Preliminary report on a visit to the Navaho National Monument, Arizona

by Jesse Walter Fewkes

Swallows Nest

Descending to Laguna creek and following the bottom of the canyon, crossing and recrossing the stream several times, the first cliff-dwelling is seen built in a niche in the cliffs high up on the right. This ruin seems to fill the bottom of a symmetrically vaulted, open cave, the high arched roof and sides of which are so eroded that from one point of view the shadow cast by the ruin at certain times outlines the profile of a head and part of a human body, as seen in plate [7]. Although a talus[26] extends from this ruin some distance down the cliff, rendering access difficult, the ruin was entered, but found to be in a poor state of preservation. Several of the walls, viewed from the road, appeared to be in good condition, and some of the rooms are more than one story high.

Betatakin

Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh pass, the writer’s party came to a fork in the canyon,[27] where a guide was found who led the way across the stream into a small side canyon, in the end of which lies Betatakin. This canyon is wooded and at the time of the writer’s visit contained plenty of water, a small stream issuing from almost under the walls and trickling down through the bushes over a mass of fallen rock which forms the talus. The climb to the ruin from the place where horses must be abandoned is not a hard one and a trail could easily be made; in fact a carriage road might be constructed at small expense from Marsh pass to within half a mile of this great ruin, one of the largest two and best preserved cliff-dwellings in the Navaho National Monument.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

BULLETIN 50 PLATE 8

BETATAKIN—GENERAL VIEW

A feature of this ruin (plates 8-11) which attracts attention on entering it is the fine echo, due to the shape of the open cave in which it lies. Were the name not preempted, it would seem that Echo House would be a much more appropriate designation for the ruin than Betatakin, “High-ledges House,” applied to it by the Navaho.

Certain differences in architectural features between cliff-houses in the Mesa Verde region and those here considered are apparent. The caves in which the cliff-dwellings of the Navaho Monument region are situated differ in geological formation from those of the Mesa Verde National Park. While in the former there are many instances of horizontal cleavage planes, as a rule the falling of blocks of stone has left vertical flat faces. On this account the caves are shallow and high-vaulted rather than extending deep into the cliff. The process of formation of these vertical planes of cleavage is shown by examining plate [9]; in this case a pinnacle of rock has begun to break away and is partially separated from the surface of the cliff. This pinnacle will ultimately topple over and fall as many have done before, leaving a broken stump at its former base. In this way, from time to time, in the past geological history of the cave, detached pinnacles and slabs of rock have broken away along these vertical planes of cleavage, leaving the tops of their broken bases later to become foundations for rooms. Similar flat vertical planes of cleavage are rare, almost unknown, in the Mesa Verde caves. Here the cleavage is horizontal, the caves extending deep into the cliffs.[28]