NO. 17 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, IQ16 87 
The plan of the work at the Mesa Verde was to excavate one of 
the many mounds situated on the top of the plateau for the purpose 
of discovering the characteristics of the Mesa Verde pueblos, of 
which formerly nothing was known. One of the most conspicuous 
Fic. 93—Tower in Navaho Canyon, Mesa Verde National 
Park, Colorado. Photograph by J. Wirsula. 
piles of stones (figs. 84, 85, 86), in a cluster of 16 mounds near the 
reservoir called Mummy Lake (fig. 87), was chosen for this purpose, 
and in this were uncovered the walls of a rectangular ruin, 113 feet 
long by 100 feet wide; once 20 feet high on the north side where 
