Ruin A
Fig. 11.—Ground plan of ruin A, Hill Canyon, Utah.
The two large buildings near Taylor’s lower ranch, ruins A and B, are typical of the first group, the most conspicuous of which, ruin A, is shown in the accompanying figures ([pl. 7, b], [pl. 8, a]). This ruin stands on the point of a high cliff, inaccessible except on the west side. Although the special features of the masonry are somewhat obscured by fallen sections, and the form ([fig. 5]) is hidden, it is a circular enclosure about 25 feet in diameter, its wall being about 13 feet high, at the highest point. Between this high outer wall ([fig. 11]) and that of the inner circle, there are remains of a banquette or bench, surrounding the chamber very much broken down. The lower stones are much larger than the upper, similar in this respect to the walls of certain cliff dwellings. The circular room and bench once covered the point of the mesa, and is separated from the plateau by a deep fissure worn in the rock outside the wall on that side. The height of the highest wall is 20 feet, and the bench around the circular portion averages 3 feet high. In thickness the walls vary from 1 to 3 feet. On the second ledge, or outcrop of hard rock below the summit of the cliff, on which ruin A stands, there is a fine example of the dug-out type of habitation, several of which occur in the sides of this canyon. The roof of this type of dug-out is formed by a flat slab of rock projecting horizontally from the cliff and forming the protection for a chamber excavated in the soft rock below. In some instances these dugouts have rudely constructed lateral and front walls but none of them has more than one room. They appear to have been inhabited rooms but may at times have served for shelter.[18]