Page 320 - THE CHRONICLE OF AN AUTO-CAMP TRIP BOOK I

The tent was aho'fl. ten feet from the ed; a a 2‘0 foot clirfa
downn
below this was an extremely steep side slope that extended
far to the floor of the canyon. Trip 168 Miles
edneoda Julv
.es n t c soutr western corner m
Colorado and on a l igr pln tea-.1, w miles wide and 15 miles long,
that is surrounded on all sides by steen cliff5 trat descend
abruptly to the Valleys helm . "e toy slopes graduaily to the
scutl and is cut by a dozen V1)1 walled canyons which, more or
less, parallel h other and deepen as trey extend southward to
. n in the lancos River‘"allay. in the sidcs of there canyons
t
the rock has been eroded leaving caves where are t.e test pre-
served remains of clirr dwfillings in a United States
The dwelling: were built by an early ptcnle with very crude
stone tools. ”he material was stone wric} t. accd and set in
mud mortar. lt is remarkable row ninmh and true tre «ails were
built, while there are several good examnles of circular towers.
mm structure usually was a series or rooms, cone extending four
stories 1igh. ”we story height tro was small shied suggested that
most of the rooms were uecu only at ni fit for sleeping purposes
some were used for food stora:e and turial chanErs
The ca~:s selected for tLe dwell ngs were dry, thus the nas-
onry 'as not subjected to rains or snows. "oday they stand ex-
rcncly well preserved. Access was usually
from the top of the
mLSa Hy means o1 a path 01 a narrow ledge cut in the canyon wall
or by a series of root holds out in tro race 0’ 1V* c‘lf . “hese
entrances were so nzaced t«--t the dwellings could be easily de—
fended against an enemy.
In addition to era_r atility as architects and masons, they
node pcttery,wove cotton fabrlcs and sandals, made tonls of stone
and were agriculturalists. m'ney ylanted corn, beans and gourds on
top or the mesa donstructed dams to impound water from the melt—
“Hows in
in;
spri 5 and tlc rains or summer. More than two hundred
or tbese den, rare been found wit a few miles from spruce ”rec
Camp, varying in *o t ur to five feet. "lore are about 1900
dwellings, v' re, it is eoti atod 50nd? ind' nu lived at one time
"he b1 d' 1 or tlc larger clirf dwell 5 been estimat-
ed as fron 1056 A.1. to 1:7 "Ease dates are n used on a tree
ring chronology. it is a fact v ufiPer erec‘s t‘e jrowth of
trees. An extremely dry year is recordad In t tree By a very
thin ring. While a wet year will cause a 1
ring record in to tre past was establishe&.from 1i v1n5 trecs
to beams "Fed in recent puehlos, to heaus used in storic uuellos
f‘.a113 back to beams used in tlese cliff ducllings. In each per-’
icd, the inner rings of a later tree corresponded to the outer
rings of an c rlier tree and so on. The number of tree rings in
any tree is d rectly related to its age.
Ry tie tree rinu metVUd it was es.ahlisled that there ma a
a: year nericd of drought from 1:75 to 1200 dur ; whlch -e n-
abitants were forced to abandon tre mess “men tVCSe duellinve
re discovercd ‘ne
area “a s inra.,
luditns,
who
led by ore Ute
disclaircd all ' owlcdgc shoot the people , huilt truse struct~
mes.
276