TPIE HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT 



By J. Walter Fewkes 

 Chief, Bureau o<f American Ethnology 



[With 10 plates] 

 INTRODUCTION 



There is one and only one locality in the Union where four States 

 come together at a common point. That locality is known as Four 

 Corners, and the four States that adjoin are Colorado, Utah, New 

 Mexico, and Arizona. It is situated in one of the most instructive 

 areas, archeologically speaking, in the Union, for taking it as a 

 center, a circle drawn from it 100 miles in diameter includes some 

 of the largest and most attractive ruins of pre-Columbian United 

 States. Four Corners is situated geographically nearest the heart 

 of that area from which the pueblos sprung, the land of the mythic 

 Sipapu. The massive pueblos of the Chaco Canyon, the cliff dwell- 

 ings of the Mesa Verde, and the mysterious habitations of the 

 Canyon de Tsay (Chelly) are within this region. The adjoining 

 areas of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah are dotted 

 with most interesting relics of a people that has disappeared, and 

 almost everywhere one turns are monumental indications of a pre- 

 Columbian civilization antedating the advent of white men and 

 reaching back to a time before documentary histor}?' began. 



The zealous Catholic missionaries, Escalante and Dominguez, the 

 first explorers of Colorado, passed through this region in 1776, in 

 their trip from Santa Fe into the untrodden north country, far 

 west of the present city of Dolores, after crossing the river which 

 even then bore that name. They knew nothing of the great ruins 

 on the Mesa Verde, but made a brief reference to one of the ruins 

 in southwestern Colorado. These mounds remained a century longer 

 before they were made known to science by Prof. W. H. Holmes and 

 Mr. W. H. Jackson, members of the Hayden expedition. In 1876 

 they announced the discovery of towers in the McElmo and Yellow- 

 jacket Canyons, and thus opened a new page in our history. At 

 that time there were few white settlers in this region; the Ute In- 

 dians were in possession, and towns like Mancos, Cortez, and Dolores 

 were not settled. Even then the most magnificent of all our cliff 

 dwellings were unknown. Of those on the Mesa Verde, Cliff Palace 



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