Trickling-spring House
After descending to Laguna creek from Marsh pass, crossing the stream, and following the bank about 2 miles, one comes to a ridge of copper-bearing rocks, beyond which the road crosses a deep ravine. On following the right bank this ravine is found to extend into the cliffs as a canyon. A few miles after entering the canyon a stream is encountered emerging from a spring and trickling over a cliff. High above this cliff, in a canyon 60 or 80 feet in size, the entrance to which is surrounded and more or less concealed by stately pines, spruces, and cedars, stands a cliff-ruin, possibly never before visited by white men, for which the name Trickling-spring House is suggested. Although this ruin is small, it is in several respects unique. The main architectural feature is a diminutive court or plaza, into which open a number of small rooms, having well-plastered walls and low entrances. In this, as in most of the other ruins in the Navaho National Monument, some of the house-walls are constructed of stone; but many are made of clay, plastered on sticks or wickerwork supported by upright logs. The masonry when present is poor as a rule, the component stones rarely being dressed into shape, but the surface plastering, especially on the kiva walls, is good. Many walls stand on rocks that have evidently fallen from the roof of the cave. A metate set in position in one of the smaller rooms indicates that this particular inclosure served as a milling room.
Fig. 2. Ground plan of Trickling-spring House.
A, B, C, rooms; D, D, deflectors; E, doorway; H, H, hatchways; M, metate; P, plaza; R, R, rock fragments.
Two squarish rooms, with lateral doorways and a deflector or wall before them, are identified as kihus. One of these has a platform or floor connecting the base of the ventilator and the doorway. The deflector is free from the kihu walls at both ends. The walls of a room with a deflector which opens into the plaza are very much blackened with smoke. No circular subterranean room was observed. There are several well-preserved hatchways in the roofs, showing that entrances of this kind were common in addition to lateral entrances with well-preserved sills and lintels. One or two of the small windows in the outer walls have a downward slant, as if to afford a better view of visitors approaching from below. One of these old doorways was closed with masonry, constructed possibly when the room was deserted. There are no signs of vandalism in this ruin.[36]