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ABORIGINAL REMAINS

IN

VERDE VALLEY, ARIZONA

BY

COSMOS MINDELEFF

CONTENTS Page Introduction 185 The region and its literature 185 Physical description of the country 189 Distribution and classification of ruins 192 Plans and descriptions 195 Stone villages 195 Cavate lodges 217 Bowlder-marked sites 235 Irrigating ditches and horticultural works 238 Structural characteristics 248 Masonry and other details 248 Door and window openings 251 Chimneys and fireplaces 256 Conclusions 257

ILLUSTRATIONS PagePLATE X. Map showing distribution of ruins and location of area treated with reference to ancient pueblo region 185 XI. Map showing distribution of ruins in the basin of the Rio Verde 187 XII. Ground plan of ruin near mouth of Limestone creek 189 XIII. Main court, ruin near Limestone creek 191 XIV. Ruin at mouth of the East Verde 193 XV. Main court, ruin at mouth of the East Verde 195 XVI. Ruin at mouth of Fossil creek 197 XVII. Ground plan of ruins opposite Verde 199 XVIII. General view of ruins opposite Verde 201 XIX. Southern part of ruins opposite Verde 203 XX. General view of ruin on southern side of Clear creek 205 XXI. Detailed view of ruin on southern side of Clear creek 207 XXII. General view of ruin 8 miles north of Fossil creek 209 XXIII. General view of ruins on an eminence 14 miles north of Fossil creek 211 XXIV. General view of northern end of a group of cavate lodges 213 XXV. Map of group of cavate lodges 215 XXVI. Strata of northern canyon wall 217 XXVII. Ruin on northern point of cavate lodge canyon 219 XXVIII. Cavate lodge with walled front 221 XXIX. Open front cavate lodges on the Rio San Juan 223 XXX. Walled front cavate lodges on the Rio San Juan 224 XXXI. Cavate lodges on the Rio Grande 225 XXXII. Interior view of cavate lodge, group _D_ 227 XXXIII. Bowlder-marked site 229 XXXIV. Irrigating ditch on the lower Verde 231 XXXV. Old irrigating ditch, showing cut through low ridge 233 XXXVI. Old ditch near Verde, looking westward 235 XXXVII. Old ditch near Verde, looking eastward 237XXXVIII. Bluff over ancient ditch, showing gravel stratum 239 XXXIX. Ancient ditch and horticultural works on Clear creek 241 XL. Ancient ditch around a knoll, Clear creek 243 XLI. Ancient work on Clear creek 245 XLII. Gateway to ancient work, Clear creek 247 XLIII. Single-room remains on Clear creek 249 XLIV. Bowlder foundations near Limestone creek 251 XLV. Masonry of ruin near Limestone creek 253 XLVI. Masonry of ruin opposite Verde 255 XLVII. Standing walls opposite Verde 257 XLVIII. Masonry of ruin at mouth of the East Verde 259 XLIX. Doorway to cavate lodge 260 L. Doorway to cavate lodge 261

Fig. 279. Sketch map, site of small ruin 10 miles north of Fossil creek 200 280. Ground plan of ruin at mouth of the East Verde 201 281. Ground plan of ruin near the mouth of Fossil creek 204 282. Sketch map, site of ruin above Fossil creek 205 283. Sketch map of ruin 9½ miles above Fossil creek 206 284. Sketch map showing location of ruins opposite Verde 207 285. Ground plan of ruin on southern side of Clear creek 211 286. Ground plan of ruin 8 miles north of Fossil creek 213 287. Sketch map of ruins on pinnacle 7 miles north of Fossil creek 216 288. Remains of small rooms 7 miles north of Fossil creek 216 289. Diagram showing strata of canyon wall 218 290. Walled storage cist 221 291. Plan of cavate lodges, group _D_ 226 292. Sections of cavate lodges, group _D_ 227 293. Section of water pocket 228 294. Plan of cavate lodges, group _A_ 229 295. Sections of cavate lodges, group _A_ 230 296. Plan of cavate lodges, group _B_ 231 297. Plan of cavate lodges, group _E_ 232 298. Plan of cavate lodges, group _C_ 233 299. Map of an ancient irrigation ditch 239 300. Part of old irrigating ditch 241 301. Walled front cavate lodges 250 302. Bowlders in footway, cavate lodges 252 303. Framed doorway, cavate lodges 253 304. Notched doorway in Canyon de Chelly 254 305. Notched doorway in Tusayan 255

 [Illustration: Plate X. MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF RUINS AND LOCATION OF AREA TREATED WITH REFERENCE TO ANCIENT PUEBLO REGION. ]

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 ABORIGINAL REMAINS IN VERDE VALLEY, ARIZONA

 By Cosmos Mindeleff

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INTRODUCTION. 

THE REGION AND ITS LITERATURE. 

The region described in the following pages comprises the valley ofthe Rio Verde, in Arizona, from Verde, in eastern central Yavapaicounty, to the confluence with Salt river, in Maricopa county. 

The written history of the region treated extends back only a few years. Since the aboriginal inhabitants abandoned it, or were driven from it, the hostile Apache and Walapai roamed over it without hindrance oropposition, and so late as twenty-five years ago, when the modernsettlement of the region commenced, ordinary pursuits were almostimpossible. Some of the pioneer settlers are still in possession, andare occupying the ground they took up at the time when the rifle wasmore necessary for successful agriculture than the plow. 

The first notice of this region is derived from the report of Espejo, who visited some “mines” north and east of the present site of Prescottearly in 1583; in 1598 Farfan and Quesada of Oñate’s expedition visitedprobably the same locality from Tusayan, and in 1604 Oñate crossed thecountry a little way north of the present Prescott, in one of hisjourneys in search of mineral wealth. Nothing seems to have come ofthese expeditions, however, and the remoteness of the region from thehighways of travel and its rough and forbidding character caused it toremain unknown for over two centuries. It was not until the activeprospecting for gold and silver accompanying the American invasion andconquest began that the country again became known. Valuable mines werediscovered east and south of the site of Prescott, some of them as earlyas 1836; but it was not until after 1860 that any considerable amount ofwork was done, and the mining development of this region, now one of thebest known in Arizona, may be said to date from about 1865. Camp Verdewas first established in 1861, at a point on the northern side of Beavercreek, but was not regularly occupied until 1866. In 1871 it was removedto its present location, about a mile south of the previous site. It wasabandoned as a military post in 1891, and gradually lost the militaryelement of the name. 

Concerning the archeologic remains of the Rio Verde valley almostnothing is known. In the early history of Arizona the Verde was known asRio San Francisco, and vague rumors of large and important ruins werecurrent among trappers and prospectors. The Pacific railway reports, published in 1856, mention these ruins on the authority of the guide toLieut. Whipple’s party, Leroux by name. Other notices are found here andthere in various books of exploration and travel published during thenext two decades, but no systematic examination of the region was madeand the accounts are hardly more than a mention. In 1878 Dr. W. J. Hoffman, at that time connected with the Hayden Survey, publisheddescriptions of the so-called Montezuma well and of a large cliff ruinon Beaver creek, the latter accompanied by an illustration. [1] Thedescriptions are slight and do not touch the region herein discussed. 

 [Footnote 1: Tenth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey for 1876 (Washington, 1878), p. 477. ]

The first publication of importance to the present inquiry is a shortpaper by Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. Army, in the Popular Science Monthly forOctober, 1890. Dr. Mearns was stationed for some years at Camp Verde, and improved the opportunity afforded by numerous hunting expeditionsand tours of duty to acquaint himself with the aboriginal remains of theVerde valley. He published a map showing the distribution of remains inthat region, described several ruins in detail, and illustrated somepieces of pottery, etc. , found by him. The article is unfortunately veryshort, so short that it is hardly more than an introduction to the widefield it covers; it is to be hoped that Dr. Mearns will utilize thematerial he has and publish a more comprehensive report. 

The remains in the valley of Rio Verde derive an additional interestfrom their position in the ancient pueblo region. On the one hand theyare near the southwestern limit of that region, and on the other handthey occupy an intermediate position between the ruins of the Gila andSalt river valleys and those of the northern districts. The limits ofthe ancient pueblo region have not yet been defined, and theaccompanying map (plate X) is only preliminary. It illustrates thelimited extent of our knowledge of the ancient pueblo region as well asthe distribution of ruins within that region, so far as they are known;and the exceptional abundance of ruins noted on certain portions of themap means only that those parts are better known than others. Notwithstanding its incompleteness, it is the best available and ispublished in the hope that it will serve as a nucleus to which furtherdata may be added until a complete map is produced. 

 [Illustration: Plate XI. MAP OF THE VALLEY OF THE RIO VERDE. ]

The ruins in the Gila valley, including those along Salt river, are lessknown than those farther northward, but we know that there is a markeddifference between the type exemplified by the well-known Casa Grande, near Florence, Arizona, and that of which the best specimens (notablythe Chaco ruins) are found in the San Juan basin. This difference may bedue only to a different environment, necessitating a change in materialemployed and consequent on this a change in methods, although it seemsto the writer that the difference is perhaps too great to be accountedfor in this way. Be the cause what it may, there is no doubt that thereis a difference; and it is reasonable to expect that in the regionslying between the southern earth-constructed and the northern stonestructures, intermediate types might be found which would connect them. The valley of Rio Verde occupies such an intermediate positiongeographically, but the architectural remains found in it belong to thenorthern type; so we must look elsewhere for connecting links. The mostimportant ruin in the lower Verde region occurs near its southern end, and more distinctly resembles the northern ruins than the ruins in thenorthern part of that region. 

Although the examination of this region failed to connect the northernand southern types of house structure, the peculiar conditions here areexceptionally valuable to the study of the principles and methods ofpueblo building. Here remains of large villages with elaborate andcomplex ground plan, indicating a long period of occupancy, are found, and within a short distance there are ruins of small villages with verysimple ground plan, both produced under the same environment; andcomparative study of the two may indicate some of the principles whichgovern the growth of villages and whose result can be seen in the groundplans. Here also there is an exceptional development of cavate lodges, and corresponding to this development an almost entire absence of cliffdwellings. From the large amount of data here a fairly complete idea ofthis phase of pueblo life may be obtained. This region is not equal tothe Gila valley in data for the study of horticultural methods practicedamong the ancient Pueblos, but there is enough to show that theinhabitants relied principally and, perhaps, exclusively on horticulturefor means of subsistence, and that their knowledge of horticulturalmethods was almost, if not quite, equal to that of their southernneighbors. The environment here was not nearly so favorable to thatmethod of life as farther southward, not even so favorable as in somenorthern districts, and in consequence more primitive appliances andruder methods prevailed. Added to these advantages for study there isthe further one that nowhere within this region are there any traces ofother than purely aboriginal work; no adobe walls, no chimneys, noconstructive expedients other than those which may be reasonably setdown as aboriginal; and, finally, the region is still so little occupiedby modern settlers that, with the exception of the vicinity of Verde, the remains have been practically undisturbed. A complete picture ofaboriginal life during the occupancy of the lower Verde valley would bea picture of pueblo life pursued in the face of great difficulties, andwith an environment so unfavorable that had the occupation extended overan indefinite period of time it would still have been impossible todevelop the great structures which resulted from the settlements inChaco canyon. 

It is not known what particular branch of the pueblo-building tribesformerly made their home in the lower Verde valley, but the characterof the masonry, the rough methods employed, and the character of theremains suggest the Tusayan. It has been already stated that thearcheologic affinities of this region are northern and do not conformto any type now found in the south; and it is known that some of theTusayan gentes--the water people--came from the south. The followingtradition, which, though not very definite, is of interest in thisconnection, was obtained by the late A. M. Stephen, for many years aresident near the Tusayan villages in Arizona, who, aside from hiscompetence for that work, had every facility for obtaining data of thiskind. The tradition was dictated by Anawita, chief of the Pat-ki-nyûmû(Water house gentes) and is as follows:

We did not come direct to this region (Tusayan)--we had no fixedintention as to where we should go. 

 We are the Pat-ki-nyû-mû, and we dwelt in the Pa-lát-kwa-bĭ (Red Land) where the kwá-ni (agave) grows high and plentiful; perhaps it was in the region the Americans call Gila valley, but of that I am not certain. It was far south of here, and a large river flowed past our village, which was large, and the houses were high, and a strange thing happened there. 

 Our people were not living peaceably at that time; we were quarreling among ourselves, over huts and other things I have heard, but who can tell what caused their quarrels? There was a famous hunter of our people, and he cut off the tips from the antlers of the deer which he killed and [wore them for a necklace?] he always carried them. He lay down in a hollow in the court of the village, as if he had died, but our people doubted this; they thought he was only shamming death, yet they covered him up with earth. Next day his extended hand protruded, the four fingers erect, and the first day after that one finger disappeared [was doubled up?]; each day a finger disappeared, until on the fourth day his hand was no longer visible. 

 The old people thought that he dug down to the under world with the horn tips. 

 On the fifth day water spouted up from the hole where his hand had been and it spread over everywhere. On the sixth day Pá-lü-lü-koña (the Serpent deity) protruded from this hole and lifted his head high above the water and looked around in every direction. All of the lower land was covered and many were drowned, but most of our people had fled to some knolls not far from the village and which were not yet submerged. 

 When the old men saw Pá-lü-lü-koña they asked him what he wanted, because they knew he had caused this flood; and Pá-lü-lü-koña said, “I want you to give me a youth and a maiden. ”

 The elders consulted, and then selected the handsomest youth and fairest maid and arrayed them in their finest apparel, the youth with a white kilt and paroquet plume, and the maid with a fine blue tunic and white mantle. These children wept and besought their parents not to send them to Pá-lü-lü-koña, but an old chief said, “You must go; do not be afraid; I will guide you. ” And he led them toward the village court and stood at the edge of the water, but sent the children wading in toward Pá-lü-lü-koña, and when they reached the center of the court where Pá-lü-lü-koña was the deity and the children disappeared. The water then rushed down after them, through a great cavity, and the earth quaked and many houses tumbled down, and from this cavity a great mound of dark rock protruded. This rock mound was glossy and of all colors; it was beautiful, and, as I have been told, it still remains there. 

 [Illustration: Plate XII. GROUND PLAN OF RUIN NEAR MOUTH OF LIMESTONE CREEK. RIO VERDE : ARIZONA]

 The White Mountain Apache have told me that they know a place in the south where old houses surround a great rock, and the land in the vicinity is wet and boggy. 

 We traveled northward from Palat-kwabi and continued to travel just as long as any strength was left in the people--as long as they had breath. During these journeys we would halt only for one day at a time. Then our chief planted corn in the morning and the pá-to-la-tei (dragon fly) came and hovered over the stalks and by noon the corn was ripe; before sunset it was quite dry and the stalks fell over, and whichever way they pointed in that direction we traveled. 

 When anyone became ill, or when children fretted and cried, or the young people became homesick, the Co-i-yal Katcina (a youth and a maiden) came and danced before them; then the sick got well, children laughed, and sad ones became cheerful. 

 We would continue to travel until everyone was thoroughly worn out, then we would halt and build houses and plant, remaining perhaps many years. 

 One of these places where we lived is not far from San Carlos, in a valley, and another is on a mesa near a spring called Coyote Water by the Apache. * * *

 When we came to the valley of the Little Colorado, south of where Winslow now is, we built houses and lived there; and then we crossed to the northern side of the valley and built houses at Homolobi. This was a good place for a time, but a plague of flies came and bit the suckling children, causing many of them to die, so we left there and traveled to Ci-pa (near Kuma spring). 

 Finally we found the Hopi, some going to each of the villages except Awatobi; none went there. 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 

The Rio Verde is throughout its length a mountain stream. Rising in themountains and plateaus bounding two great connected valleys northwest ofPrescott, known as Big Chino valley and Williamson valley, both over4, 000 feet above the sea, it discharges into Salt river about 10 milessouth of McDowell and about 25 miles east of Phoenix, at an elevation ofless than 1, 800 feet above the sea. The fall from Verde to McDowell, adistance of about 65 miles, is about 1, 500 feet The whole course of theriver is but little over 150 miles. The small streams which form theriver unite on the eastern side of Big Chino valley and flow thence in asoutherly and easterly direction until some 12 miles north of Verde thewaterway approaches the edge of the volcanic formation known on the mapsas the Colorado plateau, or Black mesa, and locally as “the rim. ” Herethe river is sharply deflected southward, and flows thence in adirection almost due south to its mouth. This part of the river ishemmed in on both sides by high mountain chains and broken every fewhundred yards by rapids and “riffles. ”

Its rapid fall would make the river valuable for irrigation if therewere tillable land to irrigate; but on the west the river is huggedclosely by a mountain chain whose crest, rising over 6, 000 feet abovethe sea, is sometimes less than 2 miles from the river, and whose steepand rugged sides descend in an almost unbroken slope to the riverbottom. The eastern side of the river is also closely confined, thoughnot so closely as the western, by a chain of mountains known as theMazatzal range. The crest of this chain is generally over 10 miles fromthe river, and the intervening stretch, unlike the other side, whichcomes down to the river in practically a single slope, is broken intolong promontories and foothills, and sometimes, where the largertributaries come in, into well-defined terraces. Except at its head theprincipal tributaries of the Verde come from the east, those on thewest, which are almost as numerous, being generally small andinsignificant. 

Most of the modern settlements of the Rio Verde are along the upperportion of its course. Prescott is situated on Granite creek, one of thesources of the river, and along other tributaries, as far down as thesouthern end of the great valley in whose center Verde is located, thereare many scattered settlements; but from that point to McDowell thereare hardly a dozen houses all told. This region is most rugged andforbidding. There are no roads and few trails, and the latter are feeblymarked and little used. The few permanent inhabitants of the region aremostly “cow men, ” and the settlements, except at one point, are shantiesknown as “cow camps. ” There are hundreds of square miles of territoryhere which are never visited by white men, except by “cow-boys” duringthe spring and autumn round-ups. 

Scattered at irregular intervals along both sides of the river are manybenches and terraces of alluvium, varying in width from a few feet toseveral miles, and comprising all the cultivable land in the valley ofthe river. Since the Verde is a mountain stream with a great fall, itspower of erosion is very great, and its channel changes frequently;in some places several times in a single winter season. Benches andterraces are often formed or cut away within a few days, and no portionof the river banks is free from these changes until continued erosionhas lowered the bed to such a degree that that portion is beyond thereach of high water. When this occurs the bench or terrace, being formedof rich alluvium, soon becomes covered with grass, and later withmesquite and “cat-claw” bushes, interspersed with such cottonwood treesas may have survived the period when the terrace was but little abovethe river level. Cottonwoods, with an occasional willow, form thearborescent growth of the valley of the Verde proper, although on someof the principal tributaries and at a little distance from the rivergroves of other kinds of trees are found. All these trees, however, areconfined to the immediate vicinity of the river and those of itstributaries which carry water during most of the year; and as themountains which hem in the valley on the east and west are not highenough to support great pines such as characterize the plateau countryon the north and east, the aspect of the country, even a short distanceaway from the river bottom, is arid and forbidding in the extreme. 

 [Illustration: Plate XIII. MAIN COURT, RUIN NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK. ]

Within the last few years the character of the river and of the countryadjacent to it has materially changed, and inferences drawn from presentconditions may be erroneous. This change is the direct result of therecent stocking of the country with cattle. More cattle have beenbrought into the country than in its natural state it will support. Oneof the results of this overstocking is a very high death rate among thecattle; another and more important result is that the grasses and othervegetation have no chance to seed or mature, being cropped off close tothe ground almost as soon as they appear. As a result of this, many ofthe river terraces and little valleys among the foothills, oncecelebrated for luxuriant grass, are now bare, and would hardly affordsustenance to a single cow for a week. In place of strong grasses theseplaces are now covered for a few weeks in spring with a growth of aplant known as “filaree, ” which, owing to the rapid maturing of itsseeds (in a month or less), seems to be the only plant not completelydestroyed by the cattle, although the latter are very fond of it and eatit freely, both green and when dried on the ground. As a further effectof the abundance of cattle and the scarcity of food for them, the youngwillows, which, even so late as ten years ago, formed one of thecharacteristic features of the river and its banks, growing thickly inthe bed of the stream, and often forming impenetrable jungles on itsbanks, are now rarely seen. 

Owing to the character of the country it drains, the Rio Verde alwaysmust have been subject to freshets and overflows at the time of thespring rains, but until quite recently the obstructions to the rapidcollection of water offered by thickly growing grass and bushesprevented destructive floods, except, perhaps, on exceptional occasions. Now, however, the flood of each year is more disastrous than that of thepreceding year, and in the flood of February, 1891, the culminatingpoint of intensity and destructiveness was reached. On this occasion thewater rose in some places over 20 feet, with a corresponding broadeningin other places, and flowed with such velocity that for several weeks itwas impossible to cross the river. As a result of these floods, thegrassy banks that once distinguished the river are now but little morethan a tradition, while the older terraces, which under normalcircumstances would now be safe, are being cut away more and more eachyear. In several localities near Verde, where there are cavate lodges, located originally with especial reference to an adjacent area oftillable land, the terraces have been completely cut away, and thecliffs in which the cavate lodges occur are washed by the river duringhigh water. 

DISTRIBUTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF RUINS. 

All the modern settlements of the lower portion of the Verde valley arelocated on terraces or benches, and such localities were also regardedfavorably by the ancient builders, for almost invariably where a modernsettlement is observed traces of a former one will also be found. Theformer inhabitants of this region were an agricultural people, and theirvillages were always located either on or immediately adjacent to somearea of tillable soil. This is true even of the cavate lodges, which areoften supposed to have been located solely with reference to facility ofdefense. Owing to the character of the country, most of the tillableland is found on the eastern side of the river, and as a consequencemost of the remains of the former inhabitants are found there also, though they are by no means confined to that side. These remains arequite abundant in the vicinity of Verde, and less so between that pointand the mouth of the river. The causes which have induced Americansettlement in the large area of bottom land about Verde doubtless alsoinduced the aboriginal settlement of the same region, although, owing tothe different systems of agriculture pursued by the two peoples, theAmerican settlements are always made on the bottom lands themselves, while the aboriginal settlements are almost always located on highground overlooking the bottoms. Perched on the hills overlooking thesebottoms, and sometimes located on the lower levels, there was once anumber of large and important villages, while in the regions on thesouth, where the tillable areas are as a rule very much smaller, thesettlements were, with one exception, small and generally insignificant. The region treated in these pages is that portion of the valley of RioVerde comprised between its mouth and Verde, or Beaver creek, on thenorth. It was entered by the writer from the south; it is not proposed, however, to follow a strict geographic order of treatment, but, on thecontrary, so far as practicable, to follow an arrangement by types. 

The domiciliary ruins of this region fall easily into three generalclasses, to which may be added a fourth, comprising irrigating ditchesand works, the first class having two subclasses. They are as follows:

 Stone villages. _a_. Villages on bottom lands. _b_. Villages on defensive sites. Cavate lodges. Bowlder-marked sites. Irrigating ditches and works. 

 [Illustration: Plate XIV. RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE EAST VERDE. ]

The ruins of the first group, or stone villages located on bottom landswithout reference to defense, represent in size and in degree of skillattained by the builders the highest type in this region, although theyare not so numerous as those of the other groups. They are of the sametype as, although sometimes smaller in size than, the great valleypueblos of the regions on the north and south, wherein reliance fordefense was placed in massive and well-planned structures and not onnatural advantages of location. In the north this class of ruin has beenshown to be the last stage in along course of evolution, and there is asuggestion that it occupies the same relation to the other ruins in theVerde region; this question, however, will later be discussed at somelength. The best example of this type on the lower Verde is a largeruin, located in a considerable bottom on the eastern side of the river, about a mile above the mouth of Limestone creek. This is said to be thelargest ruin on the Verde; it is certainly the largest in the regionhere treated, and it should be noted that it marks practically thesouthern limit of the Rio Verde group. 

The ruins of the second subclass, or stone villages located on defensivesites, are found throughout the whole of this region, although the typereaches its best development in the northern portion, in the vicinity ofVerde. The separation of this type from the preceding one is to acertain extent arbitrary, as the location of a ruin is sometimesdetermined solely by convenience, and convenience may dictate theselection of a high and defensible site, when the tillable land on whichthe village depends is of small area, or when it is divided into anumber of small and scattered areas; for it was a principle of theancient village-builders that the parent village should overlook aslarge an extent as possible of the fields cultivated by its inhabitants. A good illustration of this type of ruin is found a little way northeastof Verde, on the opposite side of the river. Here a cluster of ruinsranging from small groups of domiciles to medium-sized villages is foundlocated on knobs and hills, high up in the foothills and overlookinglarge areas of the Verde bottom lands. These are illustrated later. Another example, also illustrated later, occurs on the eastern side ofthe river about 8 miles north of the mouth of Fossil creek. The village, which is very small, occupies the whole summit of a large rock whichprojects into the stream, and which is connected with the mainland by anatural causeway or dike. This is one of the best sites for defense seenby the writer in an experience of many years. 

Cavate lodges are distributed generally over the whole northern portionof the region here treated. At many points throughout this region thereare outcrops of a calcareous sandstone, very soft and strongly laminatedand therefore easily excavated. This formation often appears in thecliffs and small canyons bordering on the streams, and in it are foundthe cavate lodges. The best examples are found some 8 miles south ofVerde, in a small canyon on the eastern side of the river, and it isnoteworthy that in this case stone villages occur in conjunction withand subordinate to the cavate lodges, while elsewhere within this regionand in other regions the cavate lodges are found either alone or inconjunction with and subordinate to stone villages. To this latter typebelong a number of cavate lodges on the northern side of Clear creek, about 4 miles above its mouth. The cavate lodges of the Verde differ insome particulars from those found in other regions; they are notexcavated in tufa or volcanic ash, nor are the fronts of the chambersgenerally walled up. Front walls are found here, but they are theexception and not the rule. 

Bowlder-marked sites are scattered over the whole region here treatedalthough they are more abundant in the southern part than in thenorthern. They are so abundant that their locations could not beindicated on the accompanying map (plate XI). These constitute apeculiar type, not found elsewhere in the experience of the writer, andpresent some points of interest. They vary in size from one room toconsiderable settlements, but the average size is two or three rooms. They are always located with reference to some area, generally a smallone, of tillable land which they overlook, and all the data nowavailable support the inference that they mark the sites of smallfarming or temporary shelters, occupied only during the farming seasonand abandoned each winter by the inhabitants, who then return to themain pueblo--a custom prevalent today among the pueblos. These sites arefound on the flat bottom lands of the river, on the upper terracesoverlooking the bottoms, on points of the foothills, in fact everywherewhere there is an area of tillable land large enough to grow a few hillsof corn. They often occur in conjunction with irrigating ditches andother horticultural works; sometimes they are located on small hillocksin the beds of streams, locations which must be covered with waterduring the annual floods; sometimes they are found at the bases ofpromontories bordering on drainage channels and on the banks of arroyas, where they might be washed away at any time. In short, these sites seemto have been selected without any thought of their permanency. 

Irrigating ditches and horticultural works were found in this region, but not in great abundance; perhaps a more careful and detailedexamination would reveal a much larger number than are now known. Fineexamples of irrigating ditches were found at the extreme northern andthe extreme southern limits of the region here treated, and there is afair presumption that other examples occur in the intermediate country. These works did not reach the magnitude of those found in the Gila andSalt river valleys, perhaps partly for the reason that the great fall ofVerde river and its tributaries renders only short ditches necessary tobring the water out over the terraces, and also partly becauseirrigation is not here essential to successful horticulture. In goodyears fair crops can be obtained without irrigation, and today thismethod of farming is pursued to a limited extent. 

 [Illustration: Plate XV. MAIN COURT, RUIN AT MOUTH OF THE EAST VERDE. ]

PLANS AND DESCRIPTIONS. 

STONE VILLAGES. 

Ruins of villages built of stone, either roughly dressed or merelyselected, represent the highest degree of art in architecture attainedby the aborigines of Verde valley, and the best example of this class ofruin is found on the eastern side of the river, about a mile above themouth of Limestone creek. The site was selected without reference todefense, and is overlooked by the hills which circumscribe a largesemicircular area of bottom land, on the northern end of which thevillage was located. This is the largest ruin on the Verde; it covers anarea of about 450 feet square, or over 5 acres, and has some 225 roomson the ground plan. From the amount of debris we may infer that most ofthe rooms were but one story in height; and a reasonable estimate of thetotal number of rooms in the village when it was occupied would make thenumber not greater than 300 rooms. The ratio of rooms to inhabitants inthe present pueblos would give a population for this village of about450 persons. Zuñi, the largest inhabited pueblo, covering an area ofabout 5 acres, has a population of 1, 600. 

It will thus be seen that, while the area covered by this village wasquite large, the population was comparatively small; in other words, thedense clustering and so-called beehive structure which characterize Zuñiand Taos, and are seen to a less extent in Oraibi, and which result fromlong-continued pressure of hostile tribes upon a village occupying asite not in itself easily defensible, has not been carried to such anextent here as in the examples cited. But it is also apparent that thisvillage represents the beginning of the process which in time produces avillage like Zuñi or Taos. 

Plate XII exhibits the ground plan of the village. It will be observedthat this plan is remarkably similar in general characters to the groundplan of Zuñi. [2] A close inspection will reveal the presence of manydiscrepancies in the plan, which suggest that the village received atvarious times additions to its population in considerable numbers, andwas not the result of the gradual growth of one settlement nor the homeof a large group coming en masse to this locality. It has been shown[3]that in the old provinces of Tusayan and Cibola (Moki and Zuñi) thepresent villages are the result of the aggregation of many relatedgentes and subgentes, who reached their present location at differenttimes and from different directions, and this seems to be the almostuniversal rule for the larger pueblos and ruins. It should be noted inthis connection, however, that, the preceding statements being granted, a general plan of this character indicates an essentially modern originor foundation. 

 [Footnote 2: Eighth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1886-’87, Wash. , 1891, pl. Lxxvi. ]

 [Footnote 3: Ibid. , pp. 1-228. ]

The ground plan shows a number of courts or open spaces, which dividedthe village into four well-defined clusters. The largest court wasnearly in the center of the village, and within it (as shown, on theplan) there are traces of a small single-room structure that may havebeen a kiva of sacred chamber. Attached to this main court and extendingeastward is another court of considerable size, and connected with thissecond court at its eastern end there is another one almost square inplan and of fair size. West of the main court may be seen a small courtopening into it, and north of this another square space separated fromthe main court by a single stone wall and inclosed on the other threesides by rooms. In addition to these there are two completely inclosedsmall courts in the center of the southwestern cluster, and another oneof moderate size between the southwestern and southern clusters. 

The arrangement of these courts is highly suggestive. The central spacewas evidently the main court of the village at the time of its greatestdevelopment, and it is equally evident that it was inclosed at a laterperiod than the small inclosed courts immediately adjacent to it, forhad the latter not preceded it they would not occupy the positions theynow do. Plate XIII represents a part of the main court, and beyond thedébris can be seen a small portion of the bottom upon which the villageis built. To the left, in the foreground of the illustration, are tracesof a small detached room, perhaps the main kiva[4] of the village; thisis also shown on the ground plan, plate XII. 

 [Footnote 4: The kiva is the assembly chamber, termed estufa in some of the older writings, particularly those of the early Spanish explorers. A full description of these peculiar structures has already been published in an article on Pueblo architecture; Eighth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1886-’87, Wash. , 1891, pp. 1-228. ]

The smaller courts are but little larger than the largest rooms, but itwill be noticed that while some of the rooms are quite large they arealways oblong. This requirement was dictated by the length of availableroofing timbers. The cottonwood groves on the river bank would providetimber of fair size but of very poor quality, and, aside from this, roofing timbers longer than 15 feet could be obtained only at pointsmany miles distant. In either case the hauling of these timbers to thesite of the village would be a work of great labor and considerabledifficulty. The width of the rooms was, therefore, limited to about 20feet, most of them being under 15 feet; but this limitation did notapply to the courts, which, though sometimes surrounded on all sides bybuildings, were always open to the sky. 

 [Illustration: Plate XVI. RUIN AT MOUTH OF FOSSIL CREEK. ]

It is probable that the central and northern portion of the southwesterncluster comprised the first rooms built in this village. This is theportion which commands the best outlook over the bottom, and it is alsoon the highest ground. Following this the southern cluster was probablybuilt; afterwards the northern cluster was added, and finally thenorthwestern cluster. Subsequently rooms connecting these clusters andthe eastern end of the village were built up, and probably last of allwere added the rooms which occupied what was originally the eastern endof the main court. This hypothetic order of building the clusterscomposing the village is supported by the character of the site and thepeculiarities of the ground plan. Most of the rooms in the northwesterncluster and in the eastern part of the village were but one story inheight, while the crowding in the interior of the village, directevidence of which is seen on the ground plan, could take place onlyafter the rooms surrounding that area had been located, and when hostilepressure from outside made it undesirable to extend the bounds of thevillage; in other words, at the latest stage in the growth of thevillage. 

The arrangement and distribution of the rooms within the clustersindicate an occupancy extending over a considerable period of time. A reference to the ground plan will show that continuous wall lines arethe exception, and it is seldom that more than two or three rooms aregrouped together in regular order. In irregularity of arrangement theinhabitants of this village followed a general habit, the result ofwhich can be seen today in all the inhabited villages and in most of thelarge pueblo ruins. It indicates a steady growth of the village by theaddition of rooms, one or two at a time, as they were needed. Thedivision into clusters, however, indicates an aggregation of relatedgentes or subgentes banded together for protection. Given theseconditions, (1) bands of related families living near one another; (2)hostile pressure from outside; and (3) a site not in itself easilydefended, and a ground plan similar to the one under discussion mustresult. Single detached rooms would not be built when the village mightbe attacked at any time, but they might be added during periods of peaceand, the conditions being favorable, they might form the nuclei of otherclusters. It is possible that some of the clusters forming this villagehad their origin in this manner, but this question can not be determinedfrom the ground plan, as a similar result would be produced by theadvent of a small band of related families. 

Growth in number of rooms does not necessarily indicate growth inpopulation, and this qualification must not be lost sight of in thediscussion of pueblo ground plans. Among the Pueblos of today, descent, in real property at least, is in the female line; when a man marries hebecomes a member of his wife’s family and leaves his own home to livewith his wife’s people. If the wife’s home is not large enough tocontain all the members of the household, additional rooms are builtadjoining and connected with those previously occupied. It may bementioned in this connection that the women build the houses, althoughthe men supply the material and do the heavy work. The result of thiscustom may be readily seen: a family in which there are many daughtersmust necessarily increase the space occupied by it, while a familyconsisting of sons, no matter how many they may be, will become extinct, so far as regards its home in the village. It is no uncommon thing tosee in the villages of today several rooms in course of erection whilethere are a dozen or more rooms within a few steps abandoned and goingto decay. Long occupancy, therefore, produces much the same effect on aground plan of a village as a large population, or a rapidly growingone, except that in the former case irregularity in the arrangement ofrooms will be more pronounced. 

It will be noticed that the size of rooms is more varied in thesouthwestern and southern clusters than in the remaining portions of thevillage. In the southwestern cluster rooms measuring 8 feet by 18 or 20are not uncommon. These occur principally in the central andsouthwestern part of the cluster, while in the northern and northeasternpart the rooms are uncommonly large, one of them measuring about 40 feetin length by nearly 15 feet in width and presenting a floor area of 600square feet. Rooms approaching this size are more common, however, inthe northern and northwestern clusters. In these latter clusters longnarrow rooms are the exception and a number of almost square ones areseen. The smallest room in the village is in the center of the southerncluster, on the highest ground within the area covered by the ruin; itmeasures 6 feet by 10, with a floor area of 60 square feet, as opposedto the 600 square feet of the largest room. This small room was probablyat one time a small open space between two projecting rooms, such as areoften seen in the inhabited pueblos. Later the room on the south wasbuilt and the front of the space was walled up in order to make arectangular area, thus forming the small room shown on the ground plan. The maximum length of any room is about 40 feet, the maximum widthattained is about 20 feet, and in a general way it may be stated thatthe average size of the rooms is considerably larger than that of therooms in the northern ruins. 

From the regularity in distribution of the debris now on the ground, it appears that the rooms of the northwestern and northern clusters, including the eastern part of the village, were almost uniformly onestory in height, and most of the rooms in the other clusters were alsolimited in height to a single story. The only places on the ground planwhere rooms of two stories might have existed are the northern andcentral parts of the southwestern and southern clusters, and perhaps thesouthern side of the northern cluster; the last, however, being verydoubtful. 

 [Illustration: Plate XVII. GROUND PLAN OF RUINS OPPOSITE VERDE. ]

In the scarcity of detached rooms or small clusters the plan of thisvillage strongly resembles the ground plan of Zuñi. Only three detachedrooms are seen in the plan. One of these, situated in the main orcentral court, has already been referred to as probably the remains of akiva or sacred chamber. Another single room occurs outside of thevillage, near its southwestern corner. This was probably a dwellingroom, for a kiva would hardly be located in this place. The third roomis found also outside the village and at its southeastern corner. Thespace inclosed within the walls of this room measured about 7 feet by 4and the lines of wall are at an acute angle with the wall lines of thevillage. This structure is anomalous, and its purpose is not clear. 

The absence of clearly defined traces of passageways to the interior ofthe village is noticeable. This absence can hardly be attributed to theadvanced state of decay in the ruin, for nearly all the wall lines canstill be easily traced. At one point only is there a suggestion of anopen passageway similar to those found in the inhabited pueblos. Thisoccurs in the southeastern corner of the ground plan, between thesouthern cluster and the southern part of the northeastern cluster. It was about 25 feet long and but 6 feet wide in the clear. There wereundoubtedly other passageways to the interior courts, but they wereprobably roofed over and perhaps consisted of rooms abandoned for thatpurpose. This, however, is anomalous. 

There are several other anomalous features in the ground plan, thepurposes of which are not clear. Prominent among them is a heavy wallextending about halfway across the southern, side of the village and atsome distance from it. The total length of this wall is 164 feet; it is4 feet thick (nearly twice the thickness of the other walls), and ispierced near its center by an opening or gateway 4 feet wide. Thenearest rooms of the village on the north are over 40 feet away. Thiswall is now much broken down, but here and there, as shown on the plan, portions of the original wall lines are left. It is probable that itsoriginal height did not exceed 5 or 6 feet. The purpose of thisstructure is obscure; it could not have been erected for defense, for ithas no defensive value whatever; it had no connection with the houses ofthe village, for it is too far removed from them. The only possible useof this wall that occurs to the writer is that it was a dam or retainingwall for a shallow pool of water, fed by the surface drainage of a smallarea on the east and northeast. There is at present a very slightdepression between the wall and the first houses of the village towardthe north--about a foot or a foot and a half--but there may have been adepression of 2 or 3 feet here at one time and this depression may havebeen subsequently filled up by sediment. This conjecture could be easilytested by excavating a trench across the area between the wall and thehouses, but in the absence of such an excavation the suggestion is amere surmise. 

Another anomalous feature is found in the center of the southwesterncluster. Here, in two different rooms, are found walls of double theusual thickness, occurring, however, on only one or two sides of therooms. These are clearly shown on the ground plan. The westernmost ofthe two rooms which exhibit this feature has walls of normal thicknesson three of its sides, while the fourth or eastern side consists of twowalls of normal thickness, built side by side, perhaps the result ofsome domestic quarrel. The eastern room, however, has thick walls on itsnorthern and eastern sides, and in this case the walls are built solidlyat one time, not consisting, as in the previous case, of two walls ofordinary thickness built side by side. An inspection of the ground planwill show that in both these cases this feature is anomalous andprobably unimportant. 

A ruin of the same general type as that just described, but much smallerin size, is found about 6 miles farther northward on the eastern side ofthe river. It is located on the river edge of a large semicircular flator terrace, near its northern end, and is built of flat slabs oflimestone and river bowlders. It is rectangular in plan and of moderatesize. On the southern end of the same flat are two single-room rancher’shouses and a large corral. The rooms in this ruin are oblong and similarin size and arrangement to those just described. 

 [Illustration: Figure 279. Sketch map, site of small ruin 10 miles north of Fossil creek. ]

About 11 miles above the last-described ruin, or 17 miles above thelarge ruin near Limestone creek, there is another small ruin of the samegeneral type as the last, located on a similar site, and in allrespects, except size, closely similar to it. 

About 3 miles below the mouth of the East Verde there is still anotherruin of similar character, located on the edge of a mesa or benchoverlooking the river. It is built of bowlders and slabs of rock. Likethe others this ruin is rectangular in plan and of small size. 

About 10 miles north of the mouth of Fossil creek, on the point of abench or terrace on the western side of the river, and perhaps 20 feetabove it, occurs a small ruin, similar in character to the preceding. The river here makes a long turn eastward, then flows south again, andin the angle a small bench or terrace is formed. At this point themountains rise abruptly from the river on both sides to a height of overa thousand feet. Fig. 279 illustrates the location of this ruin. So faras could be distinguished from the hills opposite, the rooms occur intwo broken lines at right angles to each other. 

 [Illustration: Plate XVIII. GENERAL VIEW OF RUINS OPPOSITE VERDE. ]

These four small ruins are all closely similar to the large ruindescribed above in all respects except size, and peculiarities of groundplan attendant on size. The rooms are always rectangular, generallyoblong, and arranged without regularity as regards their longer axis. Except the one last described, the ruins consist of compact masses ofrooms, without evidences of interior courts, all of very small size, andall located without reference to defense. The last-described ruindiffers from the others only in the arrangement of rooms. There ispractically no standing wall remaining in any of them, and even now theycan be seen for miles from the hills above. When the walls were standingthey must have been conspicuous landmarks. The masonry of all consistsof flat bowlders, selected doubtless from the river bed, or perhapssometimes quarried from the terraces, which themselves contain largenumbers of river bowlders. In general appearance and in plan these ruinsresemble the ruin next to be described, situated near the mouth of theEast Verde. 

 [Illustration: Figure 280. Ground plan of ruin at mouth of the East Verde. ]

On the southern side of the East Verde, half a mile above its mouth, asmall creek comes in from the south, probably dry throughout most of theyear; and on a promontory or point of land left by this creek a smallruin occurs. It is similar in plan and in character of masonry to thosejust described, and differs from them only in that its site is betteradapted for defense, being protected on two sides by steep hills orcliffs. The ground plan of this ruin is shown in figure 280, and itsgeneral appearance in plate XIV, which also shows the character ofmasonry. The village overlooked a large area of low bottom land in theangle between the Verde and the East Verde, and is itself overlooked bythe foothills rising behind it to the high mesas forming part of theMazatzal mountains. 

The walls of this village were built of flat bowlders and slabs oflimestone, and there is now practically no standing wall remaining. Theground plan shows a number of places where the walls are still visible, but they extend only a few inches above the debris. There were aboutforty rooms, and the plan is characterized by irregularities such ashave already been noticed in other plans. Although the village was ofconsiderable size it was built up solidly, and there is no trace of aninterior court. It will be noticed that the rooms vary much in size, andthat many of the smaller rooms are one half the size of the larger ones, as though the larger rooms had been divided by partitions after theywere completed. It is probable that rooms extended partly down the slopeon the west and south of the village toward the little creek beforementioned, but if this were the case all evidences have long since beenobliterated. 

On the southern side of the village the ground plan shows a bit ofcurved wall. It is doubtful whether this was an actual wall or merely aterrace. If it was a wall it is the only example of curved wall found inthe region in ruins of this class. Between this wall or terrace and theadjoining wall on the north, with which it was connected, the ground isnow filled in. Whether this filling occurred prior or subsequent to theabandonment of the village does not appear. The northeastern corner ofthe ruin is marked by a somewhat similar feature. Here there is a lineof wall now almost obliterated and but feebly marked by debris, and thespace between it and the village proper is partly filled in, forming alow terrace. Analogous features are found in several other ruins in thisregion, notably in the large ruin near Limestone creek. It should benoted in this connection that Mr. E. W. Nelson has found that placessomewhat similar to these in the ruins about Springerville, New Mexico, always well repaid the labor of excavation, and he adopted as a workinghypothesis the assumption that these were the burial places of thevillage. Whether a similar condition would be found in this region canonly be determined by careful and systematic excavation. 

The village did not occupy the whole of the mesa point on which it islocated; on the east the ground rises gently to the foothills of theMazatzal range, and on the south and west it slopes sharply down to thelittle creek before mentioned; while on the north there is a terrace orflat open space some 60 feet wide and almost parallel with the longeraxis of the village. This open space and the sharp fall which limits iton the north is shown on the ground plan. The general view of the samefeature (plate XV) also shows the character of the valley of the EastVerde above the ruin; the stream is here confined within a low walledcanyon. This open space formed a part of the village and doubtlessoccupied the same relation to it that interior courts do to othervillages. Its northern or outer edge is a trifle higher than the spacebetween it and the village proper and is marked by several largebowlders and a small amount of debris. It is possible that at one timethere was a defensive wall here, although the ground falls so suddenlythat it is almost impossible to climb up to the edge from below withoutartificial aid. Defensive walls such as this may have been are very rarein pueblo architecture, only one instance having been encountered by thewriter in an experience of many years. The map seems to show more localrelief to this terrace than the general view indicates, but it should beborne in mind that the contour interval is but 2½ feet. 

 [Illustration: Plate XIX. SOUTHERN PART OF RUINS OPPOSITE VERDE. ]

A comparison of the ground plan of this ruin and those previouslydescribed, together with that of the ruin near the mouth of Fossil creek(plate XVI), which is typical of this group, shows marked irregularityin outline and plan. In the character of the debris also this ruindiffers from the Fossil creek ruin and others located near it. As in thelatter, bowlders were used in the wall, but unlike the latter roughstone predominates. In the character of its masonry this ruin forms anintermediate or connecting link between the ruins near Limestone creekand opposite Verde and the class of which the ruin near the mouth ofFossil creek is typical. In the character of its site it is of the sameclass as the Fossil creek ruin, being intermediate between the valleypueblos, such as that near Limestone creek, and pueblos located ondefensive sites, such as the group opposite Verde. The ground planindicates an occupancy extending over a considerable period of time andterminating at or near the close of the period of aboriginal occupancyof the valley of Rio Verde. 

Another ruin, of a type closely similar, occurs on a bluff near themouth of Fossil creek. The plan of this ruin is shown in figure 281. Thevillage is located close to the edge of the bluff, as shown in the plan, and has an outlook over a considerable area of bottom land adjoining thebluff on the east. It is probable that the cavate lodges whose locationsome 8 or 10 miles above the ruin, on Fossil creek, is shown on thegeneral map (plate XI) were appendages of this village. 

The wall still standing extends but a few inches above the débris, butenough remains to mark the principal wall lines, and these are fartheremphasized by the lines of débris. The débris here is remarkably cleanand stands out prominently from the ground surface, instead of beingmerged into it as is usually the case. This is shown in the general viewof the ruin. There are twenty-five rooms on the ground plan, and thereis no evidence that any of these attained a greater height than onestory. The population, therefore, could not have been much, if any, inexcess of forty, and as the average family of the Pueblos consists offive persons, this would make the number of families which found a homein this village less than ten. Notwithstanding this small population theground plan of this village shows clearly a somewhat extended period ofoccupancy and a gradual growth in size. The eastern half of the village, which is located along the edge of the bluff, probably preceded thewestern in point of time. It will be noticed that while the wall linesare seldom continuous for more than three rooms, yet the roomsthemselves are arranged with a certain degree of regularity, in that thelonger axes are usually parallel. 

 [Illustration: Figure 281. Ground plan of ruin near the month of Fossil creek. ]

The masonry of this village is almost entirely of flat bowlders, obtained probably from the bed of the creek immediately below. Theterrace on which the village was built, and in fact all the hills aboutit are composed of gravel and bowlders, but it would be easier to carrythe bowlders up from the stream bed than to quarry them from thehillside, and in the former case there would be a better opportunity forselection. Plate XVI shows the character of the rock employed, andillustrates the extent to which selection of rock has been carried. Although the walls are built entirely of river bowlders the masonrypresents almost as good a face as some of the ruins previously describedas built of slabs of limestone, and this is due to careful selection ofthe stone employed. 

 [Illustration: Plate XX. GENERAL VIEW OF RUIN ON SOUTHERN SIDE OF CLEAR CREEK. ]

About half a mile above the mouth of Fossil creek, and on the easternside of the river, a deep ravine comes in from the north and east, andon a low spur near its mouth there is a ruin very similar to the onejust described. It is also about the same size. The general character ofthe site it occupies is shown in the sketch, figure 282. The masonry isof the same general character as that of the ruin near the mouth ofFossil creek, and the débris, which stands out sharply from the groundsurface, is distinguished by the same cleanness. 

 [Illustration: Figure 282. Sketch map, site of ruin above Fossil creek. ]

About 8½ miles north of Fossil creek, on the eastern side of the Verde, occurs a small ruin, somewhat different in the arrangement of rooms fromthose described. Here there is a bench or terrace, some 50 feet abovethe river, cut through near its northern end by a small canyon. The ruinis located on the southern side of this terrace, near the mouth of thecreek, and consists of about ten rooms arranged in +L+ shape. The linesare very irregular, and there are seldom more than three roomsconnected. The débris marking the wall lines is clean, and the lines arewell defined, although no standing wall remains. 

About a mile above the last-described ruin, or 9½ miles north of themouth of Fossil creek, a small group of ruins occurs. The sketch, figure283, shows the relation of the parts of this group to one another. Thesmall cluster or rooms on the south is very similar in character, location, and size to the ruin last described. The northern portion issituated on the opposite side of a deep canyon or ravine, on the crownof a hill composed of limestone, which outcrops everywhere about it, andis considerably higher than the small cluster on the south. The northernruin is of considerable size and very compactly built, the rooms beingclustered about the summit of the hill. The central room, occupying thecrown of the hill, is 20 feet higher than the outside rooms. In a saddlebetween the main cluster and a similar hill toward the southeast thereare a number of other rooms, not marked so prominently by débris asthose of the main cluster. There is no standing wall remaining, but thedébris of the main and adjoining clusters indicates that the masonry wasvery rough, the walls being composed of slabs of limestone similar tothose found in the large ruin near the mouth of Limestone creek, andobtained probably not 20 feet away from their present position. 

 [Illustration: Figure 283. Sketch map of ruin 9½ miles above Fossil creek. ]

The ruin described on page 200 and assigned to the first subclass occursabout half a mile north of this limestone hill, on the opposite side ofthe river. This small ruin, like all the smaller ruins described, wasbuilt of river bowlders, or river bowlders with occasional slabs ofsandstone or limestone, while the ruin last described consistsexclusively of limestone slabs. This difference is explained, however, by the character of the sites occupied by the several ruins. Thelimestone hill upon which the ruin under discussion is situated is ananomalous feature, and its occurrence here undoubtedly determined thelocation of this village. It is difficult otherwise to understand thelocation of this cluster of rooms, for they command no outlook overtillable land, although the view up and down the river is extensive. This cluster, which is the largest in size for many miles up and downthe river, may have been the parent pueblo, occupying somewhat the samerelation to the smaller villages that Zuñi occupies to the summerfarming settlements of Nutria, Pescado, and Ojo Caliente; and doubtlessthe single-room remains, which occur above and below the cluster on mesabenches and near tillable tracts, were connected with it. This ruin isan example of the second subclass, or villages located on defensivesites, which merges into ruins of the first subclass, or villages onbottom lands, through villages like that located at the mouth of theEast Verde and at the mouth of Fossil creek. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXI. DETAILED VIEW OF RUIN ON SOUTHERN SIDE OF CLEAR CREEK. ]

On the eastern side of the Verde, just below the mouth of Beaver creek, opposite and a little above Verde, occurs one of the best examples to befound in this region of a large village located on a defensive site. Here there is a group of eight clusters extending half a mile up anddown the river, and some of the clusters have walls still standing to aheight of 8 and 10 feet. The relation of these clusters to each other isshown in the sketch map, figure 284. 

 [Illustration: Figure 284. Sketch map showing location of ruins opposite Verde. ]

The principal ruin of the group is situated on the northern side of asmall valley running eastward from the river up to the foot of aprominent mesa, which here bounds the eastern side of the river bottom. The valley is perhaps half a mile long and about an eighth of a milewide. The ruin is located on a butte or knoll connected with the hillsback of it by a low saddle, forming a sort of promontory or tongue ofland rising from a flat space or bench, the whole some 200 feet abovethe river bottom. One of the clusters of rooms is located in the saddlementioned and is connected with the main ruin. At the foot of the butteon the western side there is a similar cluster, not connected, however, with the main ruin; and south of the main ruin, on the extreme edge ofthe little mesa or bench, there is another small cluster. The ruin shownon the sketch map southwest of the main ruin consists of but two rooms, with no wall now standing. All these clusters are shown in their properposition on the ground plan, plate XVII. Plate XVIII, which is a generalview from the east, shows the main ruin on the butte, together with theconnected cluster east of it in the saddle. The modern settlement seenin the middle distance is Verde. 

About a quarter of a mile west of the main ruin there is another smallbut well-preserved cluster of rooms. It occupies the narrow ridge of ahill some 200 feet above the river. On the west and south, the hilldescends abruptly to the river; on the southeast and east it slopessharply down to a broad valley on the level of the mesa bench beforementioned, but the valley is cut by a narrow and deep canyon marking theeast side of the hill. This cluster is shown on the ground plan, plateXVII, though not in its proper position. Northeast of this cluster andperhaps 200 yards distant there are traces of other rooms, but they areso faint that no plan can be made out. As shown on the sketch map, figure 284, the hill is a long narrow one, and its western side fallsrapidly to a large triangular area of flat bottom land lying between itand Beaver creek, which it overlooks, as well as a large area of thevalley up the river and all the fine bottom lands north and east ofVerde and on the northwestern side of Beaver creek. As regards outlook, and also as regards security and facility of defense, the site of thesmall cluster is far superior to that of the main cluster of rooms. 

About a quarter of a mile south and east of the main ruin, on theopposite side of the little valley before mentioned, a mesa benchsimilar to the one last described occurs; and on a point of this, extending almost to the river bank, there are traces, now nearlyobliterated, of a small cluster of rooms. A short distance east of thispoint there is a large rounded knoll, with a peculiar terrace-like benchat about half its height. The entire summit of this knoll was occupiedby rooms, of which the walls are much broken and none remain standing. This knoll, with the ruins on its summit, is shown in plate XIX, whichalso gives a general view from the north of the small cluster southeastof the main ruin. The character of the valley of the Verde at this pointis also shown. The sketch map, figure 284, shows the location of theseruins in reference to others of the group. 

The main cluster, that portion occupying the crown or summit of thebutte before described, exhibits at the present time some fifty rooms inthe ground plan, but there were at one time a larger number than this;and there is no doubt that rooms extended down the slopes of the hillsouthward and southwestward. The plan of this main cluster is peculiar;it differs from all the smaller surrounding clusters. It tells the storyof a long occupancy by a people who increased largely in numbers, butwho, owing to their hostile environment, could not increase the spaceoccupied by them in proportion to their numbers. It will be noticed thatwhile the wall lines are remarkably irregular in arrangement they aremore often continuous than otherwise, more frequently continuous, infact, than the lines of some of the smaller villages before described. The rooms are remarkably small, 10 feet square being a not unusualmeasurement, and built so closely together as to leave no space forinterior courts. The typical rooms in the ruins of this region areoblong, generally about twice as long as broad, measuring approximately20 by 10 feet. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXII. GENERAL VIEW OF RUIN 8 MILES NORTH OF FOSSIL CREEK. ]

In the ruin under discussion it seems that each of these oblong roomswas divided by a transverse partition into two smaller rooms, althoughthe oblong form is also common. This is noticeable in the southwesterncorner and on the eastern side of the main cluster, in the southwesterncorner and on the northern end of the cluster adjoining on the north, and in all the smaller clusters. It is probable that the western centralpart of the main cluster was the first portion of the group ofstructures built, and that subsequently as the demand for accommodationincreased, owing to increase of population, the rooms on the eastern andsouthern sides of the main cluster were added, while the rooms of theolder portion were divided. 

There is no evidence that any portion of this cluster attained a greaterheight than two stories, and only a small number of rooms reached thatheight. The small cluster adjoining on the north, and those on thesoutheast, southwest, and west, were built later and belong to the lastperiod of the occupancy of the group. The builders exhibited a decidedpredilection for a flat site, as an examination of the sites of thevarious room clusters in the ground plan (plate XVII) will show, andwhen the sight of the main cluster became so crowded that additionalrooms could be added only by building them on the sloping hillside, recourse was had to other sites. This tendency is also exhibited in thecluster adjoining the main cluster on the north, which was probably thesecond in point of age. The northern end of this small group of roomsterminates at the foot of the hill which rises northeastward, while aseries of wall lines extends eastward at an angle with the lines of thecluster, but along the curve of the hillside. 

The small northern cluster was in all probability inhabited by five orsix families only, as contrasted with the main cluster, which hadsixteen or seventeen, while the smaller clusters had each only two orthree families. The strong presumption of the later building andoccupancy of the smaller clusters, previously commented on, is supportedby three other facts of importance, viz, the amount and height of thestanding wall, the character of the sites occupied, and theextraordinary size of the rooms. 

Although as a rule external appearance is an unsatisfactory criterion ofage, still, other things equal, a large amount and good height ofstanding wall may be taken to indicate in a general way a more recentperiod of occupancy than wall lines much obliterated and merged into thesurrounding ground level. The character of the site occupied is, however, a very good criterion of age. It was a rule of the ancientpueblo builder, a rule still adhered to with a certain degree ofpersistence, that enlargement of a village for the purpose of obtainingmore space must be by the addition of rooms to those already built, andnot by the construction of detached rooms. So well was this ruleobserved that attached rooms were often built on sites not at alladapted to them, when much better sites were available but a shortdistance away; and, although detached rooms were built in certain cases, there was always a strong reason for such exceptions to the generalrule. At a late period in the history of the Pueblos this rule was notso much adhered to as before, and detached houses were often built atsuch points as the fancy or convenience of the builder might dictate. Asthe traditions are broken down the tendency to depart from the old rulebecomes more decided, and at the present day several of the older Pueblovillages are being gradually abandoned for the more convenient detacheddwellings, while nearly all of them have suffered more or less from thiscause. 

The tendency to cluster rooms in one large compact group was undoubtedlydue primarily to hostile pressure from outside, and as this pressuredecreased the inherent inconveniences of the plan would assertthemselves and the rule would be less and less closely adhered to. Ittherefore follows that, in the absence of other sufficient cause, thepresence of detached rooms or small clusters may be taken in a generalway to indicate a more recent occupancy than a ground plan of a compact, closely built village. 

The size of rooms is closely connected with the character of the siteoccupied. When, owing to hostile pressure, villages were built on sitesdifficult of access, and when the rooms were crowded together intoclusters in order to produce an easily defended structure, the roomsthemselves were necessarily small; but when hostile pressure fromsurrounding or outside tribes became less pronounced, thepueblo-builders consulted convenience more, and larger rooms were built. This has occurred in many of the pueblos and in the ruins, and in ageneral way a ruin consisting of large rooms is apt to be more modernthan one consisting of small rooms; and where large and small roomsoccur together there is a fair presumption that the occupancy of thevillage extended over a period when hostile pressure was pronounced andwhen it became less strong. It has already been shown that, owing to thesocial system of the pueblo-builders, there is almost always growth in avillage, although the population may remain stationary in numbers oreven decrease; so that, until a village is abandoned it will follow thegeneral rule of development sketched above. 

Along the southern side of Clear creek, which discharges into the RioVerde from the east, about 4 miles below Verde, there is a flat terracefrom 30 to 40 feet above the creek and some 2 or 3 miles in length. Scattered over almost the whole of this terrace are remains of housesand horticultural works, which will be described later. Near the westernend of the terrace a low hill with flat top and rounded sides rises, andon the top of this occurs the ruin whose ground plan is shown in figure285. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXIII. GENERAL VIEW OF RUINS ON AN EMINENCE 14 MILES NORTH OF FOSSIL CREEK. ]

This ruin commands an outlook over the whole extent of the terrace andseems to have been the home pueblo with which were connected thenumerous single houses whose remains cover the terrace. The ground planis peculiar. The rooms were arranged in four rows, each row consistingof a line of single rooms, and the rows were placed approximately atright angles to one another, forming the four sides of a hollow square. The rooms are generally oblong, of the usual dimensions, and as a ruleplaced with their longer axes in the direction of the row. Several roomsoccur, however, with their longer axes placed across the row. Thirty-eight rooms can still be traced, and there is no likelihood thatthere were ever more than forty, or that any of the rooms attained agreater height than one story. The population, therefore, was probablynever much in excess of fifty persons, or ten to twelve families. 

 [Illustration: Figure 285. Ground plan of ruin on southern side of Clear creek. ]

It will be noticed that the wall lines are only approximatelyrectangular. The outside dimensions of the village are as follows:Northeastern side, 203 feet; southwestern, 207 feet; southeastern, 182feet; and northwestern, 194 feet. The northeastern and southwesternsides are nearly equal in length, but between the southeastern and thenorthwestern sides there is a difference of 12 feet, and thisnotwithstanding that the room at the western end of the southeastern rowhas been set out 3 feet beyond the wall line of the southwestern side. This difference is remarkable if, as the ground plan indicates, thevillage or the greater part of it was laid out and built up at one time, and was not the result of slow growth. 

As already stated, long occupancy of a village, even without increase ofpopulation, produces a certain effect on the ground plan. This effect, so strongly marked in all the ruins already described, is conspicuous inthis ruin by its almost entire absence. The ground plan is just such aswould be produced if a small band of pueblo builders, consisting of tenor twelve related families, should migrate en masse to a site like theone under discussion and, after occupying that site for a fewyears--less than five--should pass on to some other location. Suchmigration and abandonment of villages were by no means anomalous; on thecontrary, they constitute one of the most marked and most persistentphenomena in the history of the pueblo builders. If the generalprinciples, already laid down, affecting the development and growth ofground plans of villages are applied to this example, the hypothesissuggested above--an incoming of people en masse and a very shortoccupancy--must be accepted, for no other hypothesis will explain theregularity of wall lines, the uniformity in size of rooms, and theabsence of attached rooms which do not follow the general plan of thevillage. The latter is perhaps the most remarkable feature in the groundplan of this village. The addition of rooms attached irregularly atvarious points of the main cluster, which is necessarily consequent onlong occupancy of a site, even without increase of population, was inthis example just commenced. The result of the same process, continuedover a long period of time, can be seen in the ground plan of any of theinhabited villages of today and in most of the ruins, while a plan likethat of the ruin under discussion, while not unknown, is rare. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXIV. GENERAL VIEW OF NORTHERN END OF A GROUP OF CAVATE LODGES. ]

Plate XX, which is a general view of the ruin from the southwest, showsthe character of the site and the general appearance of the debris, while plate XXI illustrates the character of the masonry. It will benoticed that the level of the ground inside and outside of the row ofrooms is essentially the same; in other words, there has been no fillingin. It will also be noticed that the amount of debris is small, and thatit consists principally of rounded river bowlders. The masonry waspeculiar, the walls were comparatively thin, and the lower courses werecomposed of river bowlders, not dressed or otherwise treated, while theupper courses, and presumably also the coping stones, were composed ofslabs of sandstone and of a very friable limestone. The latter hasdisintegrated very much under atmospheric influences. The white areasseen in the illustrations are composed of this disintegrated limestone. The general appearance of the ruin at the present time must not beaccepted as its normal condition. It is probable that the débris hasundergone a process of artificial selection, the flat slabs and mostavailable stones for building probably having been removed byneighboring settlers and employed in the construction of stone fences, which are much used in this region. Even with a fair allowance for suchremoval, however, there is no evidence that the rooms were higher thanone story. The quantity of potsherds scattered about the ruins isnoticeably small. 

 [Illustration: Figure 286. Ground plan of ruin 8 miles north of Fossil creek. ]

About 8 miles north of the mouth of Fossil creek, on the eastern sideof the Verde, there is a ruin which, though very small, is interesting. At this point there is a long narrow mass of rock, the remains of avolcanic dike, some 80 or 90 feet long, which at the southern endoverhangs the stream, while the other end is merged into the groundlevel. At its southern end the rock is some 50 feet above the water, but150 feet northward the dike is no longer traceable. A general view ofthis dike is given in plate XXII, while the ground plan, figure 286, shows the character of the site. There were rooms on all that portion ofthe dike that stands out prominently from the ground level, and tracesof other rooms can be seen on the ground level adjoining on the northand in the causeway resulting from the breaking down and disintegrationof the dike. Remains of eight rooms in all can be traced, five of whichwere on the summit of the rock. The wall lines on the summit are stillquite distinct and in places fragments of the original walls remain, asshown on the ground plan. The plan shows typical pueblo rooms of averagesize, and the masonry, though rough, is of the same character as that ofother ruins in the vicinity. 

Facility of defense undoubtedly had something to do with the choice ofthis location, but that it was not the only desideratum consulted isevident from the occurrence of a large area of fertile bottom land orflat river terrace immediately adjoining the ruin on the east andoverlooked by it; in fact, the volcanic dike on which the ruin occursoccupies the western end of a large semicircular area of tillable land, such as already described. Viewed, however, as a village located withreference to defense it is the most perfect example--facility ofobtaining water being considered--in this region. It may be used, therefore, to illustrate an important principle governing the locationof villages of this type. 

A study of the ground plan (figure 286) and the general view (plateXXII) will readily show that while the site and character of thisvillage are admirably adapted for defense, so well adapted, in fact, asto suggest that we have here a fortress or purely defensive structure, still this adaptation arises solely from the selection of a site fittedby nature for the purpose, or, in other words, from an accident ofenvironment. There has not been the slightest artificial addition to thenatural advantages of the site. 

The statement may seem broad, but it is none the less true, that, so faras our knowledge extends at the present time, fortresses or other purelydefensive structures form a type which is entirely unknown in the puebloregion. The reason is simple; military art, as a distinct art, wasdeveloped in a stage of culture higher than that attained by the ancientpueblo builders. It is true that within the limits of the pueblo regionstructures are found which, from their character and the character oftheir sites, have been loosely described as fortresses, their describerslosing sight of the fact that the adaptability of these structures todefense is the result of nature and not of art. Numerous examples arefound where the building of a single short wall would double thedefensive value of a site, but in the experience of the writer theancient builders have seldom made even that slight addition to thenatural advantages of the site they occupied. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXV. MAP OF GROUP OF CAVATE LODGES IN WHITE CANYON, 3 MILES BELOW CLEAR CREEK, EAST SIDE RIO VERDE. ]

The first desideratum in the minds of the old pueblo builders inchoosing the location of their habitations was nearness to some area oftillable land. This land was generally adjacent to the site of thevillage, and was almost invariably overlooked by it. In fact thisrequirement was considered of far more importance than adaptability todefense, for the latter was often sacrificed to the former. A goodexample in which both requirements have been fully met is the ruin underdiscussion. This, however, is the result of an exceptionally favorableenvironment; as a rule the two requirements conflict with each other, and it is always the latter requirement--adaptability to defense--whichsuffers. These statements are true even of the so-called fortresses, ofthe cavate lodges, of the cliff ruins, and of many of the large villageruins scattered over the southwestern portion of the United States. Inthe case of the large village ruins, however, there is another featureof pueblo life which sometimes produces a different result, viz, the useof outlying single houses or small clusters separated from the mainvillage and used for temporary abode during the farming season only. This feature is well developed in some of the modern pueblos, particularly in Zuñi and Acoma. 

The principle illustrated by this ruin is an important one. Among theancient pueblo builders there was no military art, or rather themilitary art was in its infancy; purely defensive structures, such asfortresses, were unknown, and the idea of defense never reached anygreater development than the selection of an easily defended site for avillage, and seldom extended to the artificial improvement of the site. There is another result of this lack of military knowledge notheretofore alluded to, which will be discussed at length on some otheroccasion and can only be mentioned here: this is the aggregation of anumber of small villages or clusters into the large many-storied pueblobuilding, such as the modern Zuñi or Taos. 

About 14 miles north of the mouth of Fossil creek, on the eastern sideof the river, there is another ruin somewhat resembling the lastdescribed. A large red rock rises at the intersection of two washes, about a mile back from the river, and on a bench near the summit are theremains of walls. These are illustrated in plate XXIII. In generalappearance and in character of site this ruin strongly resembles a typefound in the San Juan region. There seem to have been only a few roomson the top of the rock, and the prominent wall seen in the illustrationwas probably a retaining or filling wall in a cleft of the rock. Suchwalls are now used among the Pueblos for the sides of trails, etc. It isprobable that at one time there were a considerable number of rooms onthe rock; the debris on the ground at the base of the rock on thewestern side, shown in the illustration, is rather scanty; on theopposite or eastern side there is more, and it is not improbable therewere rooms on the ground here. It is likely that access was from thisside. 

It should be noted that this ruin, which is of a type known as“fortress” by some writers, is so placed as to command an extensiveoutlook over the large valley below and over the two small valleysabove, as well as the considerable area of flat or bottom land formed bythe junction of the small valleys. It is a type of a subordinateagricultural settlement, and had the defensive motive been entirelyabsent from the minds of the builders of this village it wouldundoubtedly have been located just where it now is, as this is the bestsite for an agricultural settlement for some distance up and down theriver. 

 [Illustration: Figure 287. Sketch map of ruins on pinnacle 7 miles north of Fossil creek. ]

 [Illustration: Figure 288. Remains of small rooms 7 miles north of Fossil creek. ]

Remains of walls somewhat similar to these last described occur on abutte or pinnacle on the eastern side of the river and about 7 milesnorth of the mouth of Fossil creek. From the south this pinnacle is amost conspicuous landmark, rising as it does some 2, 500 feet above theriver within a distance of a quarter of a mile. The upper 50 feet of theeminence consists of bare red rock split into sharp points and littlepinnacles, as shown in figure 287, which represents only the upperportion of the butte. The heavy black lines on the sketch map are walls. Some of these were doubtless mere retaining walls, but others are stillstanding to a considerable height, and there is yet much débris on theslope of the rock forming the eastern side of the butte near its top. Itis doubtful whether these rooms were ever used for habitations, and moreprobable that they were used as a shrine or for some analogous purpose. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXVI. STRATA OF NORTHERN CANYON WALL. ]

Perhaps a quarter of a mile northeastward, in the saddle connecting thebutte with the contiguous hills in that direction, there are remains ofthree small rooms, located east of a low swell or ridge. Figure 288shows the general character of the site, which seems to have been afavorite type for temporary structures, single-room outlooks, etc. Amongthe fragments of pottery picked up here were pieces of polished red wareof the southern type, and part of the bottom of a large pot of so-calledcorrugated ware. 

Half a mile northwestward, in a saddle similar to that last described, and east of the crown of a hill, are the remains of a single room, nearly square and perhaps 10 feet long. These single rooms and smallcluster remains are unusual in this region, and seem to replace thebowlder-marked ruins so common south of the East Verde (to be describedmore fully later). Although the walls of this single-room structure werebuilt of river bowlders, they are well marked by débris and are of thesame type as those in the ruins at the mouths of the East Verde andFossil creek. 

CAVATE LODGES. 

Cavate lodges comprise a type of structures closely related to cliffhouses and cave dwellings. The term is a comparatively new one, and thestructures themselves are not widely known. They differ from the cliffhouses and cave dwellings principally in the fact that the rooms arehollowed out of cliffs and hills by human agency, being cut out of softrock, while the former habitations are simple, ordinary structures builtfor various reasons within a cove or on a bench in the cliffs or withina cave. The difference is principally if not wholly the result of adifferent physical environment, i. E. , cavate lodges and cave dwellingsare only different phases of the same thing; but for the present atleast the name will be used and the cavate lodges will be treated as aseparate class. 

There are but three regions in the United States in which cavate lodgesare known to occur in considerable numbers, viz, on San Juan river, nearits mouth; on the western side of the Rio Grande near the pueblo ofSanta Clara; and on the eastern slope of San Francisco mountain, nearFlagstaff, Arizona. To these may now be added the middle Verde region, from the East Verde to a point north of Verde, Arizona. 

Within the middle Verde region there are thousands of cavate lodges, sometimes in clusters of two or three, oftener in small groups, andsometimes in large groups comprising several hundred rooms. One of theselarge groups, located some 8 miles south of Verde on the eastern side ofthe river, has been selected for illustration. 

The bottom lands of the Rio Verde in the vicinity of Verde have beenalready described, and the cavate lodges in question occur just belowthe southern end of this large area of tillable land, and some of themoverlook it. The river at this point flows southward, and extendingtoward the east are two little canyons which meet on its bank. North andsouth of the mouth of the canyons the bank of the river is formed by aninaccessible bluff 180 or 200 feet high. These bluffs are washed by theVerde during high water, though there is evidence that up to a recenttime there was a considerable area of bottom land between the river andthe foot of the bluff. Plate XXIV shows the northern end of the groupfrom a low mesa on the opposite side of the river; the eastern bank ofthe river can be seen in the foreground, while the sandy area extendingto the foot of the bluff is the present high-water channel of the Verde. The map (plate XXV) shows the distribution of the cavate lodgescomposing the group, and plate XXVI shows the character of the site. Thecavate lodges occur on two distinct levels--the first, which comprisesnearly all the cavate lodges, is at the top of the slopes of talus andabout 75 feet above the river; the second is set back from 80 to 150feet from the first tier horizontally and 30 or 40 feet above it. Thecavate lodges occur only in the face of the bluff along the river and inthe lower parts of the two little canyons before mentioned. Thesecanyons run back into the mesa seen in the illustration, which in turnforms part of the foothills rising into the range of mountains hemmingin the Rio Verde on the east. 

 [Illustration: Figure 289. Diagram showing strata of canyon wall. ]

The walls of the canyon in the cavate-lodge area are composed of threedistinct strata, clearly defined and well marked. The relations of thestrata, at points on the northern and western sides of the north canyon, are shown in figure 289 and plate XXVI. The lowest stratum shown in thefigure is that in which almost all the cavate lodges occur. It is about8 feet thick and composed of a soft, very friable, purple-graysandstone. Above it lies a greenish-white bed a few inches thick, followed by a stratum of a pronounced white, about 12 feet thick. Thisheavy stratum is composed of calcareous clay, and the green bed of acalcareous clay with a mixture of sand. The white stratum is divided attwo-thirds its height by a thin belt of greenish-white rock, and aboveit there is another belt of purple-gray sandstone about 12 feet thick. The top of this sandstone forms the ground surface south of the pointshown in the diagram, while on the north and east it forms the floor ofthe upper tier of cavate lodges. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXVII. RUIN ON NORTHERN POINT OF CAVATE LODGE CANYON. ]

On the southern side of the canyon the lower purple stratum shows threedistinct substrata; the upper is reddish purple and about 3½ feet thick, the middle is purple gray, about 7 feet thick, and apparently softerthan the upper and lower strata. The lodges occur in the middle purplesubstratum, their floors composed of the upper surface of the lowerstratum and their roofs of the under surface of the upper stratum. Thoseon the north side are similarly placed, their roofs being about 3 feetbelow the white, except that in several instances the upper part of thepurple up to the white has fallen, making the cavity larger. This hasoccurred, however, since the abandonment of the caves, and the debris, still fresh looking, is in situ. 

The formation in which the lodges occur is not of volcanic origin, although the beds composing it were perhaps deposited by hot springsduring the period of great volcanic activity which produced SanFrancisco mountain in central Arizona and the great lava flows south ofit. In view of the uncertainty on this point and the further fact thatalmost all the cavate lodges heretofore found were excavated in tufa, ash, or other soft volcanic deposits, the report of Mr. Joseph S. Diller, petrographer of the U. S. Geological Survey, will be of interest. It is as follows:

 The coarse-grained specimen is sandstone, that of medium grain is argillaceous sandstone, and the fine-grained one is calcareous clay. The coarse-grained friable sandstone, in which the lodges have been excavated, consists chiefly of subangular and rounded grains of quartz and feldspar with a small proportion of black particles. Many of the latter are magnetite, while the others are hornblende and various ferromagnesian silicates. I did not detect any fragments of volcanic origin. 

 The specimen of argillaceous sandstone is made up of thin layers of fine-grained sand of the same sort as the first, alternating with others containing considerable clay. In the clay layers, a trace of carbonate of lime was found here and there, forming a transition of the calcareous clay. 

 The calcareous clay when placed in acid effervesces vigorously, but when allowed to stand the effervescence ceases in a few minutes and the insoluble white clay remains. 

All the strata composing this formation are very soft; the purple-graymaterial of the middle layer is so soft that its surface can be rubbedoff with the hand. They are also minutely stratified or laminated, andthe laminæ are not well cemented together, so that a blow on the roof ofa cavity with a stone or other implement will bring off slabs varyingfrom half an inch to an inch and a half in thickness. These thin strataor laminæ are of unequal hardness, weathering in places several inchesinto the face of the rock in thin streaks of a few inches or less. Themiddle purple stratum exhibits this quality somewhat more decidedly thanthe others, and this fact has doubtless determined the selection of thisstratum for the location of the lodges, as a room can be excavated in itmore easily than a room of a similar size could be built up with looserock. 

The almost absolute dependence of the native builder on nature as hefound it is well illustrated by these cavate lodges. At a point in thenorthern wall of the northernmost canyon, shown in the diagram (figure289) and in plate XXVI, there is a small fault with a throw of about 2½feet, and the floors of the lodges west of the fault are just that muchlower than the floors east of it. Furthermore, where the purple-graystratum in which the lodges occur is covered up by the rising groundsurface, the cavate lodges abruptly cease. In the northern and southernends of the group the talus encroaches on and partly covers thepurple-gray stratum, and in these places the talus has been removed fromthe face of the rock to permit the excavation of lodges. In short, theoccurrence of the cavate lodges in this locality is determinedabsolutely by the occurrence of one particular stratum, and when thatstratum disappears the lodges disappear. So far as can be ascertainedwithout actually excavating a room there is no apparent differencebetween the stratum in which the lodges occur and the other purplestrata above and below it. That there is some difference is indicated bythe confinement of the lodges to that particular level, but that thedifference is very slight is shown by the occurrence in two places oflodges just above the principal tier, a kind of second-story lodge, asit were. It is such differences in environment as these, however, oftenso slight as to be readily overlooked, which determine some of thelargest operations carried on by the native builders, even to thebuilding of some of the great many-storied pueblos, and, stranger still, sometimes leading to their complete abandonment. 

In the region under discussion cavate lodges usually occur in connectionwith and subordinate to village ruins, and range in number from two orthree rooms to clusters of considerable size. Here, however, the cavatelodge is the feature which has been most developed, and it is noteworthythat the village ruins that occur in connection with them are small andunimportant and occupy a subordinate position. 

There are remains of two villages connected with the cavate lodges justdescribed, perched on the points of the promontories which form themouths of the two canyons before mentioned. The location of these ruinsis shown in plate XXV. The one on the southern promontory is of greaterextent than that on the northern point, and both are now much brokendown, no standing wall remaining. A general view of the ruin on thenorthern promontory is given in plate XXVII, and the same illustrationshows the remains of the other village on the flat top of the promontoryin the farther part of the foreground. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXVIII. CAVATE LODGE WITH WALLED FRONT. ]

The cavate lodges are generally rudely circular in shape, sometimesoblong, but never rectangular. The largest are 25 and even 30 feet indiameter, and from this size range down to 5 or 6 feet and thence downto little cubby-holes or storage cists. Owing to their similarity, particularly in point of size, it is difficult to draw a line betweensmall rooms and large storage cists, but including the latter there aretwo hundred rooms on the main level, divided into seventy-four distinctand separate sets. These sets comprise from one to fourteen rooms each. On the upper level there are fifty-six rooms, divided into twenty-foursets, making a total of two hundred and fifty-six rooms. As nearly ascan be determined by the extent of these ruins the population of thesettlement was probably between one hundred and fifty and two hundredpersons. 

 [Illustration: Figure 290. Walled storage cist. ]

There is great variety in the rooms, both in size and arrangement. As arule each set or cluster of rooms consists of a large apartment, enteredby a narrow passageway from the face of the bluff, and a number ofsmaller rooms connected with it by narrow doorways or short passages andhaving no outlet except through the large apartment. As a rule two ormore of these smaller back rooms are attached to the main apartment, andsometimes the back rooms have still smaller rooms attached to them. Inseveral cases there are three rooms in a series or row extending backinto the rock, and in one instance (at the point marked _E_ on the map, plate XXV) there are four such rooms, all of good size. 

Attached to the main apartment, and sometimes also to the back rooms, there are usually a number of storage cists, differing from the smallerrooms of the cluster only in size. These cists or cubby-holes range insize from a foot to 5 feet in diameter, and are nearly always on a levelof the floor, although in some instances they extend below it. Storagecists are also sometimes excavated in the exterior walls of the cliffs, and occasionally they are partly excavated and partly inclosed by arough, semicircular wall. An example of the latter type is shown infigure 290. 

As a rule the cavate lodges are set back slightly from the face of thebluff and connected with it by a narrow passageway. Another type, however, and one not uncommon, has no connecting passageway, but insteadopens out to the air by a cove or nook in the bluff. This cove was usedas the main room and the back rooms opened into it in the usual way bypassageways. A number of lodges of this type can be seen in the easternside of the northern promontory or bluff. Possibly lodges of this typewere walled in front, although walled fronts are here exceptional, andsome of them at least have been produced by the falling off of the rockabove the doorway. The expedient of walling up the front of a shallowcavity, commonly practiced in the San Juan region, while comparativelyrare in this vicinity, was known to the dwellers in these cavate lodges. At several points remains of front walls can be seen, and in twoinstances front walls remain in place. The masonry, however, is in allcases very rough, of the same type as that shown in plate XXVIII. 

In this connection a comparison with the cavate ledges found in otherregions will be of interest. In 1875 Mr. W. H. Holmes, then connectedwith the Hayden survey, visited a number of cavate lodges on the Rio SanJuan and some of its tributaries. Several groups are illustrated in hisreport. [5] Two of his illustrations, showing, respectively, the openfront and walled front lodges, are reproduced in plates XXIX and XXX. The open front lodges are thus described:

 I observed, in approaching from above, that a ruined tower stood near the brink of the cliff, at a point where it curves outward toward the river, and in studying it with my glass detected a number of cave-like openings in the cliff face about halfway up. On examination, I found them to have been shaped by the hand of man, but so weathered out and changed by the slow process of atmospheric erosion that the evidences of art were almost obliterated. 

 The openings are arched irregularly above, and generally quite shallow, being governed very much in contour and depth by the quality of the rock. The work of excavation has not been an extremely great one, even with the imperfect implements that must have been used, as the shale is for the most part soft and friable. 

 A hard stratum served as a floor, and projecting in many places made a narrow platform by which the inhabitants were enabled to pass along from one house to another. 

 Small fragments of mortar still adhered to the firmer parts of the walls, from which it is inferred that they were at one time plastered. It is also extremely probable that they were walled up in front and furnished with doors and windows, yet no fragment of wall has been preserved. Indeed, so great has been the erosion that many of the caves have been almost obliterated, and are now not deep enough to give shelter to a bird or bat. 

 [Footnote 5: Tenth Ann Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey, 1876, pp. 288-391. ]

 [Illustration: Plate XXIX. OPEN FRONT CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO SAN JUAN. ]

Walled fronts, the author states, were observed frequently on the RioMancos, where there are many well-preserved specimens. He described alarge group situated on that stream, about 10 miles above its mouth, as follows:

 The walls were in many places quite well preserved and new looking, while all about, high and low, were others in all stages of decay. In one place in particular, a picturesque outstanding promontory has been full of dwellings, literally honeycombed by this earth-burrowing race, and as one from below views the ragged, window-pierced crags [see plate XXX] he is unconsciously led to wonder if they are not the ruins of some ancient castle, behind whose moldering walls are hidden the dread secrets of a long-forgotten people; but a nearer approach quickly dispels such fancies, for the windows prove to be only the doorways to shallow and irregular apartments, hardly sufficiently commodious for a race of pigmies. Neither the outer openings nor the apertures that communicate between the caves are large enough to allow a person of large stature to pass, and one is led to suspect that these nests were not the dwellings proper of these people, but occasional resorts for women and children, and that the somewhat extensive ruins in the valley below were their ordinary dwelling places. 

It will be noticed that in both these cases there are associated ruinson the mesa top above, and in both instances these associated ruins aresubordinate to the cavate lodges, in this respect resembling the lodgeson the Verde already described. This condition, however, is not theusual one; in the great majority of cases the cavate lodges aresubordinate to the associated ruins, standing to them in the relation ofoutlying agricultural shelters. Unless this fact is constantly borne inmind it is easy to exaggerate the importance of the cavate lodges ascompared with the village ruins with which they are connected. 

The cavate lodges near San Francisco mountain in Arizona were visited in1883 by Col. James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in 1885 byMaj. J. W. Powell. Major Powell[6] describes a number of groups in thevicinity of Flagstaff. Of one group, situated on a cinder cone about 12miles east of San Francisco peak, he says:

 Here the cinders are soft and friable, and the cone is a prettily shaped dome. On the southern slope there are excavations into the indurated and coherent cinder mass, constituting chambers, often 10 or 12 feet in diameter and 6 to 10 feet in height. The chambers are of irregular shape, and occasionally a larger central chamber forms a kind of vestibule to several smaller ones gathered about it. The smaller chambers are sometimes at the same altitude as the central or principal one, and sometimes at a lower altitude. About one hundred and fifty of these chambers have been excavated. Most of them are now partly filled by the caving in of the walls and ceilings, but some of them are yet in a good state of preservation. In these chambers, and about them on the summit and sides of the cinder cone, many stone implements were found, especially metates. Some bone implements also were discovered. At the very summit of the little cone there is a plaza, inclosed by a rude wall made of volcanic cinders, the floor of which was carefully leveled. The plaza is about 45 by 75 feet in area. Here the people lived in underground houses--chambers hewn from the friable volcanic cinders. Before them, to the south, west, and north, stretched beautiful valleys, beyond which volcanic cones are seen rising amid pine forests. The people probably cultivated patches of ground in the low valleys. 

 About 18 miles still farther to the east of San Francisco mountain, another ruined village was discovered, built about the crater of a volcanic cone. This volcanic peak is of much greater magnitude. The crater opens to the eastward. On the south many stone dwellings have been built of the basaltic and cinder-like rooks. Between the ridge on the south and another on the northwest there is a low saddle in which other buildings have been erected, and in which a great plaza was found, much like the one previously described. But the most interesting part of this village was on the cliff which rose on the northwest side of the crater. In this cliff are many natural caves, and the caves themselves were utilized as dwellings by inclosing them in front with walls made of volcanic rocks and cinders. These cliff dwellings are placed tier above tier, in a very irregular way. In many cases natural caves were thus utilized; in other cases cavate chambers were made; that is, chambers have been excavated in the friable cinders. On the very summit of the ridge stone buildings were erected, so that this village was in part a cliff village, in part cavate, and in part the ordinary stone pueblo. The valley below, especially to the southward, was probably occupied by their gardens. In the chambers among the overhanging cliffs a great many interesting relics were found, of stone, bone, and wood, and many potsherds. 

 [Footnote 6: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth. , 1891, p. Xix. ]

It will be seen that the first group described bears a remarkably closeresemblance to the cavate lodges on the Rio Verde. The lodges themselvesare smaller, but the arrangement of main apartment and attached backrooms is quite similar. It will be noticed also that in the second groupdescribed village ruins are again associated on the summit of the cliffor ridge. Major Powell ascertained that these cavate lodges wereoccupied by the Havasupai Indians now living in Cataract canyon, who areclosely related to the Walapai, and who, it is said, were driven fromthis region by the Spaniards. 

The cavate lodges on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in the vicinity ofthe modern pueblo of Santa Clara, were also visited in 1885 by MajorPowell and are thus described by him:[7]

 The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on water. Into the faces of these cliffs, in the friable and easily worked rock, many chambers have been excavated; for mile after mile the cliffs are studded with them, so that altogether there are many thousands. Sometimes a chamber or series of chambers is entered from a terrace, but usually they were excavated many feet above any landing or terrace below, so that they could be reached only by ladders. In other places artificial terraces were built by constructing retaining walls and filling the interior next to the cliffs with loose rock and sand. Very often steps were cut into the face of a cliff and a rude stairway formed by which chambers could be reached. The chambers were very irregularly arranged and very irregular in size and structure. In many cases there is a central chamber, which seems to have been a general living room for the people, back of which two, three, or more chambers somewhat smaller are found. The chambers occupied by one family are sometimes connected with those occupied by another family, so that two or three or four sets of chambers have interior communication. Usually, however, the communication from one system of chambers to another was by the outside. Many of the chambers had evidently been occupied as dwellings. They still contained fireplaces and evidences of fire; there were little caverns or shelves in which various vessels were placed, and many evidences of the handicraft of the people were left in stone, bone, horn, and wood, and in the chambers and about the sides of the cliffs potsherds are abundant. On more careful survey it was found that many chambers had been used as stables for asses, goats, and sheep. Sometimes they had been filled a few inches, or even 2 or 3 feet, with the excrement of these animals. Ears of corn and corncobs were also found in many places. Some of the chambers were evidently constructed to be used as storehouses or caches for grain. Altogether it is very evident that the cliff houses have been used in comparatively modern times; at any rate, since the people owned asses, goats, and sheep. The rock is of such a friable nature that it will not stand atmospheric degradation very long, and there is abundant evidence of this character testifying to the recent occupancy of these cavate dwellings. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXX. WALLED FRONT CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO SAN JUAN. ]

 [Illustration: Plate XXXI. CAVATE LODGES ON THE RIO GRANDE. ]

 Above the cliffs, on the mesas, which have already been described, evidences of more ancient ruins were found. These were pueblos built of cut stone rudely dressed. Every mesa had at least one ancient pueblo up off it, evidently far more ancient than the cavate dwellings found in the face of the cliffs. It is, then, very plain that the cavate dwellings are not of great age; that they have been occupied since the advent of the white man, and that on the summit of the cliffs there are ruins of more ancient pueblos. 

 [Footnote 7: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth. , op. Cit. , p. XXII. ]

Major Powell obtained a tradition of the Santa Clara Indians, recitingthree successive periods of occupancy of the cavate lodges by them, thelast occurring after the Spanish conquest of New Mexico in theseventeenth century. 

It will be noticed that here again the cavate lodges and village ruinsare associated, although in this case the village ruins on the mesasabove are said to be more ancient than the cavate lodges. A general viewof a small section of cliff containing lodges is given in plate XXXI forcomparison with those on the Verde. The lodges on the Rio Grande seem tohave been more elaborate than those on the Verde, perhaps owing tolonger occupancy; but the same arrangement of a main front room andattached back rooms, as in the cavate lodges on the Verde, was found. 

As the cavate lodges of the San Francisco mountain region have beenassigned to the Havasupai Indians of the Yuman stock, and those of theRio Grande to the Santa Clara pueblo Indians of the Tanoan stock, it maybe of interest to state that there is a vague tradition extant among themodern settlers of the Verde region that the cavate lodges of thatregion were occupied within the last three generations. This traditionwas derived from an old Walapai Indian whose grandfather was alive whenthe cavate lodges were occupied. It was impossible to follow thistradition to its source, and it is introduced only as a suggestion. Attention is called, however, to the tradition given in the introductionto this paper with which it may be connected. 

 [Illustration: Figure 291. Plan of cavate lodges, group _D_. ]

 [Illustration: Plate XXXII. INTERIOR VIEW OF CAVATE LODGE, GROUP D. ]

Aside from the actual labor of excavation, there was but little workexpended on the Verde cavate lodges. The interiors were never plastered, so far as the writer could determine. Figure 291 shows the plan of oneof the principal sets of rooms, which occurs at the point marked _D_ onthe map, plate XXV; and plate XXXII is an interior view of the principalroom, drawn from a flashlight photograph. This set of rooms wasexcavated in a point of the cliff and extends completely through it asshown on the general plan, plate XXV. The entrance was from the west bya short passageway opening into a cove extending back some 10 feet fromthe face of the cliff. The first room entered measures 16 feet in lengthby 10 feet in width. On the floor of this room a structure resemblingthe piki or paper bread oven of the Tusayan Indians, was foundconstructed partly of fragments of old and broken metates. At thesouthern end of the room there is a cubby-hole about a foot in diameter, excavated at the floor level. At the eastern end of the room there is apassageway about 2½ feet long leading into a smaller roughly circularroom, measuring 7½ feet in its longest diameter, and this in turn isconnected with another almost circular room of the same size. The floorsof all three of these rooms are on the same level, but the roofs of thetwo smaller rooms are a foot lower than that of the entrance room. Atthe northern end of the entrance room there is a passageway 3 feet longand 2½ feet wide leading into the principal room of the set. Thispassageway at its southern end has a framed doorway of the typeillustrated later. 

 [Illustration: Figure 292. Sections of cavate lodges, group _D_. ]

The main room is roughly circular in form, measuring 16 feet in itsnorth and south diameter and 15 feet from east to west. The roof isabout 7 feet above the floor. Figure 292 shows a section from northwestto southwest (_a_, _b_, figure 291) through the small connected roomadjoining on the south, and also an east arid west section (_c_, _d_, figure 291). The floor is plastered with clay wherever it was necessaryin order to bring it to a level, and the coating is consequently not ofuniform thickness. It is divided into sections by low ridges of clay asshown in the plan and sections; the northern section is a few incheshigher than the other. Extending through the clay finish of the floorand into the rock beneath there are four pits, indicated on the plan byround spots. The largest of these, situated opposite the northern door, was a fire hole or pit about 18 inches in diameter at the floor level, of an inverted conical shape, about 10 inches in depth, and plasteredinside with clay inlaid with fragments of pottery placed as closelytogether as their shape would permit. The other pits are smaller; onelocated near the southeastern corner of the room is about 6 inches indiameter and the same in depth, while the others are mere depressions inthe floor, in shape like the small paint mortars used by the Pueblos. 

 [Illustration: Figure 293. Section of water pocket. ]

The room, when opened, contained a deposit of bat dung and sand about3 feet thick in the center and averaging about 2 feet thick throughoutthe room. This deposit exhibited a series of well-defined strata, varying from three-fourths to an inch and a half thick, caused by therespective predominance of dung or sand. No evidence of disturbance ofthese strata was found although careful examination was made. Thisdeposit was cleared out and a number of small articles were found, allresting, however, directly on the floor. The articles consisted offragments of basketry, bundles of fibers and pieces of fabrics, piecesof arrowshafts, fragments of grinding stones, three sandals of wovenyucca fiber, two of them new and nearly perfect, and a number of piecesof cotton cloth, the latter scattered over the room and in severalinstances gummed to the floor. Only a few fragments of pottery werefound in the main room, but outside in the northern passageway were thefragments of two large pieces, one an olla, the other a bowl, bothburied in 3 or 4 inches of debris under a large slab fallen from theroof. 

Owing to its situation this room was one of the most desirable in thewhole group. The prevailing south wind blows through it at all times, and this is doubtless the reason that it was so much filled up withsand. In the center of the room the roof has fallen at a comparativelyrecent date from an area about 10 by 7 feet, in slabs about an inchthick, for the fragments were within 6 inches of the top of the debris. The walls are smoke-blackened to a very slight extent compared with thelarge room south of it. 

At the northeastern and southwestern corners there are two smallpockets, opening on the floor level but sunk below it, which seem tohave been designed to contain water. That in the southwest corner is thelarger; it is illustrated in the section, figure 293. As shown in thesection and on the plan (figure 291), a low wall composed of adobemortar and broken rock was built across the opening on the edge of thefloor, perhaps to increase its capacity. This cavity would hold 15 to 20gallons of water, a sufficient amount to supply the needs of an ordinaryIndian family for three weeks or a mouth. The pocket in the northeasterncorner of the room is not quite so large as the one described, and itsfront is not walled. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXIII. BOWLDER-MARKED SITE. ]

West of the main room there is a storage room, nearly circular in shape, with a diameter of about 6 feet and with a floor raised about 2 feetabove that of the main room. Its roof is but 3 feet above the floor, andacross its western end is a low bench a couple of inches above thefloor. In the northeastern corner there is a shallow cove, also raisedslightly above the main floor and connecting by a narrow opening withthe outer vestibule-like rooms on the north. These northern rooms of thelodge seem to be simply enlargements of the passageway. The northernopening is a window rather than a door as it is about 10 feet above theground and therefore could be entered only by a ladder. The opening iscut in the back of a cove in the cliff, and is 6 feet from the northernend of the main room. At half its length it has been enlarged on bothsides by the excavation of niches or coves about 4 feet deep but only 2½feet high. These coves could be used only for storage on a small scale. 

 [Illustration: Figure 294. Plan of cavate lodges, group _A_. ]

In the southeastern corner of the main room there is another openingleading into a low-roofed storage cist, approximating 4 feet indiameter, and this cist was in turn connected with the middle one of thethree rooms first described. This opening, at the time the room wasexamined, was so carefully sealed and plastered that it was scarcelyperceptible. 

A different arrangement of rooms is shown in plan in figure 294 and insection in figure 295. This group occurs at the point marked A on themap. The entrance to the main room was through a narrow passage, 3 feetlong, leading into the chamber from the face of the bluff, which at thispoint is vertical. The main room is oblong, measuring 17 feet one wayand 10 the other. At the southern end there is a small cist and on thewestern side near the entrance there is another hardly a foot indiameter. North of the main room there is a small, roughly circular roomwith a diameter of about 6 feet. It is connected with the main room by apassage about 2 feet long. On the floor of the main room there are twolow ridges of clay, similar to those already described, which divide itinto three sections of nearly equal size. 

 [Illustration: Figure 295. Sections of cavate lodges, group _A_. ]

East of the main room there is another of considerable size in the formof a bay or cove. It measures 13 feet by 6 feet, and its floor is 20inches higher than that of the main room, as shown in the section(figure 295). Attached to this bay, at its northern end, is a small cistabout 3 feet in diameter, and with its floor sunk to the level of thefloor of the main room. East of the cove there is another cist about 4½feet in diameter and with its floor on the level of the cove. Adjoiningit on the south and leading out from the southeastern corner of the coveor bay, there is a long passage leading into an almost circular room9 feet in diameter. The back wall of this room is 33 feet from the faceof the cliff. The passage leading into it is 6 feet long, 2½ feet wideat the doorways, bulging slightly in the center, and its floor is on thesame level as the rooms it connects; its eastern end is defined by aridge of clay about 6 inches high. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXIV. IRRIGATING DITCH ON THE LOWER VERDE. ]

In the eastern side of the circular room last described there is astorage cist about 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. No fire-pit was seen inthis cluster, although if the principal apartment were carefully cleanedout it is not improbable that one might be found. 

A cluster of rooms somewhat resembling the last described is shown inplan in figure 296. This cluster occurs at the point marked _B_ on themap. The main room is set back 5½ feet from the face of the bluff, whichis vertical at this point, and is oblong in shape, measuring 19½ by 11½feet. Its roof is 7½ feet above the floor in the center of the room. Attached to its southern end by a passage only a foot in length is asmall room or storage cist about 5 feet in diameter. At its northeasterncorner there is another room or cist similar in shape, about 7 feet indiameter, and reached by a passage 2 feet long. This small room is alsoconnected with a long room east of the main apartment by a passage, thesouthern end of which was carefully sealed up and plastered, making akind of niche of the northern end. At the southeastern corner of theroom there is a small niche about 2 feet in diameter on the level of thefloor. 

 [Illustration: Figure 296. Plan of cavate lodges, group _B_. ]

The eastern side of the main room is not closed, but opens directly intoan oblong chamber of irregular size with the roof nearly 2 feet lowerand the floor a foot higher than the main room. This step in the flooris shown by the line between the rooms on the ground plan. The secondroom is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long, its southern end roundingout slightly so as to form an almost circular chamber. Near the centerof its eastern side there is a passageway 2½ feet long leading into acircular chamber 10½ feet in diameter and with its floor on the samelevel as the room to which it is attached. The back wall of this room is35½ feet from the face of the cliff. 

A group occurring at the point marked _E_ on the map (plate XXV) isshown in plan in figure 297. It is located in a projecting corner of thebluff and marks the eastern limit of the cavate lodges at this end ofthe canyon. The group consists of five rooms, and has the distinction ofextending four rooms deep into the rock. The main room is set back about13 feet from the face of the bluff, about 7 feet of this distance beingoccupied by a narrow passageway and the remainder by a cove. The depthfrom the face of the bluff to the back of the innermost chamber is 47feet. The main room measures 16 feet in length and 11 feet in width, andits roof is less than 7 feet high in the center. Near its center andopposite the long passageway mentioned there is a fire-pit nearly 3 feetin diameter. 

 [Illustration: Figure 297. Plan of cavate lodges, group _E_. ]

At the northeastern corner of the main room there is a wide openingleading into a room measuring 8 by 7 feet, with a floor raised 2 feetabove that of the principal apartment. The roof of this chamber is but4½ feet above the floor. Almost the whole eastern side of this room isoccupied by a wide opening leading into another room of approximatelythe same size and shape. The roof of this room is only 3 feet 10 inchesabove the floor, and the floor is raised 6 inches above that on thewest. In the northeastern corner there is a short narrow passagewayleading into a small circular room, the fourth of the series, having adiameter of 4 feet. The roof of this apartment is only 3 feet above thefloor. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXV. OLD IRRIGATING DITCH, SHOWING CUT THROUGH LOW RIDGE. ]

In the southeastern corner of the main room there is a narrow passagewayleading into a circular chamber about 8 feet in diameter. This chamberis connected with the second room of the series described by apassageway about 2 feet long, which opens into the southeastern cornerof that room. This passageway, at its northern end, is 1½ feet below theroom into which it opens. One of the most noticeable features about thisgroup of rooms is the entire absence of the little nooks and pockets inthe wall which are characteristic of these lodges, and which are verynumerous in all the principal groups, noticeably in the group nextdescribed. 

 [Illustration: Figure 298. Plan of cavate lodges, group _C_. ]

At the point marked _C_ on the map there is an elaborate group ofchambers, consisting of two groups joined together and comprisingaltogether eight rooms. This is shown in plan in figure 298. The rockcomposing the front of the main room of the southern group has recentlyfallen, making a pile of debris about 4 feet high. The room originallymeasured about 12 by 22 feet. Its eastern side is occupied by apassageway leading into an adjoining chamber and by two shallow, roughlysemicircular coves, apparently the remains of former small rooms. Alongthe northern wall of the room there are two little nooks at the floorlevel, and along the southern wall there are four, one of them (shown onthe plan) being dug out like a pit. The roof of the room was about6 feet above the floor. 

The passageway near the eastern side is 4½ feet long, and is 3½ feetwide--an unusual width. It opens into a roughly circular room, 8 feet indiameter, but with a roof only 3½ feet above the floor. Along thenortheastern side of this room, there are three small pockets opening onthe floor level. On the southern side of the room there is a wideopening into a small attached room, roughly oblong in shape andmeasuring about 6½ by 4½ feet. Along the southern wall of this littleroom there are two small pockets, and at the southwestern corner therock has been cleared out to form a low cavity in the shape of a halfdome. In the northwestern corner of the room there is another widepassage to a small room attached to the main room. This passage is nowcarefully sealed on its southern side with a slab of stone, plasteredneatly so as to be hardly perceptible from the southern side. The roominto which this passage opens on the north is attached to thenortheastern corner of the main apartment by a narrow passage, 1½ feetwide and a foot long. It is roughly circular in shape, about 6 feet indiameter, and is the only chamber in the southern group which has nopockets or cubby-holes. Of these pockets there are no fewer than twelvein the southern group. Near the northern corner of the main room thereis a doorway leading into a cove, which in turn opens into the main roomof the northern group. 

The main room of the northern group is setback about 9 feet from theface of the bluff, but is entered by a passageway about 3 feet long, theremainder of the distance consisting of a cove in the cliff. The room is22 feet long and 13 feet wide and its roof is 6½ feet above the floor. In the southwestern corner there is a small pocket in the wall, and inthe northwestern corner two others, all on the floor level. In theeastern side, however, there is a cubby-hole nearly 2 feet in diameterand about 2 feet above the floor. This is a rare feature. The southernend of the room opens into a kind of cove, raised 2 feet above the floorof the main room, and opening at its southern end into the main room ofthe southern group. In the floor of this cove there is a circular pitabout 18 inches in diameter (marked in the plan, figure 298). Althoughresembling the fire holes already described, the position of the pitunder consideration precludes use for that purpose; it was probablydesigned to contain water. At the northeastern corner of the principalapartment there is an oblong chamber or storage cist, measuring 6 feetby 7 feet. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXVI. OLD DITCH NEAR VERDE, LOOKING WESTWARD. ]

Connected with the main room by a passageway 2 feet long cut in itseastern wall, there is an almost circular chamber 7 feet in diameter, and this in turn connects with another chamber beyond it by a passageway2½ feet long and less than 2 feet wide. The roofs of the two chamberslast mentioned are but 4½ and 4 feet, respectively, above the floor, andin none of the rooms of this group, except the main apartment, arepockets or niches found. The whole group extends back about 45 feet intothe bluff. 

BOWLDER-MARKED SITES. 

Within the limits of the region here treated there are many hundreds ofsites of structures and groups of rooms now marked only by lines ofwater-rounded bowlders. As a rule each site was occupied by only one ortwo rooms, although sometimes the settlement rose to the dignity of avillage of considerable size. The rooms were nearly always oblong, similar in size and ground plan to the rooms composing the village ruinsalready described, but differing in two essential points, viz, characterof site and character of the masonry. As a rule these remains are foundon and generally near the edge of a low mesa or hill overlooking somearea of tillable land, but they are by no means confined to suchlocations, being often found directly on the bottom land, still morefrequently on the banks of dry washes at the points where they emergefrom the hills, and sometimes on little islands or raised areas withinthe wash where every spring they must have been threatened with overflowor perhaps even overflowed. An examination of many sites leads to theconclusion that permanency was not an element of much weight in theirselection. 

Externally these bowlder-marked sites have every appearance of greatantiquity, but all the evidence obtainable in regard to them indicatesthat they were connected with and inhabited at the same time as theother ruins in the region in which they are found. They are so muchobliterated now, however, that a careful examination fails to determinein some cases whether the site in question was or was not occupied by aroom or group of rooms, and there is a notable dearth of potteryfragments such as are so abundant in the ruins already described. Excavation in a large ruin of this type, however, conducted by someranchmen living just above Limestone creek, yielded a considerable lotof pottery, not differing in kind from the fragments found in stoneruins so far as can be judged from description alone. 

In the southern part of the region here treated bowlder-marked sites aremore clearly marked and more easily distinguished than in the northernpart, partly perhaps because in that section the normal ground surfaceis smoother than in the northern section and affords a greater contrastwith the site itself. Plate XXXIII shows one of these bowlder-markedsites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the opposite oreastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district. Itwill be noticed that the bowlders are but slightly sunk into the soil, and that the surface of the ground has been so slightly disturbed thatit is practically level; there is not enough débris on the ground toraise the walls 2 feet. The illustration shows, in the middle distance, a considerable area of bottom land which the site overlooks. In planthis site shows a number of oblong rectangular rooms, the longer axes ofwhich are not always parallel, the plan resembling very closely thesmaller stone village ruins already described. It is probable that thelack of parallelism in the longer axes of the rooms is due to the samecause as in the village ruins, i. E. , to the fact that the site was notall built up at one time. 

The illustration represents only a part of an extensive series of wallremains. The series commences at the northern end of a mesa forming theeastern boundary of the Rio Verde and a little below a point oppositethe mouth of Limestone creek. The ruins occur along the western rim ofthe mesa, overlooking the river and the bottom lands on the other side, and are now marked only by bowlders and a slight rise in the ground. Butfew lines of wall are visible, most of the ruins consisting only of afew bowlders scattered without system. From the northern end of themesa, where the ruins commence, traces of walls can be seen extendingdue southward and at an angle of about 10° with the mesa edge for adistance of one-fourth of a mile. Beyond this, for half a mile or moresouthward, remains of single houses and small clusters occur, and theseare found in less abundance to the southern edge of the mesa, where theruin illustrated occurs. The settlement extended some distance east ofthe part illustrated, and also southward on the slope of the hill. Twowell-marked lines of wall occur at the foot of the hill, on the flatbottom land, but the slopes of the hill are covered with bowlders andshow no well-defined lines. Scattered about on the surface of the groundare some fragments of metates of coarse black basalt and some potsherds, but the latter are not abundant. 

The bowlders which now mark these sites were probably obtained in theimmediate vicinity of the points where they were used. The mesa on whichthe ruin occurs is a river terrace, constructed partly of thesebowlders; they outcrop occasionally on its surface and show clearly inits sloping sides, and the washes that carry off the water falling onits surface are full of them. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXVII. OLD DITCH NEAR VERDE, LOOKING EASTWARD. ]

In the northern end of the settlement there are faint traces of what mayhave been an irrigating ditch, but the topography is such that watercould not be brought on top of the mesa from the river itself. At thesouthern end of the settlement, northeast of the point shown in theillustration, there are traces of a structure that may have been astorage reservoir. The surface of the mesa dips slightly southward, andthe reservoir-like structure is placed at a point just above the head ofa large wash, where a considerable part of the water that falls upon thesurface of the mesa could be caught. It is possible that, commencing atthe northern end of the settlement, a ditch extended completely throughit, terminating in the storage reservoir at the southern end, and thatthis ditch was used to collect the surface water and was not connectedwith the river. A method of irrigation similar to this is practicedtoday by some of the Pueblo Indians, notably by the Hopi or Tusayan andby the Zuni. In the bottom land immediately south of the mesa, nowoccupied by several American families, there is a fine example of anaboriginal ditch, described later. 

In the vicinity of the large ruin just above Limestone creek, previouslydescribed, the bowlder-marked sites are especially abundant. In theimmediate vicinity of that ruin there are ten or more of them, and theyare abundant all along the edge of the mesa forming the upper riverterrace; in fact, they are found in every valley and on every point ofmesa overlooking a valley containing tillable land. 

It is probable that the bowlder-marked ruins are the sites of secondaryand temporary structures, erected for convenience in working fields nearto or overlooked by them and distant from the home pueblo. The characterof the sites occupied by them and the plan of the structures themselvessupports this hypothesis. That they were connected with the permanentstone villages is evident from their comparative abundance about each ofthe larger ones, and that they were constructed in a less substantialmanner than the home pueblo is shown by the character of the remains. 

It seems quite likely that only the lower course or courses of the wallsof these dwellings were of bowlders, the superstructure being perhapssometimes of earth (not adobe) but more probably often of the type knownas “jacal”--upright slabs of wood plastered with mud. This method ofconstruction was known to the ancient pueblo peoples and is used todayto a considerable extent by the Mexican population of the southwest andto a less extent in some of the pueblos. No traces of this constructionwere found in the bowlder-marked sites, perhaps because no excavationwas carried on; but it is evident that the rooms were not built ofstone, and that not more than a small percentage could have been builtof rammed earth or grout, as the latter, in disintegrating leaveswell-defined mounds and lines of debris. It is improbable, moreover, that the structures were of brush plastered with mud, such as the Navajohogan, as this method of construction is not well adapted to arectangular ground plan, and if persistently applied would soon modifysuch a plan to a round or partially rounded one. Temporary brushstructures would not require stone foundations, but structures composedof upright posts or slabs, filled in with brush and plastered with mud, and designed to last more than one farming season, would probably beplaced on stone foundations, as the soil throughout most of the regionin which these remains occur is very light, and a wooden structureplaced directly on it would hardly survive a winter. 

In the valley of the Rio Verde the profitable use of adobe at thepresent time is approximately limited northward by the thirty-fourthparallel, which crosses the valley a little below the mouth of Limestonecreek. North of this latitude adobe is used less and less and where usedrequires more and more attention to keep in order, although on the hightablelands some distance farther northward it is again a suitableconstruction. South of the thirty-fourth parallel, however, adobeconstruction is well suited to the climate and in the valleys of Saltand Gila rivers it is the standard construction. Adobe construction (theuse of sun-dried molded brick) was unknown to the ancient pueblobuilders, but its aboriginal counterpart, rammed earth or piséconstruction, such as that of the well known Casa Grande ruin on Gilariver, acted in much the same way under climatic influences, and it isprobable that its lack of suitability precluded its use in the greaterpart of the Verde valley. No walls of the type of those of the CasaGrande ruin have been found in the valley of the Verde, althoughabundant in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers, but it is possiblethat this method of construction was used in the southern part of theVerde region for temporary structures; in the northern part of thatregion its use even for that purpose was not practicable. 

In this connection it should be noted that all the ruins hereindescribed are of buildings of the northern type of aboriginal puebloarchitecture and seem to be connected with the north rather than thesouth. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXVIII. BLUFF OVER ANCIENT DITCH, SHOWING GRAVEL STRATUM. ]

IRRIGATING DITCHES AND HORTICULTURAL WORKS. 

One of the finest examples of an aboriginal irrigating ditch that hascome under the writer’s notice occurs about 2 miles below the mouth ofLimestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. At thispoint there is a large area of fertile bottom land, now occupied by somehalf dozen ranches, known locally as the Lower Verde settlement. Theditch extends across the northern and western part of this area. PlateXXXIV shows a portion of this ditch at a point about one eighth of amile east of the river. Here the ditch is marked by a very shallowtrough in the grass-covered bottom, bounded on either side by a lowridge of earth and pebbles. Plate XXXV shows the same ditch at a pointabout one-eighth of a mile above the last, where it was necessary to cutthrough a low ridge. North of this point the ditch can not be traced, but here it is about 40 feet above the river and about 10 feet above amodern (American) ditch. It is probable that the water was taken out ofthe river about 2 miles above this place, but the ditch was run on thesloping side of the mesa which has been recently washed out. No tracesof the ditch were found east of the point shown in plate XXXIV, but asthe modern acequia, which enters the valley nearly 10 feet below theancient one, extends up the valley nearly to its head, there is noreason to suppose that the ancient ditch did not irrigate nearly thewhole area of bottom land. The ancient ditch is well marked by twoclearly defined lines of pebbles and small bowlders, as shown in theillustration. Probably these pebbles entered into its construction, asthe modern ditch, washed out at its head and abandoned more than a yearago, shows no trace, of a similar marking. 

 [Illustration: Figure 299. Map of an ancient irrigating ditch. ]

A little west and south of the point shown in plate XXXIV the bottomland drops off by a low bench of 3 or 4 feet to a lower level orterrace, and this edge is marked for a distance of about a quarter of amile by the remains of a stone wall or other analogous structure. Thisis located on the extreme edge of the upper bench and it is marked onits higher side by a very small elevation. On the outer or lower side itis more clearly visible, as the stones of which the wall was composedare scattered over the slope marking the edge of the upper bench. Atirregular intervals along the wall there are distinct rectangular areasabout the size of an ordinary pueblo room, i. E. , about 8 by 10 and 10 by12 feet. 

In February, 1891, there was an exceptional flood in Verde river due toprolonged hard rain. The river in some places rose nearly 20 feet, andat many points washed away its banks and changed the channel. The riverrose on two occasions; during its first rise it cut away a considerablesection of the bank near a point known as Spanish wash, about 3½ milesbelow Verde, exposing an ancient ditch. During its second rise it cutaway still more of the bank and part of the ancient ditch exposed a fewdays before. The river here makes a sharp bend and flows a little northof east. The modern American ditch, which supplied all the bottom landsof the Verde west of the river, was ruined in this vicinity by the floodthat uncovered the old ditch. Figure 299 is a map of the ancient ditchdrawn in the field, with contours a foot apart, and showing also asection, on a somewhat larger scale, drawn through the points _A_, _B_on the map. Plate XXXVI is a view of the ditch looking westward acrossthe point where it has been washed away, and plate XXXVII shows theeastern portion, where the ditch disappears under the bluff. 

The bank of the river at this point consists of a low sandy beach, from10 to 50 feet wide, limited on the south by a vertical bluff 10 to 12feet high and composed of sandy alluvial soil. This bluff is the edge ofthe bottom land before referred to, and on top is almost flat andcovered with a growth of mesquite, some of the trees reaching a diameterof more than 3 inches. The American ditch, which is shown on the map, runs along the top of the bluff skirting its edge, and is about 14 feetabove the river at its ordinary stage. The edge of the bluff is shown onthe map by a heavy black line. It will be observed that the ancientditch occurs on the lower flat, about 3 feet above the river at itsordinary stage, and its remains extend over nearly 500 feet. The line, however, is not a straight one, but has several decided bends. One ofthese occurs at a point just west of that shown in the section. About 80feet east of that point the ditch makes another turn southward, andabout 40 feet beyond strikes the face of the bluff almost at rightangles and passes under it. 

About 50 feet north of the main ditch, at the point where it passesunder the bluff, there are the remains of another ditch, as shown on themap. This second ditch was about a foot higher than the main structure, or about 4 feet above the river; it runs nearly parallel with it for 30feet and then passes into the bluff with a slight turn toward the north. It is about the same size as the main ditch, but its section is moreevenly rounded. Figure 300 shows this ditch in section. 

 [Illustration: Plate XXXIX. ANCIENT DITCH AND HORTICULTURAL WORKS ON CLEAR CREEK. ]

As already stated, the American ditch is about 14 feet above the river, while the ancient ditch is less than 4 feet above the water. Thisdecided difference in level indicates a marked difference in thecharacter of the river. The destruction of the modern ditch by the floodof 1891 is not the first mishap of that kind which has befallen thesettlers. The ditch immediately preceding the current one passed nearlyover the center of the ancient ditch, then covered by 10 feet or more ofalluvial soil, and if a ditch were placed today on the level of theancient structure it would certainly be destroyed every spring. Thewater that flowed through the modern ditch was taken from the river at apoint about 3 miles farther northward, or just below Verde. The waterfor the ancient ditch must have been taken out less than a mile abovethe southern end of the section shown in the map. 

 [Illustration: Figure 300. Part of old irrigating ditch. ]

At first sight it would appear that the ancient ditch antedated thedeposit of alluvial soil forming the bottom land at this point, and thishypothesis is supported by several facts of importance. It is said thatten years ago the bottom land, whose edge now forms the bluff referredto, extended some 25 or 30 feet farther out, and that the river thenflowed in a channel some 200 or 300 feet north of the present one. Be this as it may, the bottom land now presents a fairly continuoussurface, from the banks of the river to the foothills that limit thevalley on the west and south, and it is certain that this bottom landextended over the place occupied by the ancient ditch; nor is it to besupposed that the ancient ditches ended abruptly at the point where theynow enter the bluff. The curves in the line of the ancient ditch mightindicate that it was constructed along the slope of a hill, or on anuneven surface, as a deep excavation in fairly even ground wouldnaturally be made in a straight line. 

The face of the bluff shows an even deposit of sand, without apparentstratification, except here and there a thin layer or facing of mudoccurs, such as covers the bottom of the ancient ditch and also of themodern ditch. Singularly enough, however, over the ancient ditch, about5 feet above its bottom, there is a stratum of sand and gravel, and ontop, within a few inches of the surface of the ground, a thin stratum ofmud. This mud stratum extends only about 8 feet horizontally and isslightly hollowed, with its lowest part over the center of the ditch. The gravel stratum also was laid down over the ditch, is tilted slightlysouthward and occurs in two layers, together about a foot thick. Itfirst appears a few feet south of the point where the main ditch entersthe bluff and over the ditch both layers are distinctly marked, as shownin plate XXXVIII. Both layers are clearly marked to a distance of 4 feetnorth of the northern side of the main ditch; here the lower layer thinsout, but the upper layer continues faintly marked almost to the edge ofthe small ditch. At this point the gravel stratum becomes pronouncedagain and continues over the small ditch, almost pure gravel in places, with a decided dip westward. At a point just beyond the northern side ofthe small ditch the gravel layer disappears entirely. 

The occurrence of this gravel in the way described seems to indicatethat the ditch was built along the slope of a low hill forming the edgeof the bottom land at that time, and that subsequently detritus wasdeposited above it and over the adjacent bottom land forming a smoothground surface. Against this hypothesis it must be stated that noevidence whatever was found of more than a single deposit of sandy loam, although the exposures are good; but perhaps were an examination made bya competent geologist some such evidence might be developed. 

 [Illustration: Plate XL. ANCIENT DITCH AROUND A KNOLL, CLEAR CREEK. ]

There is one fact that should not be lost sight of in the discussion, viz, the very low elevation of the ditch above the river. The Verde is, as already stated, a typical mountain stream, with an exceptionally highdeclivity, and consequently it is rapidly lowering its bed. If, asalready conjectured, the water for the ancient ditch was taken from theriver but a short distance above the point where remains of the ditchare now found--and this assumption seems well supported by the characterof the adjacent topography--the slight elevation of the bed of the ditchabove the river would indicate that, in the first place, the ditch waslocated, as already suggested, along the slope of a hill, and in thesecond place, that the ditch was built at a period of no greatantiquity. The occurrence of the high bluff under which the ditch nowpasses does not conflict with this suggestion, for the deposition of thematerial composing it and its erosion into its present form andcondition may be the result of decades rather than of centuries of workby a stream like the Verde, and certainly a hundred, or at most ahundred and fifty years would suffice to accomplish it. At the presenttime a few floods deposit an amount of material equal to that underdiscussion, and if subsequently the river changed its channel, as itdoes at a dozen different points every spring, a few decades only wouldbe required to cover the surface with grass and bushes, and in short, toform a bottom land similar to that now existing over the ancient ditch. 

In conclusion it should be noted, in support of the hypothesis that theditch was built before the material composing the bluff was laid down, that immediately under the ditch there is a stratum of hard adobe-likeearth, quite different from the sand above it and from the material ofwhich the bluff is composed. This stratum is shown clearly in plateXXXVIII. 

The hypothesis which accords best with the evidence now in hand is thatwhich assumes that the ditch was taken out of the river but a shortdistance above the point illustrated, and that it was built on the slopeof a low hill, or on a nearly flat undulating bottom land, before thematerial composing the present bottom or river terrace was deposited, and that the ditch, while it may be of considerable antiquity, is notnecessarily more than a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old; inother words, we may reach a fairly definite determination of its minimumbut not of its maximum antiquity. 

On the southern side of Clear creek, about a mile above its mouth, thereare extensive horticultural works covering a large area of the terraceor river bench. These have already been alluded to in the description ofthe village ruin overlooking them, but there are several features whichare worthy a more detailed description. For a distance of 2 miles eastand west along the creek, and perhaps half a mile north and south, thereare traces of former works pertaining to horticulture, includingirrigating ditches, “reservoirs, ” farming outlooks, etc. 

At the eastern end of these works, about 3 miles above the mouth ofClear creek, the main ditch, after running along the slope of the hillfor some distance, comes out on top of the mesa or terrace nearlyopposite the Morris place. The water was taken from the creek but ashort distance above, hardly more than half a mile. West of the pointwhere the ditch comes out on the mesa top, all traces of it disappear, but they are found again at various points on the terrace. Plate XXXIXshows a portion of the terrace below and opposite the rectangular ruinpreviously described. In the distant foreground the light line indicatesa part of the ancient ditch. Plate XL shows the same ditch at a pointhalf a mile below the last, where it rounds a knoll. In the distance isthe flat-topped hill or mesa on which the rectangular ruin previouslydescribed is located. About a hundred yards southeast of this pointfurther traces of the ditch may be seen, and connected with it at thatpoint are a number of rectangular areas, which were cultivated patcheswhen the ditch was in use. 

The whole surface of the terrace within the limits described is coveredby small water-worn bowlders scattered so thickly over it that travel isseriously impeded. In many parts of it these bowlders are arranged so asto inclose small rectangular areas, and these areas are connected withthe old ditch just described. Plate XXXIX shows something of thissurface character; and in the right hand portion of it may be seen someof the rows of bowlders forming the rectangular areas. The rows whichoccur at right angles to the ditch are much more clearly marked thanthose parallel to it, and the longer axes of the rectangular areas areusually also at right angles to the ditch line. On the ground thesetraces of inclosures can hardly be made out, but from an elevated point, such as the mesa on which, the rectangular ruin overlooking these worksis located, they show very clearly and have the appearance of windrows. Traces of these horticultural works would be more numerous, anddoubtless more distinct, were it not that a considerable part of thearea formerly under cultivation has been picked over by the modernsettlers in this region, and immense quantities of stone have beenremoved and used in the construction of fences. This has not been done, however, in such a manner as to leave the ground entirely bare, yet bareareas occur here and there over the surface, where doubtless onceexisted a part of the general scheme of horticultural works. 

One such bare area occurs close to the edge of the terrace about a mileand a half above the mouth of the creek. In its center is a structurecalled for convenience a reservoir, although it is by no means certainthat it was used as such. It occurs about 100 yards from the creek, opposite the Wingfield place, and consists of a depression surrounded byan elevated rim. It is oval, measuring 108 feet north and south and 72feet east and west from rim to rim. The crown of the rim is 5 feet 8inches above the bottom of the depression and about 3 feet above theground outside. The rim is fairly continuous, except at points on thenorthern and southern sides, where there are slight depressions, andthese depressions are further marked by extra large bowlders. At itslowest points, however, the rim is over 2 feet above the ground, whichslopes away from it for some distance in every direction. Plate XLIshows the eastern side of the depression; the large tree in the middledistance is on the bank of Clear creek and below the terrace. Plate XLIIshows the northern gateway or dip in the rim, looking southward acrossthe depression. The large bowlders previously referred to can be clearlyseen. A depression similar to this occurs on the opposite side of thevalley, about half a mile from the river. In this case it is not markedby bowlders or stones of any description, but is smooth and rounded, corresponding to the surface of the ground in its vicinity. In thelatter as in the former case, the depression occurs on a low knoll orswell in the bottom land, and the surface of the ground slopes gentlyaway from it for some distance in every direction. 

 [Illustration: Plate XLI. ANCIENT WORK ON CLEAR CREEK. ]

The purpose of these depressions is not at all clear, and althoughpopularly known as reservoirs it is hardly possible that they were usedas such. The capacity of the Clear creek depression is about 160, 000gallons, or when two-thirds full, which would be the limit of itsworking capacity, about 100, 000 gallons. The minimum rate of evaporationin this region in the winter months is over 3 inches per month, risingin summer to 10 inches or more, so that in winter the loss of waterstored in this depression would be about 10, 000 gallons a month, whilein summer it might be as high as 35, 000 or even 40, 000 gallons a month. It follows, therefore, that even if the reservoir were filled to itsfull working capacity in winter and early spring it would be impossibleto hold the water for more than two months and retain enough at the endof that time to make storing worth while. It has been already stated, however, that these depressions are situated on slight knolls and thatthe land falls away from them in every direction. As no surface drainagecould be led into them, and as there is no trace on the ground of araised ditch discharging into them, they must have been filled, if usedas reservoirs, from the rain which fell within the line thatcircumscribes them. The mean annual rainfall (for over seventeen years)at Verde, a few miles farther northward in the same valley, is 11. 44inches, with a maximum annual fall of 27. 27 inches and a minimum of 4. 80inches. The mean annual fall (for over twenty-one years) at FortMcDowell, near the mouth of the Rio Verde, is 10-54 inches, with amaximum of 20. 0 inches and a minimum of 4. 94 inches. [8]

 [Footnote 8: Report on Rainfall (Pacific coast and western states and territories), Signal Office U. S. War Dept. , Senate Ex. Doc. 91, 50th Cong. , 1st Sess. , Washington, 1889; pp. 70-73 (Errata, p. 4). ]

If these depressions were used as reservoirs it is a fair presumptionthat the bottoms were plastered with clay, so that there would be noseepage and the only loss would be by evaporation. Yet this loss, in adry and windy climate such as that of the region here treated, would besufficient to render impracticable a storage reservoir of a crosssection and a site like the one under discussion. Most of the rainfallis in the winter months, from December to March, and it would require afall of over 12 inches during those months to render the reservoir ofany use in June; it would certainly be of no use in July and August, at the time when water is most needed, save in exceptional years withrainfall much in excess of the mean. 

On the other hand, there is the hypothesis that these depressionsrepresent house structures; but if so these structures are anomalous inthis region. The contour of the ground does not support the idea of acluster of rooms about a central court, nor does the débris bear it out. Mr. F. H. Cushing has found depressions in the valleys of Salt and Gilarivers somewhat resembling these in form and measurement, and situatedalways on the outskirts of the sites of villages. Excavations were made, and as the result of these he came to the conclusion that thedepressions were the remains of large council chambers, as the floorswere hard, plastered with mud, and dish-shaped, with a fire-hole in thecenter of each; and no pottery or implements or remains of any kind werefound except a number of “sitting stones. ” Mr. Cushing found traces ofupright logs which formed the outer wall of the structure; he inferredfrom the absence of drainage channels that the structure was roofed, andas the ordinary method of roofing is impracticable on the scale of thesestructures, he supposed that a method similar to that used by the PimaIndians in roofing their granaries was employed, the roof being of aflattened dome shape and composed of grass or reeds, formed in acontinuous coil and covered with earth. If the depressions underdiscussion, however, are the remains of structures such as thesedescribed, they form a curious anomaly in this region, for, as has beenalready stated, the affinities of the remains of this region are withthe northern architectural types, and not at all with those of thesouthern. 

There is a third hypothesis which, though not supported by directevidence, seems plausible. It is that the depression of Clear creek, andperhaps also the one on the opposite side of the Verde, were thrashingfloors. This hypothesis accords well with the situation of thesedepressions upon the tillable bottom lands, and with their relation tothe other remains in their vicinity; and their depth below the surfaceof the ground would be accounted for, under the assumption here made oftheir use, by the high and almost continuous winds of the summer in thisregion. Perhaps the slight depressions at the northern and southern sideof the oval were the gateways through which the animals which trampledthe straw or the men who worked the flails passed in and out. Whetherused in this way or not, these depressions would be, under theassumption that the bottom was plastered with mud, not only practicable, but even desirable thrashing floors, as the grain would be subjectedduring thrashing to a partial winnowing. This suggestion would alsoaccount for the comparatively clean ground surface about the depressionsand for their location on slightly elevated knolls. 

Scattered over the whole area formerly under cultivation along Clearcreek are the remains of small, single rooms, well marked on the ground, but without any standing wall remaining. These remains are scatteredindiscriminately over the terrace without system or arrangement; theyare sometimes on the flat, sometimes on slight knolls. They numberaltogether perhaps forty or fifty. Plate XLIII shows an example whichoccurs on a low knoll, shown also in plate XL; it is typical of theseremains. It will be noticed that the masonry was composed of riverbowlders not dressed or prepared in any way, and that the débris on theground would raise the walls scarcely to the height of a single lowstory. 

 [Illustration: Plate XLII. GATEWAY TO ANCIENT WORK, CLEAR CREEK. ]

The location of these remains, their relation to other remains in thevicinity, and their character all support the conclusion that they weresmall temporary shelters or farming outlooks, occupied only during theseason when the fields about them were cultivated and during thegathering of the harvest, as is the case with analogous structures usedin the farming operations among the pueblos of to-day. Their number anddistribution do not necessarily signify that all the terrace was undercultivation at one time, although there is a fair presumption that thelarger part of it was, and the occurrence of the ditch at both the upperand the lower ends of the area strengthens this conclusion. 

As it is impossible that an area so large as this should be cultivatedby the inhabitants of one village, it is probable that a number ofvillages combined in the use of this terrace for their horticulturaloperations; and, reasoning from what we know to have been the case inother regions, it is further probable that this combination resulted inendless contention, and strife, and perhaps finally to the abandonmentof these fields if not of this region. The rectangular ruin alreadyillustrated is situated on a hill south of the terrace and overlooks itfrom that direction; on the opposite side of Clear creek, on the hillbounding the valley on the north, there are the remains of a large stonevillage which commanded an outlook over the terraces in question; and alittle farther up the creek, on the same side and similarly situated, there was another village which also overlooked them. There weredoubtless other villages and small settlements whose remains are not nowclearly distinguishable, and it is quite probable that some of theinhabitants of the large villages in the vicinity, like those nearVerde, hardly 3 miles northward, had a few farming houses and some landunder cultivation on this terrace. 

Thus it will be seen that there was no lack of cultivators for all thetillable land on the terrace, and there is no reason to suppose that theperiod when the land was under cultivation, and the period when thevillages overlooking it were occupied, were not identical, and that thesingle-house remains scattered over the terrace were not built andoccupied at the same period. The relation of the stone villages to thearea formerly cultivated, the relation of the single-room remains to thearea immediately about them, the character of the remains, and the knownmethods of horticulture followed by the Pueblo Indians, all support theconclusion that these remains were not only contemporaneous but alsorelated to one another. 

STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

MASONRY AND OTHER DETAILS. 

The masonry of the stone villages throughout all the region here treatedis of the same type, although there are some variations. It does notcompare with the fine work found on the San Juan and its tributaries, although belonging to that type--the walls being composed of two faceswith rubble filling, and the interstices of the large stones beingfilled or chinked with spalls. This chinking is more pronounced andbetter done in the northern part of the region than in the south. 

The rock employed depended in all cases on the immediate environments ofthe site of the village, the walls being composed in some cases of slabsof limestone, in other cases of river bowlders only, and in still othersof both in combination. The walls of the large ruin near Limestone creekwere composed of rude slabs of limestone with an intermixture ofbowlders. The bowlders usually occur only in the lower part of the wall, near the ground, and in several cases, where nothing exists of the wallabove the surface of the ground, the remains consist entirely ofbowlders. A good example of this peculiarity of construction is shown inplate XLIV, and plate XLV shows the character of stone employed and alsoa section of standing wall on the western side of the village. A sectionof standing wall near the center of the ruin is illustrated in plateXIII. It will be noticed that some of the walls shown in thisillustration are chinked, but to a very slight extent. The wallrepresented in plate XLV has slabs of limestone set on edge. Thisfeature is found also in other ruins in this region, notably in thoseopposite Verde, though it seems to be more used in the south than in thenorth. An example occurring in the ruin opposite Verde is shown in plateXLVI. In this case chinking is more pronounced; the walls are from 2 to2½ feet thick, built in the ordinary way with two faces and an interiorfilling, but the stones are large and the filling is almost wholly adobemortar. The two faces are tied together by extra long stones whichoccasionally project into the back of one or the other face. 

The western cluster of the ruin last mentioned, shown on the ground plan(plate XVII), has almost all its walls still standing, and the masonry, while of the same general character as that of the main cluster, isbetter executed. The stones composing the walls are smaller than thosein the main cluster and more uniform in size, and the interstices arecarefully chinked. The chinking is distinctive in that spalls were notused, but more or less flattened river pebbles. The different color andtexture of these pebbles make them stand out from the wall distinctly, giving quite an ornamental effect. 

 [Illustration: Plate XLIII. SINGLE-ROOM REMAINS ON CLEAR CREEK. ]

That portion of the standing wall of the ruin opposite Verde, whichoccurs in the saddle northeastward from the main cluster, shown on theplan in plate XVII, represents the best masonry found in this region. Aselsewhere stated, this was probably the last part of the village to bebuilt. These walls are shown in plate XLVII. It will be noticed that thestones are of very irregular shape, rendering a considerable amount ofchinking necessary to produce even a fair result, and that the stonesare exceptionally large. The masonry of this village is characterized bythe use of stones larger than common, many of them being larger than oneman can carry and some of them even larger than two men can handle. 

All the larger and more important ruins of this region are constructedof limestone slabs, sometimes with bowlders. The smaller ruins, on theother hand, were built usually of river bowlders, sometimes with anintermixture of slabs of limestone and sandstone but with a decidedpreponderance of river bowlders. This would seem to suggest that thisregion was gradually populated, and that the larger structures were thelast ones built. This suggestion has been already made in the discussionof the ground plans, and it is, moreover, in accord with the history ofthe pueblo-builders farther northward, notably that of the Hopi. 

Plate XXI illustrates a type of bowlder masonry which occurs on Clearcreek; plate XLVIII shows the masonry of the ruin at the mouth of theEast Verde, and plate XVI shows that of a ruin at the month of Fossilcreek. In all these examples the stone composing the walls was derivedeither from the bed of an adjacent stream or from the ground on whichthey were built, and was used without any preparation whatever; yet inthe better examples of this type of masonry a fairly good result wasobtained by a careful selection of the stones. A still ruder type ofmasonry sometimes found in connection with village ruins is shown infigure 290. This, however, was used only as in the example illustrated, for retaining walls to trails or terraces, or analogous structures. 

In a general way it may be stated that the masonry of the village ruinsof this region is much inferior to that of the San Juan region, and inits rough and unfinished surfaces, in the use of an inferior materialclose at hand rather than a better material a short distance away, andin the ignorance on the part of the builders of many constructivedevices and expedients employed in the best examples of pueblo masonry, the work of this region may be ranked with that of the Tusayan--in otherwords, at the lower end of the scale. 

 [Illustration: Figure 301. Walled front cavate lodges. ]

There is but little masonry about the cavate lodges, and that is rude incharacter. As elsewhere stated, walled fronts are exceptional in thisregion, and where they occur the work was done very roughly. Figure 301shows an example that occurs in the group of cavate lodges alreadydescribed. It will be noticed that little selection has been exercisedin the stones employed, and that an excess of mortar has been used tofill in the large interstices. Figure 290 (p. 221), which shows astorage cist attached to the group of cavate lodges, marked _D_ on themap (plate XXV), exhibits the same excessive use of adobe or mudplastering. At several other points in the area shown on this map thereare short walls, sometimes inside the lodges, sometimes outside. In allcases, however, they are rudely constructed and heavily plastered withmud; in short, the masonry of the cavate lodges exhibits an ignorancefully equal to that of the stone villages, while the execution is, ifanything, ruder. It is singular that, notwithstanding the excessive useof mud mortar and mud plastering in the few walls that are found there, such plastering was almost never used on the walls in the interiors ofthe lodges, perhaps because no finer finish than the rough surface ofthe rock was considered desirable. 

 [Illustration: Plate XLIV. BOWLDER FOUNDATIONS NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK. ]

The cavate lodges seem to have been excavated without the aid of othertools than a rough maul or a piece of stone held in the hand, and such atool is well adapted to the work, since a blow on the surface of therock is sufficient to bring off large slabs. Notwithstanding the rudetools and methods, however, some of the work is quite neat, especiallyin the passageways (which are often 3 or 4 feet long and quite narrow)and in the smaller chambers. In the excavation of these chambers bencheswere left at convenient places along the wall and niches and cubby-holeswere cut, so that in the best examples of cavate lodges the occupants, it would seem, were more comfortable, so far as regards theirhabitation, than the ordinary Pueblo Indian of today, and bettersupplied with the conveniences of that method of living. It should bestated in this connection, however, that although the group of cavatelodges gives an example of an extensive work well carried out, thesuccessful carrying out of that work does not imply either a largepopulation or a high degree of skill; the only thing necessary was time, and the amount of time necessary for the work is not nearly so great, in proportion to the population housed, as was required for the bettertypes of pueblo work in the San Juan country (the village ruins of theChaco canyon for example), and probably no more than would be requiredfor the construction of rooms of equal size and of the rather poor gradeof work found in this region. 

Although no examples of interior wall-plastering were found in the groupof cavate lodges described, such work has been found in neighboringlodges; and in this group plastered floors are quite common. The objectof plastering the floors was to secure a fairly even surface such as thesoft rock did not provide, and this was secured not by the applicationof layers of clay but by the use of clay here and there wherever neededto bring the surface up to a general level, and the whole surface wassubsequently finished. This final finishing was sometimes omitted, andmany floors are composed partly of the natural rock and partly of clay, the latter frequently in spots and areas of small size. 

The floors were often divided into a number of sections by low ridges ofclay, sometimes 8 inches broad. These ridges are shown on the groundplans (figures 294 to 298, and in plate XXV). Their purpose is notclear, although it can readily be seen that in such domestic operationsas sorting grain they would be useful. 

DOOR AND WINDOW OPENINGS. 

The masonry of this region was so roughly and carelessly executed thatlittle evidence remains in the stone villages of such details ofconstruction as door and window openings. Destruction of the walls seemsto have commenced at these openings, and while there are numerousstanding walls, some with a height of over 10 feet, no perfect exampleof a door or window opening was found. It is probable that the methodsemployed were similar or analogous to those used today by the Hopi, andthat the wooden lintel and stone jamb was the standard type. 

 [Illustration: Figure 302. Bowlders in footway, cavate lodges. ]

 [Illustration: Plate XLV. MASONRY OF RUIN NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK. ]

 [Illustration: Figure 303. Framed doorway, cavate lodges. ]

In the cavate lodges window openings are not found; there is but oneopening, the doorway, and this is of a pronounced and peculiar type. Asa rule these doorways are wider at the top than at the bottom and thereare no corners, the opening roughly approximating the shape of a pearwith the smaller end downward. The upper part of the opening consistsalways of the naked rock, but the lower part is generally framed withslabs of sandstone. Plate XLIX shows an example that occurs in the uppertier of lodges at its eastern end. The floor of this lodge is about2 feet above the bench from which it was entered, and this specimenfails to show a feature which is very common in this group--a line ofwater-worn bowlders extending from the exterior to the interior of thelodges through the doorway and arranged like stepping stones. Thisfeature is shown in figure 302, which represents the doorway of group_E_, shown on the general map (plate XXV) and on the detailed plan, figure 297. Figure 303 shows a type in which the framing is extended upon one side nearly to the top, while on the other side it extends onlyto half the height of the opening, which above the framing is hollowedout to increase its width. This example occurs near that shown in plateXLIX, and the floor of the chamber is raised about 2 feet above thebench from which it is entered. The illustration gives a view from theinterior, looking out, and the large opening on the right was caused bythe comparatively recent breaking out of the wall. Figure 303 shows thedoorway to the group of chambers marked _E_ on the general map, aninterior view of which is shown in figure 302. In this example theobvious object of the framing was to reduce the size of the opening, andto accomplish this the slabs were set out 10 or 12 inches from the rockforming the sides of the opening, and the intervening space was filledin with rubble. Plate XXXII, which shows the interior of the main roomin group _D_, shows also the large doorway on the north. 

 [Illustration: Figure 304. Notched doorway in Canyon de Chelly. ]

 [Illustration: Plate XLVI. MASONRY OF RUIN OPPOSITE VERDE. ]

It will be noticed that these doorways all conform to one general planand that this plan required an opening considerably larger in its upperthird than in the lower two-thirds of its height. This requirement seemsto be the counterpart or analogue of the notched doorway, which is thestandard type in the cliff ruins of Canyon de Chelly and other regions, and still very common in Tusayan (Moki). Figure 304 shows a notcheddoorway in Canyon de Chelly and figure 305 gives an example of the sametype of opening in Tusayan. The object of this peculiar shape in theregions mentioned has been well established, [9] and there is no reasonto suppose that similar conditions and a similar object would notproduce a similar result here. This type of opening had its origin inthe time when the pueblo builders had no means, other than blankets, of temporarily closing door openings and when all the supplies of thevillage were brought in on the backs of the inhabitants. In order tosecure protection against cold and storm the opening was made of thesmallest possible size consistent with its use, and the upper part ofthe opening was made larger in order to permit the introduction of backloads of faggots and other necessaries. This purpose would be almost aswell served by the openings of the cavate lodges as by the notcheddoorway, and at the same time the smallest possible opening was exposedto the weather. The two types of openings seem simply to be twodifferent methods of accomplishing the same purpose--one in solid rock, the other in masonry. That it was considered desirable to reduce theopenings as much as possible is evident from the employment of framingslabs in the lower portions, reducing the width of that part generallyto less than a foot, while the upper portions are usually 3 feet andmore in width, and the absence of framing slabs in the upper part of theopenings was probably due to their use as suggested; no slabs could beattached with sufficient firmness to resist the drag of a back load ofwood, for example, forced between them. The strict confinement of dooropenings to one type suggests a short, rather than a long, occupancy ofthe site under discussion, a suggestion which is borne out by otherdetails; and this unity of design renders it difficult to form aconclusion as to the relative age of the two types of openings underdiscussion. So far as the evidence goes, however, it supports theconclusion that the doorways of the cavate lodges were derived from atype previously developed, and that the idea has been modified and tosome extent adapted to a different environment; for if the idea had beendeveloped in the cavate lodges there would be a much greater number ofvariations than we find in fact. There can be no doubt, however, thatthe cavate lodge doorways represent an earlier type in development, if not in time, than the notched doorways of Tusayan. 

 [Footnote 9: A Study of Pueblo Architecture, by Victor Mindeleff: 8th. Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth. For 1886-1887; Washington, 1891, pp. 1-228. ]

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