Ground Plan of Tower in the Mancos Cañon.
Cliff-Dwelling of the Mancos Cañon.
The cliff-house in this case was reached by its occupants from the top of the cañon. The walls are pronounced as firm as the rock upon which they were built. The stones were very regular in size, and the chinking-in of small chips of stone rendered the surface of the wall remarkably smooth and well finished. The dwelling measured fifteen feet in length, five feet in width, and six feet in height. A short distance below this little dwelling, five or six cave-like crevices were found walled up in front with very perfect walls, rendered smooth by chinking. Three miles farther down the cañon, the party discovered at heights ranging from six hundred and eight hundred feet above their heads, some curious and unique little dwellings sandwiched in among the crevices of the horizontal strata of the rock of which the bluff was composed. Access to the summit of the bluff, a thousand feet high, was obtained by a circuitous path through a side cañon, and the houses themselves could only be reached at the utmost peril—of being precipitated to the bottom of the dizzy abyss—by crawling along a ledge twenty inches wide and only high enough for a man in a creeping position. This led to the wider shelf on which the houses rested. The perfection of the finish was especially noticeable in one of these houses, which was but fifteen feet long and seven feet high, with a side wall running back in a semicircular sweep. In every instance the party found the elevated cliff-houses situated on the western side of the cañon with their outlook toward the east, while the buildings at the bottom of the cañon were indiscriminately built on both sides of the river.
Cliff-Dwelling of the Mancos Cañon.
A circular watch-tower, which may be said to serve as a fair type of others met with at irregular intervals, is shown in the cut (p. 300). The tower remained standing to a height of twenty feet. Its diameter measured twelve feet and the thickness of the walls sixteen inches, the stones being of uniform size and smoothly dressed to the curve of the circle. A rectangular structure, divided into two apartments, each about fifteen feet square, once joined the tower, but now is in ruins, all but the foundation. It is supposed that this edifice was built over a large subterranean keep or place of defence. The exploring party here emerged from the cañon, and could discern, as they glanced down the valley of the Rio Mancos, which now turned towards the west, mounds of shapeless ruins at short distances from one another as far as the eye could reach.
Bearing around the Mesa to the west, the party encamped upon the site of the most extensive mass of ruins yet found in United States territory, “known as the Aztec Springs.” As Mr. Jackson’s description is but partial, we defer the treatment of this locality until we take up the explorations of Mr. Holmes, already mentioned. Four miles distant from “Aztec Springs,” the party reached a river-bed, dry during most of the year, and known as the McElmo, which, when it flows at all, empties into the San Juan farther to the west. On the mesa, above this river-bed, a tower resembling that first met in the Mancos was observed, but of much greater size, having a diameter of fifty feet. Adjoining the tower were the ruins of large subdivided buildings resembling the community dwellings of the Moquis and the old ruins of the Chaco. This group of ruins was very extensive and complicated, literally occupying all the available space in the vicinity.
Watch-Tower of the Cañon of the Mancos.