It is unlikely that all 114 rooms in Spruce Tree House were in use at the same time. New rooms were built as older ones fell into decay; smaller rooms were probably vacated for larger ones as the number of villagers increased. A conservative guess sets 200 to 250 as the largest number of people who lived in Spruce Tree House at any one time.
The Indians of the Mesa Verde, like their neighbors in the surrounding areas, were dry-farmers—depending upon rainfall to water their crops. In the fields on the mesa tops they grew corn, beans and several varieties of squash. The rainfall probably averaged about 18 inches a year, just as it does now, which is more than sufficient for dry-farming. The Indians supplemented their diet with wild roots, nuts and berries as well as with meat from large and small game animals.
The period of the cliff dwellings is known as the Classic Period and marks the climax of Pueblo culture in this region. The Mesa Verde people made beautiful pottery and decorated it elaborately with geometric and animal figures in black on a white or light-gray background. They also made cotton cloth which they often decorated with colored designs. Their masonry was of exceptional quality with the building blocks beautifully shaped and carefully laid in clay mortar.
The Classic Period came to an end shortly before A.D. 1300 when the Indians abandoned their homes in the Mesa Verde and moved away. We can only guess the reasons for such a move. One suggestion is that the great drouth, which lasted from A.D. 1276 to A.D. 1299, caused them to leave. Another suggestion is that this was a period of strife either between the villages themselves or between these village people and nomadic groups moving into the area. Whatever the reasons, the cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde were empty by A.D. 1300.
It was a rancher from Mancos, named Richard Wetherill, who first discovered Spruce Tree House—on December 18, 1888. He and his brother-in-law, Charley Mason, also discovered Cliff Palace that same day. The men had been looking for lost cattle when they first saw the cliff ruins.
Spruce Tree ruin before excavation.
And the ruin after excavation and stabilization.
In 1906 Mesa Verde was set aside as a National Park by Act of Congress to protect and preserve these dwellings of the prehistoric Indians. In 1908 Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution excavated Spruce Tree House. He removed the debris of fallen walls and collapsed roofs and stabilized the dwellings more or less as you see them now. It has been necessary, of course, to further stabilize the walls from time to time, but aside from minor repairs and the roofing of the three kivas, the dwelling is original work done by the Indians some 700 to 800 years ago.