Archeological investigations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

RUINS IN HILL CANYON

The country directly south of Ouray, Utah, is an unknown land to the archeologist. Geologically speaking it is a very rugged region, composed of eroded cliffs and deep canyons which up to within a few years has been so difficult of access that white men have rarely ventured into it. At present the country is beginning to be settled and there are a few farms where the canyon broadens enough to afford sufficient arable land for the needs of agriculture. The canyon is very picturesque, the cliffs on either side rising from its narrow bed by succession of natural steps ([pl. 7, a]) formed of sandstone outcrops alternating with soft, easily eroded cretaceous rock. Its many lateral contributing canyons are of small size, but extend deep into the mountain in the recesses of which are said to be hidden many isolated cave shelters, and other prehistoric remains. The cliffs and canyons of this region are not unlike those farther south along the Green and the Grand Rivers, a description of which, quoted from Prof. Newberry,[16] pictures vividly the appearance of the weird scenery in these canyons. He says:

From this point the view swept westward over a wide extent of country in its general aspect a plane, but everywhere deeply cut by a tangled maze of canyons and thickly set with towers, castles, and spires of varied and striking forms; the most wonderful monuments of erosion which our eyes already experienced in objects of this kind had beheld. Near the mesa we are leaving stand detached portions of it of every possible form from broad, flat tables, to slender cones, crowned with pinnacles of the massive sandstone which forms the perpendicular faces of the walls of the Colorado. These castellated groups are from 1,000 to 5,000 feet in height, and no language is adequate to convey a just idea of the strange and impressive scenery formed by their grand and varied outlines. Their appearance was so strange and beautiful as to call out exclamations of delight from our party.

In this wild country up to his time rarely visited by white men, Prof. Newberry also graphically described ruins not greatly unlike some of those in Hill Canyon as follows:

Some two miles below the head of Labyrinth Canyon we came upon the ruins of a large number of houses of stone. Evidently built by the Pueblo Indians as they are similar to those on the Dolores, and the pottery scattered about is identical with that before found in so many places. It is very old but of excellent quality made of red clay coated with white and handsomely figured. Here the houses are built in sides of the cliffs. A mile or two below we saw others crowning the inaccessible summits, inaccessible except by ladders, of picturesque detached buttes of red sandstone, which rise to the height of 150 feet above the bottom of the canyon. Similar buildings were found lower down and broken pottery was picked up upon the summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River. Evidence that these dreadful canyons were once the homes of families belonging to that great people who formerly spread over all this region now so utterly sterile, solitary and desolate.

Prof. Montgomery,[17] in an article on the ruins in Nine Mile Canyon, gives a description of similar prehistoric remains which he had found in that region. From this description the author of the present paper supposes that these ruins belong to the same type or one very similar to those found in Hill Canyon. The antiquities Montgomery mentions are well preserved, for he speaks of one of the towers in this region as about 50 feet high, standing in an almost inaccessible spot commanding a magnificent view of several canyons and mountains. He says:

On the top of a mesa in an extremely dizzy situation, were the remains of three small stone circular structures, two of which were provided with roofs of heavy cedar logs and heavy, flat stones. The logs and poles of these two structures would make about a cord of wood, and they possessed distinct marks of the rude stone axes with which they had been cut into suitable lengths. * * * On the south side of the canyon, and about a mile from Brock’s Postoffice, I explored a strong and well-built stone structure, which stood upon a high and precipitous cliff. It formed about the two-thirds of a circle, being 14 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 5½ feet high, and was completed by a cliff in its rear. * * * In a short time we came to the rock column, which, although hard and solid was much disintegrated and had been vertically cleft and separated, leaving a dangerous gap between its two inclined and overhanging portions. By the aid of cedar poles we succeeded in clambering to its summit, and there, in a situation that commanded a magnificent view of many canyons and hills, we found the ruin of four circular stone structures which, in my opinion had once been a look-out, and signal military station. They were arranged upon the flat top of the rock in such a manner that three smaller ones, each capable of holding but one man, occupied the front and most exposed places, one of them being in advance of the other two, which were nearer the sides of the rock. The fourth and largest stone structure held a place several yards in the rear of the three small ones, but from it a clear view of a wide and extended tract of country could also be obtained. They were all destitute of openings except at the top, and their walls sloped inward from below, so that the opening in each of the three small structures was small and only sufficient to allow the entrance or exit of one person.

The author’s attention was called to ruins in Hill Canyon like those above mentioned, by Mr. A. H. Kneale, agent of the Utes at Fort Duchesne, Utah, and at the close of work at Mesa Verde a trip was made into the region where they are found. The route was from Grand Junction, Colorado, to Mack, Utah, by rail, thence by rail to the end of the road at Watson. The trip from Watson to Ouray was by automobile. At Ouray the author outfitted with wagon, forded the Duchesne River, and crossed the Green River by ferry. Later he proceeded south to Squaw Crossing on Willow Creek, and thence to Taylor’s ranch, in the midst of the ruins of Hill Canyon.

The ruins mentioned below were visited, but many others were reported by cowboys which were not seen on account of limitation in time, the object of the visit being primarily a reconnoissance.

The following ruins were seen by the author and his companions during their short visit to this region:

1. Ruins A and B, on the canyon rim within sight of Taylor’s lower ranch.

2. Two ruins on pinnacles of rocks 1½ miles from Taylor’s lower ranch following the canyon southward.

3. Tower ruin crowning a leaning pinnacle.

4. Ruin on top of a plateau with precipitous sides, in middle of a canyon 3 miles south of Taylor’s lower ranch.

5. Walls on top of an inverted cone, 6 miles up the canyon from Taylor’s lower ranch.

6. Several towers in a cluster on a point of the plateau 8 miles below Taylor’s lower ranch.

The above ruins may be classified into two types distinguished by the character of their site: (a) True “mushroom rock ruins,” as their name implies, are perched on tops of isolated rock pinnacles resembling the so-called Snake rock at Walpi, and (b) the second type, crown spurs of the mesa overlooking the canyon. The pinnacle foundations of the former are the last stage in erosion of a spur from the side of the canyon. It is doubtful whether these pinnacles were cut off by erosion before or after the buildings thereon were constructed. On the whole both types of ruins in Hill Canyon present no architectural differences from those found in some of the tributary canyons of the Colorado River.

The author’s visit to the Hill Canyon region was mainly a reconnoissance to verify reports of the existence of prehistoric remains in this little-known region. He was accompanied by Mr. T. G. Lemmon of Dallas, Texas, a volunteer, who furnished the Hill Canyon pictures here reproduced. Mr. Owen, the official farmer of the Ute reservation, and an Indian boy accompanied us, the former as guide, the latter as driver. In penetrating this secluded country we were obliged to camp along the way, but were hospitably received by the few ranchmen along the route and made our home for a few days at Taylor’s lower ranch while making our excursions to the ruins. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge this aid and especially that of Mr. Kneale, who aided us in outfitting at Ouray.

The best preserved examples of characteristic Hill Canyon Ruins belong to the second type, or those not isolated from the neighboring plateau, the most striking of which belong to the mushroom type. Both have a general similarity in circular form and massive walls, recalling, except in poor quality of masonry the so-called “towers” of the McElmo Canyon. They resemble the “Tower ruin,” found by Prof. Montgomery, in Nine Mile Canyon, on the western slope of the range. Their masonry is composed of natural slabs of rock, rudely fashioned by fracture, but rarely dressed in cubical blocks, as in the towers on the McElmo Canyon. Their exposure to the elements has led to considerable destruction, the adobe in which the walls were laid having been washed out of the joints. The lower courses of stone, as seen in the view of the large ruin perched high above the ranch house, were of larger stones than the upper, and showed more evidences of having been dressed than the flat stones piled one on the other, which form the upper courses.