Prehistoric villages, castles, and towers of southwestern Colorado

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Great Houses and Towers

Great houses and towers differ from pueblos of the pure type but may often be combined with them, forming composite houses arranged in clusters called villages. Castles and towers may be isolated structures without additional chambers, or may have many annexed rooms which are rectangular, round, or semicircular in form. Semicircular towers surrounded by concentric curved walls connected by radial partitions forming compartments are shown in Horseshoe Ruin, to which attention has been called in preceding pages, and possibly in the circular or semicircular ruins on hilltops near Dolores.

MASONRY

The masonry of the great house and tower type ([pl. 11, a], [b]) varies in excellence, not only in different examples but also in different portions of the same building. Some of the walls contain some of the best-constructed masonry north of Mexico; others ([see pl. 6, b]) are crudely made. In the Great House of the Holly group, where the walls show superior construction, the lowest courses of rock are larger than those above, but in Hovenweep Castle small stones are found below those of larger size; the Round Tower in McLean Basin shows small and large stones introduced for ornamentation.

The ambitious constructors of several towers have built the foundations of these towers on bowlders sloping at a considerable angle, and it is a source of wonder that these walls have stood for so many years without sliding from their bases. Although so well constructed in many instances, the courses were weak from their want of binding to the remaining wall. As a consequence many corners have fallen, leaving the remaining walls intact. The builders often failed to tie in the partitions to the outer walls, by which failure they lost a brace and have sprung away from their attachment.

In a general way we may recognize masonry of two varieties.

1. That in which horizontal courses are obscure or absent. This has resulted from the use of stones of different sizes, the intervals between which are filled in with masses of adobe. These stones are little fashioned, or dressed only on one side, that forming the face of the wall.

2. That constructed of horizontal courses, constituting by far the larger number of these buildings. Each course of this masonry is made of well-dressed stones, carefully pecked, and of the same size. In this horizontal masonry the thickness of stones used may vary in different courses ([pl. 11, b]). They may be alternately narrow or thick, or layers of thick stones may be separated by one or more layers of tabular or thin stones. This method of alternation may be so regular as to please the eye and thus become decorative, a mode of decoration that reached a high development in the Chaco Ruins. The stones in the horizontal style of masonry are equal in size throughout the whole building in some cases, and show not only care in choice of stones but also in dressing them to the same regulation size. In these cases the joints fit so accurately that chinking has not been found necessary and a minimum use of adobe was required.

The inner walls of kivas are much better constructed than the outer walls of the same or of the walls about them. The masonry here is regular horizontal. The sides, lintels, and thresholds of doorways are among the finest examples of construction. With the exception of walls sheltered by overhanging cliffs, the plastering has completely disappeared, but there is no reason to doubt that the interiors of all the great houses and towers were formerly plastered.

It is instructive to compare the masonry of the great houses and towers of the Mancos with that of the towers in Hill Canyon ([pl. 11, c]) in Utah, the most northern extension of these two types. In Eight Mile Ruin, one of the largest of these buildings in Hill Canyon, we have a circular tower with annexed great houses, all constructed of well-dressed stones, the masonry in the walls showing on one side of the tower. No excavations, however, have yet been undertaken in Hill Canyon Ruins, and it is not known whether the unit type of kiva is found there, but the combination of great houses and towers is evident from the ground plans elsewhere published.[41]

The feature of the towers in Hill Canyon is the clustering into groups, somewhat recalling the condition in Cannonball Ruin, where, however, they are united. In the Eight Mile Ruin one of the towers is separated from the remaining houses.

Several towers have accompanying circular depressions with surrounding mounds. This association can well be seen in Holmes Tower on the Mancos Canyon and in Davis Tower and one or two others on the Yellow Jacket. These depressions, sometimes called reservoirs, have never been excavated, but from what is known of rooms accompanying towers in the western section of Hovenweep Castle it may be that they indicate kivas. Some towers have no sunken area in the immediate vicinity, especially those mounted on rocky points or perched on bowlders. At Cannonball Ruin there are several kivas side by side in one section and towering above them is a massive walled tower and other rooms.

STRUCTURE OF TOWERS

None of the towers examined have evidences of mural pilasters to support a roof or recesses in the walls as in vaulted-roofed kivas. They are sometimes two stories high, the rafters and flooring resting on ledges of the inner wall. Lateral entrances are common and windows are absent.[42]

While the author has found no ruin of the same ground plan as Sun Temple on the Mesa Verde, D-shaped towers or great houses from several localities distantly recall this mysterious building, and there may be an identity in use between Sun Temple and the massive walled structures of the McElmo and Yellow Jacket; what that use was has not thus far been determined.[43] If they were constructed for observatories we can not account for the square tower in the South Fork of Square Tower Canyon, from which one can not even look down the canyon, much less in other directions, hemmed in as it is by cliffs. Isolated towers are often too small for defense; and they show no signs of habitation.

Are they granaries for storage of corn or places for rites and ceremonies? Do they combine several functions—observation, defense, and storage of food? Thus far in studies of more than 30 towers and great houses not one has been found so well preserved that enough remains to determine its use, and yet their walls are among the best in all southwestern ruins. Some future archeologist may find objects in towers that will demonstrate their function, but from our present knowledge no theory of their use yet suggested is satisfactory.

It is impossible from the data available to determine the century in which the towers and great houses of the region were constructed. Thus far a few were seen with great trees growing in them, but none with roofs; the state of preservation of the walls does not point to a great age. Several writers have regarded them as occupied subsequently to the Spanish conquest, while others have ascribed to them a very remote antiquity. It can hardly be questioned that the cliff-dwellers, and by inference their kindred, the tower builders, were superior in their arts to modern Pueblos.

It is important to determine first of all the forms of these towers; whether their ground plans are circular, oval, square, rectangular, or semicircular. The northern wall of many is uniformly curved and the last to fall, which might lead to the belief that the southern side, generally straight, was poorly made, but one can not determine that by direct observation, since the latter has fallen. As a matter of fact the south wall was generally low and straight, over 50 per cent of the “round” towers being semicircular, D-shaped, or some modification of that form; but we also have square and rectangular towers. It is also important to determine whether these had single or multiple chambers and the arrangement of the rooms in relation to them. This is especially desirable in towers with concentric compartments.

It is also instructive to know more of the association of towers with pueblos and cliff-dwellings or to analyze component architectural features. The tower type often occurs without appended rooms. At Cliff Palace and Square Tower House it is united with a pueblo village under cliffs; in Mud Spring Ruin it has a like relation to rooms of a pueblo in the open. Has its function changed by that union? What use did the tower serve when isolated and had it the same use when united with other kinds of rooms in cliff-dwellings and pueblos?

No writer on the prehistoric towers of Colorado and Utah has emphasized the fact that a large number of these buildings are semicircular or D-shaped, but it has been taken for granted that the fallen wall on the south side was curved, rendering the tower circular or oval.[44] In most cases this wall was the straight side of a D-shaped tower. Doctor Prudden, who first recognized the importance of a union of towers with other types of architecture in the McElmo district, says:[45] “Towers of various forms and heights occasionally form a part of composite ruins of various types.” He says also: “Several of the houses are modified by the introduction of a round tower.” And again: “At the head of a short canyon north of the Alkali, which I have called Jackson Canyon ... each building consists of an irregular mass of rooms about 200 feet long, with low towers among them.”

As our studies are morphological, dealing with forms rather than sites of towers, little attention need be paid to their situation on bowlders, in cliffs, or at the bottoms of canyons. The majority of the castellated ruins considered in the following pages are in the proposed Hovenweep National Monument, but there are others in the main Yellow Jacket and its other tributaries.

HOVENWEEP DISTRICT

The name Hovenweep (“Deserted Valley”) is an old one in the nomenclature of the canyons of southwestern Colorado and formerly (1877) was applied to the canyon now called the Yellow Jacket, but at present is limited to one of the tributaries. The name is here used to designate an area situated just over the Colorado State line, in Utah, part of which it is hoped will later be reserved from the public domain and made a monument to be called Hovenweep National Monument.

The ruined castles and towers in this district are marvelously well preserved, considering their age and imperfect masonry. We can determine their original appearance with no difficulty and use them in reconstructing the possible forms of more dilapidated ruins, now piles of débris. The best castles and towers known to the author are localized in three canyons: (1) Square Tower Canyon, (2) Holly Canyon, (3) Hackberry Canyon. There are, of course, other castles and towers in the Yellow Jacket-McElmo region, but there is no locality where so many different forms appear in equal numbers in a small area.

Ruin Canyon

The Old Bluff Road from Dolores diverges southward from that to Monticello at Sandstone post office and passes a pile of rocks visible from the road on the Ruin Canyon long before it reaches Square Tower Canyon ([fig. 6]). This large ruin is situated on the east rim and under it in the side of the cliff are fairly well-preserved cliff-houses. Other ruins with high standing walls were reported in Ruin Canyon but were not visited.

The duplication of names of canyons in this district is misleading. Names like Ruin Canyon are naturally applied to canyons in which there are ruins. When the author learned at Dolores of Ruin Canyon, he supposed it was a tributary of the Yellow Jacket or McElmo, but while the canyon known to cowboys at Dolores by this name has large ruins on its rim, it is not the “Ruin Canyon” to which attention is now directed. The duplication of names has led me to retain the name Ruin Canyon for one and to suggest the name Square Tower Canyon for the other.

Fig. 6.—Square Tower Canyon.

After leaving Ruin Canyon the Old Bluff Road takes a southerly course, passing through the cedars until a sagebrush clearing replaces the “timber,” where it crosses two well-preserved Indian reservoirs, or bare surfaces of rock, dipping south, the southern border having as a retaining wall a low ridge of earth to hold back the water. The retaining wall of the second reservoir has been built up by stockmen and, when the author was there, contained considerable water. Crossing the second reservoir a trail turns east or to the left and follows the road to Keeley Camp, near which are the “Keeley Towers.”

At present an automobile can approach within a mile of these ruins.

Square Tower Canyon

To reach the Square Tower Canyon ([pls. 11-17]) one returns to the reservoir on the Bluff Road and continues east about 3 miles farther, where a signboard on the left hand indicates the turn off to Square Tower Canyon. Following the new direction about southeast the great buildings are visible a mile away. An automobile can go to the very head of this canyon and a camp can be made within a few feet of Hovenweep House. If the visitor approaches Square Tower Canyon from the McElmo, he passes through Wickyup Canyon, where there are two towers on the summits of elevated buttes, not far from the junction of the canyon and the Yellow Jacket.

The castles and towers in Square Tower Canyon have been known for many years and have been repeatedly photographed.[46]

Several descriptions of these ruins have been printed, but no satisfactory studies of their structure have been published. They are recognized as prehistoric and are generally thought to have been inhabited contemporaneously with the cliff-dwellers of the Mesa Verde, being built in the same style of architecture.

Classification of Ruins in
Square Tower Canyon

The ruins in Square Tower Canyon are classified for convenience in description as follows:

(1) Ruins which have indications of inclosed circular kivas, with mural pilasters and banquettes, and closely approximated surrounding rooms. To this class belong ruins 1, 2, and 10. Of these, Unit type Ruin (No. 10) has only one kiva and belongs to the simplest or unit form of the pure type. Ruins 1 and 2 have two or more kivas and are formed by a union of several units, combined with towers and great houses. (2) Ruins, the main feature of which is absence of a circular kiva. The Twin Towers belong to this second or “great house” type. The few cliff-dwellings in this canyon are small, generally without kivas, resembling storage cists rather than domiciles.

Hovenweep House (Ruin 1)

This ruin ([fig. 7]), the largest in the canyon, is situated at the head of the South Fork. Although many of its walls have fallen, there still remains a semicircular great house (B, C, D) with high walls conspicuous for some distance. The ruin is a pueblo of rectangular form belonging to the pure type, showing circular depressions identified as kivas (K), embedded in collections of square and rectangular rooms, and massive walled buildings (E) on the south side.

Fig. 7.—Ground plan of Hovenweep House.

The standing walls of the ruin are remains of a conspicuous D-shaped tower (B, C, D), which is multichambered. Its straight wall measures 23 feet, the curved wall 56 feet, and its highest wall, which is on the northeast corner, is 15 feet high. At the northwest angle of the ruin (A) there stand remains of high walls which indicate that corner of a rectangular pueblo. Hovenweep House ([pl. 14, a]) was the largest building in this canyon, but with the exception of the addition of a semicircular tower or great house, does not differ greatly from a pueblo like Far View House on the Mesa Verde. The piles of stone and earth indicating rooms below justify the conjecture that when the fallen débris is removed the unfallen walls will still rise several feet above their rocky foundations. If properly excavated, Hovenweep House would be an instructive building, but in its present condition, while very picturesque, its structure is difficult to determine.

Fig. 8.—Ground plan of Hovenweep Castle.

Hovenweep Castle

This ruin ([pls. 14, b], [c]; [18, b]), like the preceding, has circular kivas compactly embedded in rectangular rooms arranged about them, indicating the pure type of pueblos. The massive walled semicircular towers and great houses are combined with square rooms and kivas, indicating that it is distinguished by two sections, an eastern and a western, which, united, impart to the whole the shape of a letter L ([fig. 8]).

WESTERN SECTION OF
HOVENWEEP CASTLE

The western section ([fig. 8, A-D, M]) of Hovenweep Castle is made up of five rooms, the most western of which, M, is semicircular, while A, B, C, and D are rectangular. Room A is almost square, one of its walls forming the straight wall of the south side of the semicircular tower, M. At the union its walls are not tied into the masonry of the circular wall of the tower, as may be seen in the illustration, [plate 14, b], implying that it was constructed later. There is an entrance into A from the south or cliff side, and a passageway from A to Room B, which latter opens by a doorway into Room C. All rectangular rooms of the western section communicate with each other, but none except A seem to have had an external entrance. The photograph of the south wall of the west section of the ruin ([pl. 14, c]) shows small portholes in the second story and narrow slits in the tower walls. The lower courses of masonry are formed of thinner stones than the rows above, but smaller stones compose the courses at the top of the wall. A view of the north wall of the western section ([pl. 22, a]) shows the tower and rooms united to it. There is no kiva in the western section.

EASTERN SECTION OF
HOVENWEEP CASTLE

The longest dimension of the western section ([pls. 12], [14, c]) is approximately east-west; that of the eastern is nearly north-south. The eastern section ([fig. 8, E-L]), like the western, has a tower (L), which is situated between two circular depressions or kivas (K). On the north and south ends the eastern section is flanked by rectangular rooms. Those at the north end were better constructed, and even now stand as high as the walls of the western tower. The views show that their corners are not as well preserved as their faces, which is due to defects in masonry, as lack of bonding. Although much débris has accumulated around the kivas, especially in their cavities, it is evident that these ceremonial rooms were formerly one storied, and practically subterranean on account of the surrounding rooms. Several fragments of walls projecting above the accumulated débris indicate rooms at the junction of the eastern and western sections of the ruin, but their form and arrangement at that point are not evident and can be determined only by excavation. The inner kiva walls show evidences of mural pilasters and banquettes like those of cliff-dwellings and other pure pueblo types.

Ruin 3

The square tower ([pl. 11, a]), standing on a large angular rock in the canyon below Hovenweep Castle, is a remarkable example of prehistoric masonry so situated that it is shut in by cliffs, rendering the outlook limited. Several published photographs of this tower give the impression that it stands in the open and was an outlook, but that this is hardly the case will be seen from a general view looking west up the South Fork.

Ruin 4

This ruin is a small tower situated in a commanding position on the point of the mesa where the canyon forks. The section of the wall still standing indicates a circular form, the north side of which has fallen; the part still intact, or that on the south side, exhibits good masonry about 8 feet high ([pl. 15, c]).

Ruin 5

The walls of the north segment of a tower stand on a large angular block of stone rising from a ledge above the arroyo, or bed of the canyon, below Ruin 4, on the South Fork. What appears to have been a doorway opens on its north side; this opening is defended by a wall, remains of a former protected passageway into the tower.

On the perpendicular cliff of the precipice near Ruin 5 and below the point on which Ruin 4 stands there are several almost illegible pictographs, below which are rather obscure evidences of a building, the features of which can be determined only by excavation.

Instructive features of Tower No. 5 are two parallel walls, one on each side of the doorway, like those of the circular towers on the promontory at the junction of the Yellow Jacket and McElmo. Other towers on the canyon rim show defensive walls, as in Ruin 9, constructed about their entrances from corners of the buildings to the mesa rim, effectually preventing passage. Morley and Kidder have suggested that the walled recess in the cliff below Ruin 9 was probably built to prevent access from below. This feature is found in the floor entrances of a building near the Great House of the Holly group.

Ruin 6

This ruin is a small tower whose curved walls are so broken down that the form is not evident. It is situated in the base of the talus at the head of the South Fork ([pl. 26, a]).

Eroded Bowlder House
(Ruin 7)

This house, more remarkable from its site than its structure, was constructed in an eroded cave of a bowlder halfway down the talus of the cliff. The front walls are somewhat broken down, but others built in the rear of the cave still remain intact. On the top of the bowlder is the débris of fallen walls, suggesting a former tower, but not much remains in place to determine its outlines. Where the walls are protected the mortar shows impressions of human hands and at one place there are the indentations of a corncob used by the plasterers to press the mortar between the layers of stone. There were formerly at least two rooms in the rear of the cave, the front walls of which have fallen and are strewn down the talus to the bottom of the canyon.

Twin Towers
(Ruin 8)

The so-called Twin Towers, which seen together from certain points appear as one ruin ([pl. 15, a], [b]), rank among the most impressive buildings in Square Tower Canyon. They stand on the south side of the canyon on a rock isolated by a cleft from the adjoining cliff. The larger ([fig. 9, A-E]) has an oval ground plan and a doorway in the southwest corner; the smaller (F, G, H, I) is horseshoe shaped with a doorway in the east wall, which is straight. The arrangement of rooms is seen in [figure 9]. Small walled-up caves are found below the foundation on the northwest base of the larger room.

Fig. 9.—Ground plan of Twin Towers.

Ruin 9

The ground plan of this ruin is rectangular in form, 19 feet 6 inches long by 10 feet wide. The standing walls measure 11 feet in altitude. It is situated on the south rim at the mouth of the South Fork, just above Ruin 7, a few feet back from the cliff. A doorway opening in the middle of its north wall was formerly made difficult of entrance by walls, now fallen, extending from the northeast and northwest angles to the edge of the cliff. The masonry throughout is rough; projecting ends of rafters indicate a building two stories high. There are peepholes with plastered surfaces through the southeast and west walls, which suggest ports. A short distance east of the building is a circle of stones reminding the author of a shrine.

Unit Type House
(Ruin 10)

This pueblo ([pl. 19, c]), from a comparative point of view, is one of the most interesting ruins in the Hovenweep, and is situated on the very edge of the canyon on the North Fork not far from where it begins. It is the simplest form of prehistoric pueblo, or the unit[47] of a pure type, made up of a centrally placed circular ceremonial room ([fig. 10, K]) embedded in rectangular rooms, six in number (A-F). The resulting or external form is rectangular, oriented about due north and south; the southern side, which formerly rose from the edge of the canyon, being much broken down and its masonry precipitated over the cliff.

The central kiva ([fig. 10]) is made of exceptionally fine masonry and shows by what remains that it had mural banquettes, and pilasters to support the roof, with other features like a typical kiva of the Mesa Verde cliff-houses. A side entrance opens in one corner into a small room ([fig. 10, G]) in which ceremonial objects may have been formerly stored ([pl. 32, b]).

The kiva of Unit type House is architecturally the same as those with vaulted roofs at Spruce-tree House, Cliff Palace, and Far View House on the Mesa Verde. A similar structure, according to Prudden,[48] occurs at Mitchell Spring Ruin in the Montezuma Valley, and near the Picket corral. The same type was found by Morley[49] at the Cannonball Ruin and by Kidder[50] in a kiva on Montezuma Creek in Utah, where clusters of mounds would appear to be composed of single or composite ruins of this type. This small pueblo was probably inhabited by one social unit, and may be regarded as the first stage of a compound pueblo.

Fig. 10.—Ground plan of Unit type House.

Stronghold House
(Ruin 11)

Ruin 11 is composed of a cluster of several small buildings, one of which is situated on the north edge of the mesa somewhat east of Ruin 10 ([pl. 25, b]); another, called by Morley and Kidder Gibraltar House, formerly of considerable size, was built on the sloping surface of an angular bowlder ([pl. 17], [21, b]). Although many walls have fallen, enough remains to render it a picturesque ruin, attractive to the visitor and instructive to the archeologist, by whom it has been classed as a tower. This building from the east appears to be a square tower, but it is in reality composed of several rooms perched on an inaccessible rock.

Ruins in Holly Canyon

The towers in Holly Canyon ([fig. 11]) are in about the same condition of preservation as those in Square Tower Canyon. They cluster about the head of a small canyon ([pl. 18, a]) and may be approached on foot along the mesa above Keeley Camp, about a mile distant. Two of the Holly ruins belong to the tower type and were built on fallen bowlders. One of these has two rooms on the ground floor. ([Pls. 19, a], [b]; [20, a], [c].)

Fig. 11.—Holly Canyon Ruins.

RUIN A, GREAT HOUSE,
HACKBERRY CASTLE

Ruin A ([pl. 21, a]), the largest building of the group, which stands on the edge of the canyon, is rectangular in form, measuring 31 by 9 feet, and is 20 feet high ([fig. 11, A]). Evidences of two rooms appear on the ground plan, one of which is 14 feet long, the other 12 feet inside measurement. The partition separating the two rooms is not tied into the outer walls, an almost constant feature in ancient masonry. The ends of the rafters are still seen in the wall at a level 12 feet above the base. Fallen stones have accumulated in the rooms to a considerable depth, and the tops of the remaining wall, where the mortar is washed out, will tumble in a short time.

Ruin B ([pl. 20, b]), situated a short distance north of Ruin A, also stands on the canyon rim. The north wall is entire, but the south wall has fallen. What remains indicates that the ruin was about square, with corners on the north side rounded, imparting to it a semicircular form. The entrance into this room may have been through the floor.

TOWERS [C AND D]

These towers ([pl. 23, a], [b]) show some of the finest masonry known in this region, being constructed on fallen bowlders which their foundations almost completely cover. Holly Tower ([pl. 23, b]) measures 16 feet high and 21 feet in diameter. It is 7 feet wide, its top rising to a height level with that of the mesa on which stand buildings already considered. One of the two rooms of this tower is narrower and wider than the other, shown in an offset as if constructed at a different time. Its foundations are 17 feet long by 8 feet wide, the highest wall measuring, at the southeast corner, 12 feet 8 inches. There is a fine doorway, wide above and narrow below, in the north wall. The approach at present is difficult on account of the height of the rock on which it stands, but there are evidences of former footholes.

HOLLY HOUSE

Several broken-down walls, some of which are over 6 feet high, situated east of Ruin A, appear to belong to a pueblo of considerable size ([fig. 11, E, F]), but the large foundation rock on which it is situated has settled, its top having separated from the edge of the canyon, so that the corner of the building (F) is out of plumb. The walls on the adjoining cliff are also much broken down, although several sections of them rise a few feet above the general surface. The cause of this change in level of the base may have been an earthquake or the settling or sliding of the bowlder on the talus down the hill. The united building appears to have been a pueblo of rectangular form. Its walls are so broken down that it was not possible to determine its exact dimensions.

Ruins in Hackberry Canyon

HORSESHOE HOUSE

The large building in Hackberry Canyon, one of the terminal spurs of Bridge Canyon, a mile northeast of the cluster in Holly Canyon, is particularly instructive from the fact that surrounding the remains of a circular tower, for two-thirds of its circumference, is a concentric wall with compartments separated by radial partitions ([fig. 12, 1]).

Fig. 12.—Horseshoe (Hackberry) Canyon.

Horseshoe House ([pl. 23, c]) stands on the north edge of the canyon ([fig. 12, 1]), having its straight wall on the south side, as is usually the case, the well-preserved north side being curved. The northeastern corner still stands several feet high. The southeastern corner formerly rested on a projecting rock, which recalls the cornerstone of Sun Temple. The masonry of most of the southern segment of the enclosed circular room or tower has fallen down the cliff. There does not appear to have been a doorway on the south side, and there is not space for rooms on this side on account of the nearness to the edge of the cliff. While the form ([fig. 13]) of Horseshoe Ruin recalls that of Sun Temple, in details of room structure it is widely divergent. The length of the south wall, or that connecting the two ends of the horseshoe, is 30 feet, its width 27 feet; the highest wall on the northwest side is 12 feet. [Figure 13] shows the arrangement of the rooms and the mutilation of the south wall of the ruin. The distance between the outer and inner concentric walls averages 4 feet; the circular room is 17 feet in diameter.

In the same cluster as Horseshoe Ruin ([pl. 24, a]) there is another well-made tower ([fig. 12, 4]), constructed on a point at the entrance to the canyon, and below it in a cave are well-preserved walls of a cliff-dwelling.

Fig. 13.—Ground plan of Horseshoe House.

A short distance due north of Horseshoe House, at the head of a small canyon, a tributary of Bridge Canyon, there are two large pueblos and a round tower. The pueblos are mentioned by Prudden, who gives a ground plan which indicates an extensive settlement.

TOWERS IN THE MAIN
YELLOW JACKET CANYON

Of the several towers and great houses of the main Yellow Jacket Canyon two may suffice to show their resemblance to those in Square Tower Canyon. The two towers considered belong to the D-shaped variety, the straight wall, as is almost always the case, being on the south side.

Davis Tower

Mr. C. K. Davis, who lives not far from the Yellow Jacket Spring, conducted the author to a tower of semicircular ground plan ([fig. 14]) near his ranch. This ruin ([pl. 26, b]), is situated on a rocky ridge on top of the talus halfway down to the bottom of the canyon, on its right side.

Lion (Littrell) Tower[51]

This tower ([pl. 29, b]) is built on a bowlder situated in Yellow Jacket Canyon a mile from Mr. Littrell’s ranch and about 5 miles south of the Yellow Jacket post office; approximately 20 miles from Dolores, Colorado. Its ground plan ([fig. 15]) is D-shaped, the lower story being divided by partitions into four rooms. The wall of the middle room seems to be double, or to have been reenforced. It measures 40 feet on the straight side, the highest wall being about 25 feet above the base. The foundations rest on the irregular surface of a bowlder to which it conforms.

Fig. 14.—Ground plan of Davis Ruin.

M’LEAN BASIN

McLean Basin is 3 miles from the Old Bluff City Road near Picket corral, 32 miles from Dolores. It has been a favorite wintering place for stock and is well known to herdsmen. One can approach the ruin from the road to Bluff City and the towers here referred to are easily reached by a trail down the mesa to the highest terrace. There are said to be several ruins in the McLean Basin, the two towers ([pls. 26, c], [27], [28, a], [b]) visited being placed in an exceptional position in reference to surrounding rooms. One of these towers is circular, the other D-shaped or semicircular in ground plan ([fig. 16, A, B]).

Fig. 15.-Ground plan of Lion House.

Previously to the author’s study of the southwestern towers two forms of these structures were recognized; the square or rectangular, and the circular or oval. It is now known that several of the towers previously described as circular are in reality D-shaped, and this form is probably more common than the circular.

Fig. 16.—Ground plan of ruin with towers in McLean Basin.

The rectangular building in the McLean Basin has a circular tower ([pl. 28, b]) on the southwest angle and a D-shaped tower ([pl. 28, a]) on the northeast. They resemble two turrets rising above the remaining walls that form the sides of the rectangles. These towers average about 12 feet high, and are well constructed, while low connecting walls of coarse masonry rise slightly above the surface. It would appear from the amount of débris that the remaining walls indicate a row of buildings, one story high, with circular subterranean kivas, but this can not be accurately determined without excavation of the ruin. Outside of the rectangle, however, there are at least two circular areas, possibly kiva pits. The rectangular building measures about 50 feet square. The ground on which the buildings formerly stood slopes to the south, and back of it on the north rises a low perpendicular bluff which effectually shelters it in that direction. The union of a circular and a semicircular tower with, a rectangular ruin is a feature not common in the McElmo-Yellow Jacket region but appears in Hovenweep Castle, elsewhere described. Lower down the sides of the basin and near by are many indications of walls of buildings.

The pottery in the neighborhood belongs to the same black and white types commonly found in the Hovenweep and Mesa Verde areas.

Except for their peculiar relation to the rectangular building the McLean towers do not differ essentially from others, which leads to the inference that they were used contemporaneously and for the same purpose. There is a well-made doorway ([fig. 17]) in the Round Tower.

TOWER IN SAND CANYON

Sand Canyon, which opens into McElmo Canyon near Battle Rock, has several types of prehistoric ruins, viz, towers, cliff-houses, and large rim-rock pueblos. The tower type of architecture represented by the example here figured ([pl. 5, a]) is isolated from other forms of buildings. This tower is figured by Doctor Prudden, who mentions another in the neighborhood which the author did not visit.

TOWERS IN ROAD (WICKYUP) CANYON

Fig. 17.—Doorway in Round Tower, McLean Basin.

The nomenclature of the northern canyons of the McElmo has considerably changed in the last 40 years. What we now call the Yellow Jacket was formerly known through its entire course as the Hovenweep. A small canyon opening near its mouth, now known as Road Canyon, was formerly called the Wickyup. The Old Bluff City Road from Dolores, Colorado, to Bluff City, Utah, divides into two branches a short distance before it descends into the McElmo, its left branch passing through Road Canyon, the right bank of which follows the Yellow Jacket, which the traveler fords a short distance above its junction with the McElmo. Wickyup Canyon may be called picturesque, its cliffs being worn into fantastic shapes by water and sand. It has important antiquities, among the most striking of which are two towers ([pl. 24, b]), crowning the tops of low buttes or hills. The walls of these towers are well constructed, one being a simple structure with a single room, the other having appended rectangular rooms extending toward the northwest, some distance along a ridge of rocks. An examination of these two towers, which are about one-quarter of a mile apart, shows that they belong to the same type as the simple forms of those above mentioned, and as the entrance to Square Tower Canyon is not far away, they probably belong to the same series. The first of the towers, called “Bowlder Castle,” is situated a few hundred feet east of the road, from which it is easily seen. This ruin is rectangular in shape and rises from a basal mass of débris indicating broken-down walls of rooms. At a level with the top of this débris on its southern side stands a well-constructed tower with well-made doorway, the threshold and lintel of which are smooth stones, whose edges project slightly from the surface of the wall. One remarkable feature of this tower is that the doorway has been walled up with rude secondary masonry ([pl. 25, a]). The south wall of this building has tumbled over, as is usually the case, but the north wall rises several feet above the base. The masonry of the second tower is also broken down on the south side, but the standing remains of the north wall, which is circular, are over 10 feet high. The indications are that the ground plan of this building was oval in shape and that it inclined inward slightly from foundation to apex. Scattered over the surface are the remnants of fallen walls, and near it there is a well-marked depression, not unlike those found in unit type mounds, indicating kivas.

TOWERS OF THE MANCOS

The author’s examination of the towers in the region considered embraced likewise a few in the Mancos Canyon and valley. In all essential features the Mancos towers resemble those of Mesa Verde, the McElmo, and the Yellow Jacket Canyons, and were evidently built by the same people who constructed the towers on Navaho Canyon and elsewhere on the Mesa Verde National Park. A brief reference to two or three of these Mancos River towers may suffice to point out their general structure.

Holmes Tower

One of the towers figured by Holmes in 1877 is still among the best preserved in this region and can be visited by following up the Mancos Canyon from the west about 10 miles from where the Cortez road crosses the Mancos River before going on to Ship-rock. There is at this point a bridge and near the crossing an industrial farm of the Ute Reservation where accommodations were obtained. The Mancos Valley widens after leaving the canyon, the southern side of Mesa Verde appearing as a series of high mesas separated by canyons. In the neighborhood of the western end of Mesa Verde are lofty buttes, one called Chimney Rock, another the Ute Woman. This valley and the canyons extending into the Mesa Verde contain numerous piles of stone indicative of buildings of rectangular shape with numerous circular depressions. No cluster of mounds like those in Montezuma Valley was seen, but about 40 sites of buildings were distributed at intervals. None of these have standing walls above ground.

Following up the Mancos Canyon is a wagon about 9 miles an arroyo was encountered and from there horses were taken and the river crossed to its south bank, above which, on the shelving terrace, is the Holmes Tower, visible many miles down the canyon. This tower ([pl. 29, a]) is in much the same condition as when sketched by Holmes over 40 years ago. It is circular in form, about 10 feet in diameter, and about 16 feet high, with a broken window on the north side. The sky line is irregular. It is one of the best preserved towers, but not as high or as well constructed as some of the Hovenweep specimens.

Accompanying this tower on the north there are mounds indicative of rooms and two circular saucer-like depressions. Excavations revealing a few human bones, including a well-worn human skull, have been made in a burial place southeast of the tower, where the surface is covered with fragments of pottery. Except in size Holmes Tower does not differ from others already described, but, like them, is connected with rectangular rooms. Farther up the Mancos Canyon there are other towers, one of which, Great Tower, is mentioned by Holmes in his report.

On the way up the canyon, perhaps two-thirds of the distance from the bridge to the Holmes Tower, midway in the alluvial plain and on the right bank of Mancos Creek, stands a circular ruin which conforms to Holmes’s description of Great Tower but is too poorly preserved to be positively identified. All that now remains of this building is a large pile of rocks with a central depression, but no signs of radiating partitions, although such may have existed when it was constructed and for many years after it began to fall into ruin.

Towers on the Mancos River
Below the Bridge

TOWER A

There are two towers situated on the south side of the Mancos below the bridge on the Ship-rock Road, one about 6, the other 7 miles distant. The walls of the first of these ([pl. 30, b]) are visible for some distance and are about 6 feet high, evidently very much broken down on the south and east sides. Its shape is round and there is a pile of stones indicating rooms on the east side separated from the tower by a depression. It would be a valuable contribution to our knowledge of these ruins if some one would determine the nature of these pits, which can hardly be regarded as reservoirs, but suggest kivas.

TOWER B

The tower ([pl. 31, a]) situated farther down the Mancos River has a more commanding position than Tower A and is conspicuous because it stands on a projecting precipice, below the rim of which are walled-up artificial caves. These caves have apparently never been entered by white men; the walls of masonry are unbroken and there are square openings, windows or doorways, which can be made out long before reaching the place.

This tower ([pl. 30, a]) is almost perfectly round, about 10 feet in diameter, and stands at least 6 feet high. The south wall has fallen. In the pile of rocks on that side may be readily seen the top of a straight wall reaching to the edge of the cliff as if for protection, but no other fallen walls may now be seen in the neighborhood. The face of the cliff below this tower ([pls. 7, b]; [31, b]) is almost perpendicular, the component strata of soft shale alternating with harder rocks, the former well fitted for artificial excavations.

The author was not impressed with the idea that any considerable number of troglodytic inhabitants dwelt in the small cliff rooms ([pl. 31, b])[52] dug in it. Farther on there are other caves the walls of the entrance to which are still in sight. It is true the surface of the cliff may have been eroded and fallen in the time since they were abandoned. They appeared to be storage cists rather than inhabited rooms.

Along the valley by the side of the road down the Mancos from the bridge to the ruins many heaps of stone were noticed in the valley but none of these were extensive or had walls standing above ground. Nor were they arranged in clusters as is common in the Montezuma Valley. On top of these heaps were found large fragments of slag in which was embedded charred corn, indicating a great fire. Similar slag also with burnt corn has often been found by the author on the floor of excavated rooms.

Megalithic and Slab House Ruins
at McElmo Bluff

The ruined walls on the bluff situated at the junction of the McElmo and Yellow Jacket Canyons are archeologically instructive. As the mesa between the two canyons narrows in a promontory, about 100 feet in altitude, its configuration reminds one of the East Mesa of the Hopi. It is inaccessible on three sides, but on the fourth, where the width of the mesa is contracted, there are remains of a low zigzag wall, extending from one side to the other. At the western base of this promontory, on the ledge higher than the river, there are artificial walls built on bowlders in the sides of which shallow caves are eroded and near by them circular depressions. There are likewise remains of a small pueblo with walls much broken down and across the river the ruins of a community house, one of the largest in the district. The exceptional character of the ruins on top of this promontory has been mentioned or described by several visitors, as Holmes, Jackson, and Morley and Kidder, and various conjectures have been made as to their character and relation to the other ruins in this neighborhood.

The ruins on this mesa are of two kinds: small inclosures made of slabs of stone set on edge and semicircular structures ([fig. 18]), also constructed of upright stone slabs or megaliths. Three of the latter have concentric surrounding walls with a “vestibule” entrance (?) at the south somewhat like rooms at the bases of towers. One of these is said by Morley and Kidder to have three concentric walls. The small box-like structures are numerous, and are rudely constructed, united in an imperfect ring about the circular rooms.

In verification of the various theories that have been suggested to account for these rectangular structures—their interpretation as storage bins, burial places, and cremation rooms—we have no proof. Similar rooms of megaliths exist on Sandstone Canyon and at other places to the north and in Montezuma Canyon to the west. The rude, massive character of the masonry leads me to refer them to the slab house culture of Kidder and the imperfect masonry suggests they were habitations in a period antedating that of the pure pueblo culture. Such fragments of pottery as were found were, like the architecture, rude and archaic, adding weight to the interpretation that they belonged to a very old epoch.

Fig. 18.—Megalithic stone inclosure, McElmo Bluff.

The author regards the structures made of stones set on edge as very old, possibly examples of the most primitive buildings in the McElmo region, antedating the pueblos with horizontal masonry farther east. West of the mouth of the Yellow Jacket, especially on the Montezuma Mesa, these megalithic walls are more pretentious, as if this was the center of the earlier phase of house buildings. In the eastern ruins these slabs of stone set on edge sometimes appear as at Far View House with horizontal masonry, but more as a survival.

Since their discovery and description by Jackson and Holmes 40 years ago, little has been added to our knowledge of these inclosures, although similar remains have been reported at various points from Dolores far into Utah. They are called cemeteries and crematories by the farmers and stockmen, but skeletons or burnt bones do not occur in them; the charcoal shows wood fiber, and is not bone ash. More knowledge must be obtained through excavations before their significance can be determined. Their association with circular rooms appears in Jackson’s account[53] of the stone structures on the promontory at the mouth of the Yellow Jacket. He says:

“The perpendicular scarp of the mesa ran round very regularly, 50 to 100 feet in height, the talus sloping down at a steep angle. On cave-like benches at the foot of the scarp is a row of rock shelters, much ruined, in one of which was found a very perfect polished-stone implement. Gaining the top of the mesa with some difficulty, we found a perfectly flat surface, 100 yards in width by about 200 in length, separated from the main plateau by a narrow neck, across which a wall had been thrown, but which is now nearly leveled. Almost the entire space fenced in by this wall was covered by an extended series of small squares, formed by thin slabs of sand-rock set on end. All were uniform in size, measuring about 3 by 5 feet, and arranged in rows, two and three deep, adjusted to various points of the compass. There were also a few circles disposed irregularly about the inclosed area, each about 20 feet in diameter, their circumferences being formed of similar rectangular spaces, leaving a circular space of 10 feet diameter in the center. These rectangles occur mainly in groups, and are found indiscriminately scattered through the whole region that has come under our observation upon the mesa tops and in the valleys. They all have the same general shape and size, and are seldom accompanied by even the faintest indication of a mound-like character. We have always supposed them to be graves, but have not as yet found any evidence that would prove them such. Some that we excavated to the depth of 5 and 6 feet in a solid earth that had never been disturbed did not reward our search with the faintest vestige of human remains. In nearly every case, however, a thin scattered layer of bits of charcoal was found from 6 to 18 inches beneath the surface. In one instance, near the Mesa Verde, the upright slabs of rock which inclosed one of these rectangles were sunk 2 feet into the earth and projected 6 inches above it.”

Holmes (op. cit., pp. 385-386) describes similar structures:

“The greater portion of what are supposed to be burial places occur on the summits of hills or on high, barren promontories that overlook the valleys and cañons. In these places considerable areas, amounting in some cases to half an acre or more, are thickly set with rows of stone slabs, which are set in the ground and arranged in circles or parallelograms of greatly varying dimensions. At first sight the idea of a cemetery is suggested, although on examination it is found that the soil upon the solid rock surfaces is but a few inches deep, or if deeper, so compact that with the best implements it is very difficult to penetrate it.

“On the west bank of the Dolores, near the second bend, I came upon a cluster of these standing stones on the summit of a low, rounded hill, and in the midst of a dense growth of full-grown piñon pines.”

The rows of stones at this place, according to the same author, were composed of undressed slabs, many of which had fallen, the parallelograms averaging 3 by 8 feet in dimensions. Thin layers of bits of charcoal and pottery occur in the neighborhood. The date these slabs were placed upright was very early, for trees growing in the inclosures were estimated to be three or four hundred years old. These stones were sometimes “embedded in the sides and roots of the trees.” Holmes had the “impression that these places, if not actually burying grounds, were at least places used for the performance of funeral rites ... the remains of the dead being burned or left to decay in the open air.”

The interiors of the inclosures were found on excavation to be filled to a depth of about a foot with soil mixed with ashes. There were many fragments of pottery, and some other objects near them, but nothing to indicate, as suggested by previous observations, that they were burial cists or even crematories for burying the dead. No charred human remains occur, but charcoal is abundant. It may have been that these places were used as ovens for roasting corn or for some culinary purposes, the neighboring circular rooms being possibly used for the same purposes as towers by the people who formerly inhabited this region. They are not large enough for dwellings and the soil in them is too shallow for burial purposes. They belong to a type which is widely distributed over the district visited by the author. Especially fine examples occur north of Sandstone Canyon district.

At the base of the great cliff, on the top of which the remains in question are found, under the shelter of an overhanging bowlder, may be seen one of the finest collections of pictographs of animals and human beings. Not far from the last-mentioned bowlder the walls of a large pueblo can readily be traced along the banks of the McElmo Canyon. In his studies of the antiquities of this region the author did not penetrate west of the mouth of Yellow Jacket Canyon, but he was told by stockmen and sheep herders of the existence of many other ruins contiguous to the road all the way from this point to Bluff City. The most important of these have already been described in a general way.