Cliff Dwellings, Walpi, Arizona
Photo by Brown Bros.
Homes of the Long-Ago
Famous reproduction of the Cliff-dwellers’ Ruins, near Colorado Springs, Col. The cliff-dwellers of early America built their habitations in the canyons of the Colorado and Rio Grande, where the action of the elements had worn away a layer of soft rock, leaving layers of hard rock above and below as roof and floor for the dwelling.
What were the First Apartment Houses in this Country?
A great many years ago, long before the white men came to America, there was a race of Indians called “cliff-dwellers,” because they built their dwelling places far up on the sides of steep cliffs. They probably made their homes so hard to reach in order that they might be safe from visits of their enemies. While many of their homes were small single-family houses, there were also a number of large two and three-story dwellings with many rooms in which different families lived.
Some of these cliff dwellings may still be seen in the valleys of the Rio Grande and the Rio Colorado and its tributaries. Close examination shows that many of them were very skilfully built, every advantage being taken of the natural rock formations, and the stones being dressed and laid in clay mortar, very much as the bricklayer does his work on an up-to-date apartment house today. The outsides of the buildings somewhat resembled the cement houses which have been put up in later days, a coat of clay being spread on the outside walls and carefully smoothed off. Oftentimes the inner walls were plastered too.