the building. We spent several hours going from room to room, and picked up several articles of interest, among them a stone axe with the handle still on it. There were also parts of several human skeletons scattered about.”

When archeologists excavated Cliff Palace twenty years later it was impossible to visualize the ruin as it had been at the time of discovery. Time after time it had been dug into by the early explorers and no part was undisturbed. For a picture of the ruin as it was on the day of discovery we must again refer to the story told by Charles Mason. While some of his ideas would be hard to support his impressions as he first walked through the greatest of all cliff dwellings are of interest.

“The final tragedy of the cliff dwellers probably occurred at Cliff Palace. There is scarcely room to doubt that the place withstood an extended siege. In the entire building only two timbers were found by us. All of the joists on which floors and roofs were laid had been wrenched out. These timbers had been built into the walls and are difficult to remove, even the little willows on which the mud roof and upper floors were laid were carefully taken out. No plausible reason for this has been advanced except that it was used for fuel.

“Another strange circumstance is that so many of their valuable possessions were left in the rooms and covered with the clay of which the roofs and upper floors were made.... It would seem that the intention was to conceal their valuables so that their enemies might not secure them.... There were many human bones scattered about, as though several people had been killed and left unburied....

“It seems to me there can be no doubt that the cliff dwellers were exterminated by their more savage and warlike neighbors, the men being killed and the women being adopted into the tribe of the conquerors, though in some cases migrations may have become necessary as a result of drouth or pressure from outside tribes.”

Mr. Mason did not realize how near the truth he was when he suggested that, “migrations may have become necessary as a result of drouth or pressure from outside tribes.”

THE DISCOVERY OF SPRUCE TREE HOUSE

After discovering Cliff Palace the two cowboys decided to separate and search for more ruins. Mason rode off to the north while Wetherill went more to the west. After riding a short distance Wetherill came to the rim of a small canyon. Riding around the head of the canyon and looking back under the eastern cliff he saw another great cliff dwelling, pictured below. Since it was late afternoon he did not enter the ruin but returned to the camp near Cliff Palace.

While not as large as Cliff Palace, this second cliff dwelling, which they later named Spruce Tree House, was in a better state of preservation. Many of its walls still stood at their original height, touching the roof of the cave. Several of the rooms had their original ceilings. Spruce Tree House has since proved to be the best preserved large cliff dwelling in the Mesa Verde.

At the head of the canyon only a hundred yards from Spruce Tree House was a wonderful spring. Because of the fine flow of water the cowboys often camped there. Later park headquarters were located there and the first road came directly to it. It was because of this permanent water supply that all modern developments were located in the Spruce Tree House area.

THE NORDENSKIOLD EXPEDITION

Spruce Tree House was one of the cliff dwellings excavated by the first archeologist to work in the Mesa Verde. In 1891, less than three years after the discovery, the Swedish archeologist, Baron Gustav Nordenskiold, was excavating in the cliff dwellings.

Nordenskiold, a member of the Swedish nobility, had read of the Mesa Verde ruins and had decided to excavate some of them. In July 1891, he arrived at the Wetherill ranch and hired John Wetherill as his guide and foreman. Three more men were hired as laborers and for four months the group excavated in the cliff dwellings.

Spruce Tree House bears Nordenskiold’s inscription, “Number 1 House.” Cliff Palace bears the inscription, “No. 2,” and in all, twenty-two ruins bear numbers left by Nordenskiold.

The archeological specimens recovered by Nordenskiold were taken to Sweden but at the present time are in the National Museum, in Helsinki, Finland. In the collection, as cataloged today, are about 600 specimens. While it is a good collection it does not deserve the fabulous reputation it has acquired. Although Nordenskiold reached the Mesa Verde in 1891, the finest things had already been taken out by the cowboys. His collection contained a number of outstanding specimens but in its entirety did not compare with the collections taken out by the cowboys themselves.

THE DISCOVERY OF SQUARE TOWER HOUSE

After discovering Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House, Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason returned to their camp. The next morning they started off to visit Spruce Tree House, which only Richard had seen the day before. As they rode across the snow covered mesa they misjudged their direction and bore too far to the south. Coming to the rim of a deep canyon they found, not Spruce Tree House, but another large cliff dwelling.

Although not as large as the two they had found the day before it was still much larger than any they had seen previously. The outstanding feature of the ruin was a tall square tower, a four-story structure that rose against the cliff. Because of it they later named the ruin Square Tower House.

The two men now began to realize the importance of their discoveries. During the past few years they had seen many small ruins along the Mancos Canyon to the south. Now they had pushed up the canyons to the north and in the space of two days had found not only the ruin Acowitz had called the “greatest cliff dwelling,” but two more large ruins. As they sat on their horses above Square Tower House they could see that off to the north and west were many more canyons. Surely more of the mysterious structures awaited discovery.

THE FIRST EXCAVATION

Filled with a desire to tell others of their surprising discoveries they returned to the Wetherill ranch and spread the news of the great ruins they had found. Immediately John Wetherill decided to visit Cliff Palace. With three other men he set out and only four days after the discovery the men entered the ruin and began to excavate.

Near the south end of the ruin a kiva was in perfect condition except that the roof was missing. Stretching a piece of canvas over it the men moved in and for three weeks the ancient ceremonial room served as living quarters as they excavated the great cliff dwelling. This was the beginning of serious excavation by the cowboys. The discovery of the large ruins made them feel that the recovery of articles left behind by the Indians might be a profitable business. As Charles Mason stated later in referring to one of their expeditions, “This time we went at it in a more business-like manner. Our previous work had been carried out more to satisfy our own curiosity than for any other purpose but this time it was a business proposition.”

On this first expedition the men kept no record of what they found. In later years two things stood out in John Wetherill’s memory. Throughout the ruin they found a profusion of baskets and in the low room in the rear of the cave they found fourteen mummies.

LONG HOUSE—DESTRUCTION BY THE EARLY EXPLORERS

THE PERIOD OF EXPLOITATION

Within a short time after the discovery of the major ruins a large number of men were digging in the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde. The Wetherills were able to sell several collections, one for $3000, and word spread that digging was profitable.

That the ruins suffered greatly from the work done during the early years is everywhere evident. Below is Long House, probably the saddest example of what careless excavation did to the ruins. Long House was, without doubt, the second largest cliff dwelling in the Mesa Verde, rivaling Cliff Palace in size. Now little remains standing. But careful study of foundations, broken bits of masonry and the outlines of rooms on the cave walls indicates that the cave was once full of high structures. The great mass of stones that can be seen sliding down into the trees all across the front of the cave is an indication of the amount of masonry that once stood in the cave. Tales have come down to us indicating that dynamite was used by some of the early explorers in opening up the ruins. Dynamite fuse found in Long House lends support to these stories.

The work of some of the diggers was careless and ruthless. They had no consideration for the ruins for their only thought was of the sales value of the artifacts recovered. An indication of this can be seen in the fact that a banker in a nearby town “grub staked” men to dig in the ruins. Supplying them with food and equipment he received a percentage of their profits from the sale of artifacts.

The vast wealth of material taken from the ruins was widely scattered and much of it has disappeared. Of all those who excavated in the Mesa Verde during the early years probably only the Wetherill brothers kept records on what they found. Most of their collections were sold to museums and the Wetherills were encouraged by the museums to keep careful notes. These collections, even though they may now be in distant parts of the world, have value because of the records the men kept.

In 1889 and 1890, a writer named F. H. Chapin spent several weeks in the Mesa Verde traveling with the Wetherills. The extent of their excavations is indicated by some of the statements in his famous book, “The Land of the Cliff Dwellers.”

“Up to March 14, 1890, they had examined in all one hundred and eighty-two houses.... They visited one hundred and six houses in Navaho Canyon alone....”

The thoroughness with which the ruins were excavated can be seen by a statement made by Charles Mason in writing about one of their collecting trips. “In spite of the fact that all of the cliff dwellings had been worked two or three times, we succeeded in making a very good showing.”

THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC EXCAVATION

EXCAVATION AND REPAIR

The larger ruins of the Mesa Verde were discovered in 1888, and for eighteen years they were without protection. Anyone who wished to could excavate in them and since there was a ready sale for the artifacts a large number of men engaged in commercial excavation. The ruins suffered greatly during this period for there was no realization that the area would ever be accessible to the general public.

In 1906, through the efforts of interested people, a portion of the mesa was set aside as Mesa Verde National Park and since that time the ruins have been protected. A superintendent and the first rangers reached the new park in 1907, and the period of commercial excavation came to an end.

At that time there was no road and the park could be reached only by a ride of thirty miles on horseback. In spite of this, visitors began to come and it soon became apparent that in time there would be heavy visitation. Equally apparent was the fact that the ruins were in no condition to receive visitors. Weakened by centuries of neglect and further weakened by the careless work of the early explorers many of the ruins were in poor condition. They could not long survive the impact of the thousands of visitors who would begin to arrive as soon as the first road was built. The answer to this problem was excavation and repair of ruins that were to be visited by the public.

In 1908, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian Institution, excavated Spruce Tree House and the picture below shows the ruin as it looks today. First the ruin was cleaned out. When the work began, the courts, passageways, and ground floor rooms were filled, sometimes to a depth of several feet, with fallen stones, caved roofs and trash. As this debris was removed, only a few articles of value were found for the early excavators had been thorough in their work. The repair work consisted simply of strengthening the weak sections so there would be no further deterioration. Crumbling foundations were strengthened; leaning walls were braced; cracks were filled with adobe mortar. In all the work there was no thought of restoration for too much modern work would destroy the spirit of the ancient ruin.

In his report on the work in Spruce Tree House, Dr. Fewkes stated, “The intention of the author has not been the reconstruction but the repair of Spruce Tree House. Walls in danger of falling, especially those that have suffered a thrust from the perpendicular, have been so treated as to prevent their falling. No radical reconstruction of the rooms has been attempted; the walls have not been built up, but the skylines remain practically as they were before the excavations were begun.”

ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS

Study of the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde has revealed a surprising similarity of architecture throughout the area. The structures were the work of a single tribal group and a definite pattern was followed by all the members. Some cliff dwellings were small, others very large, the size depending entirely on the size of the cave. The area covered by the tribe embraced the Four Corners sections of the present states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. But in all the cliff dwellings constructed by the members of this far-reaching tribe certain architectural features are commonly found.

Below are shown some of the details that characterize Mesa Verde architecture.

ARCHITECTURE—THE LIVING ROOMS

The term “living room,” as we use it today, is really not a good term for the rooms in the cliff dwellings. Actually these were, for the most part, sleeping and storage rooms. Probably few of the activities of daily life took place in them. The real “living space” was the great open areas in the villages, the kiva courts and the terraced housetops. The cave itself served as a roof over the entire village and the people probably spent most of their active life outside the rooms.

Most of the rooms were small and dark. In the pictures below the small size of the doors is clearly evident and the few windows were little more than peepholes. Very few of the rooms had fires inside so the light was poor. Weaving, sewing, pottery making, and such activities could not have been carried on inside the rooms.

For the most part the rooms should be considered as sleeping and storage rooms. If an adult could stretch out at full length on the floor the room was large enough for sleeping purposes. If it were too small for normal sleeping it served as storage space for food supplies and family possessions.

In the winter there may have been more crowding into the rooms. However, it must be remembered that fires were seldom built in the houses so there was little warmth unless a person actually bundled up in skins and blankets and went to bed. The fires were built in the courts and on the open roofs and in cold weather the people probably huddled about them.

ARCHITECTURE—THE CEREMONIAL ROOMS

To the person who views a cliff dwelling for the first time the most interesting feature is the underground ceremonial room. Modern Hopi Indians call these rooms “kivas,” and this term is commonly used. The kivas in Mesa Verde cliff dwellings developed from earlier pithouses and exhibit a high degree of standardization. Although there are occasional variations almost all Mesa Verde kivas contain the same standard features. Kivas are thought to have been used chiefly by the men and served as combination ceremonial rooms, club rooms, council chambers and workshops.

ARCHITECTURE—THE LIVING SPACE

It is impossible to picture life in one of the large cliff dwellings unless the architectural unit shown below is taken into consideration. This small section of Spruce Tree House consists of a kiva partially surrounded by a group of rooms. This relationship of kiva and houses is so common in the larger caves that it must indicate deliberate planning on the part of the builders.

In Spruce Tree House there are six of these kiva courts, almost identical to the one shown here. In each case the kiva with its flat open roof is partially or completely surrounded by houses.

In considering the kiva court shown below it is quite possible that the houses were occupied by a group of closely related families, perhaps a small clan. In the high rear wall nine doorways can be seen. Each door opened into an individual room that had no side or rear doors. In these small, cell-like rooms the people slept and stored their possessions.

The active life of the people from these houses was in the open court and on surrounding roofs. There was ample room for all and it was here that they cooked, ate, worked, and played. The overhanging cave roof sheltered the entire village from the elements and there was little need for the people to use the small dark rooms except at night. There was little privacy for individual families; probably all of the residents of this court area lived together like one very large family.

About twenty rooms seem to have opened into this kiva court. Certainly it should not be considered that there were that many individual families. But it is evident that a large number of people occupied the rooms and shared the open court. In the left foreground can be seen the hatchway of a second kiva. The roof of this kiva formed another court which was surrounded by another group of rooms much like those shown at the right.

The kiva itself should not be tied too closely to the clan or group of families living around it. Customs in some of the present-day Indian Pueblos lead to the belief that a kiva was used by a religious society and men from other parts of the village and other clans could have been members of this ceremonial group. The kiva may have belonged to the clan which lived around it and may have been taken care of by the men of this clan. But its ceremonies would have been conducted by a religious society to which belonged men of various clans.

WHY DID THE INDIANS BUILD IN THE CAVES?

It is impossible to look at the cliff dwellings without wondering why the Pueblo Indians chose to build their homes in the cliffs. A few of the ruins are in large, open, airy, easily accessible caves, that to the casual observer might seem like rather decent places in which to live. But most of the caves are not of this type. The majority are high on the cliff faces—many are merely narrow high ledges on which a few rooms could be perched.

For many centuries the Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde area lived on the open mesa tops and in the broad fertile valleys. They were a settled agricultural group, highly skilled in all their arts and crafts. Then, rather suddenly, they left their pleasant pueblos and moved into the caves. Within a short time there were few Indians left out in the open. What caused this sudden change in their way of life? In order to answer this question it is necessary to consider the entire background of the Pueblo Indians of this area.

The earliest evidences of these people indicate that they were well established in the Mesa Verde region shortly after the birth of Christ. Originally a hunting people, they had received corn and squash from more southern neighbors and were turning to a settled agricultural life.

At first they seem to have had no houses so, at least for part of the year, they occupied the caves. After a time they began to experiment with simple pithouses. When substantial houses had developed they left the caves and built their villages in the open. For many centuries they lived in the open valleys and on the broad mesa tops. The population grew and the tribe spread over a wide area. The architecture developed steadily and by the twelfth century the people were living in hundreds of pueblos, constructed of stone and adobe masonry.

Late in the twelfth century the people began to move and the population began to diminish. Some of the people left the area, drifting off to the south. The rest began to search for defensive locations for their villages. In the Mesa Verde the villages were moved to the caves of which there were many hundreds in the numerous canyons. By the early part of the thirteenth century most of the Indians had moved to the caves and during the last few generations the people were in the Mesa Verde it appears that few lived in the open.

There can be little doubt that the movement to the caves was caused by the arrival of an enemy group. In many parts of the Southwest, the same thing happened. Evidently some nomadic group, perhaps the earliest of the Apaches, came into the area and began to harass the Pueblo Indians. In the interest of health the peaceful farmers began to build their homes where they could defend them against marauders.

After living in the open for many centuries the Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde moved to the caves and constructed the cliff dwellings. There can be little doubt that this move was prompted by a desire for defensive locations.