MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 



409 



Mesa Verde (Green table or table-land, named from 

 the dense forest of pinyon and juniper cedar covering it) 

 was made a National Park in 1906, in order that the 

 finest, largest and best-preserved clif-dwellings in this 

 country, if not in the world, "might be protected and 

 preserved for the enlightenment and education of the 

 present and future generations," 



This great detached table-land, rising boldly and ab- 

 ruptly from one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet 

 above the valleys sflfrrounding it, and, undoubtedly, com- 

 manding the greatest expanse of mountain, valley, plain 

 and desert country to be seen from any accessible point 

 in the Southwest, was further protected by many deep, 

 narrow, parallel canyons heading at the north rim, and 

 separated by small tongue-like mesas. 



iously arranged under the protecting roof of the cave, 

 that it means that not a single foot of usable space was 

 wasted, and so well constructed by the cliff-dweller ma- 

 sons that structures of four stories in height still remain 

 nearly intact. Deserted centuries ago, for what reason 

 no one can say, they stand today the finest examples 

 extant of primitive architecture in this country. 



Far View House, the only excavated unit in the 

 Mummy Lake group of sixteen great mounds, occupying 

 level ground on the Chapin Mesa, presents a totally differ- 

 ent or "unit type of pueblo construction," large living 

 rooms surrounded by the kivas, and forming a compact, 

 rectangular shaped building. 



This is a later development of the cliff-dwelling cul- 

 ture, whereas Earth Lodge A, a pit dwelling of a semi- 

 subterranean type, near Square Tower House, shows 



This ruin, excavated in 1920. was devoted to fire worship by 

 the mystic past and the present. Dr. 



Great caves in the vertical side-walls of the smaller 

 canyons offered a maximum of natural protection, both 

 from enemies and the elements, and ideal home-sites and 

 storage spaces adjacent to the rich, red soil of the mesas 

 above, to these peaceful, home-loving agriculturists. 



Because of their thrift and foresight in storing away 

 corn and other vegetable products to carry them over 

 years of periodic drought and crop failure, they were 

 constantly subject to raids of the non-agriculturist In- 

 dians, who depended largely upon game for subsistence. 

 The many ruins and circular watch-towers, which dot 

 the mesa at points of vantage, indicate the seriousness 

 of these raids. 



Cliff and cave ruins are found, literally, by the hun- 

 dred within the Park area, ranging from the small one- 

 room, apparently inaccessible ruins to a great communal 

 development as rejjresented by Cliff Palace with over 

 two hundred secular rooms and twenty-three circular, 

 subterraneous kivas, or ceremonial rooms, so ingen- 



rh(jti!graph by George L. Beam 

 the cliff dwellers. It is a connecting link between the people of 

 Pewkes is the figure in the photograph. 



the earliest type of home so far found on Mesa Verde. 

 In every direction, over the mesa top, mounds, indicating 

 either great settlements or isolated rooms, are found, 

 awaiting the investigation of scientific men, who alone 

 are permitted to conduct excavations, and then only for 

 the benefit of reputable museums or scientific societies. 

 The wanton destruction of archaeological sites, at the 

 hands of the commercial pot-hunter, is now a thing of 

 the past. 



Protective measures are intimately associated with the 

 problem of excavation in this Park in order that exposed 

 ruins may last indefinitely, and to Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, 

 Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, under whom all the work has 

 been accomplished with the single exception of Balcony 

 House (the work of the author), belongs the credit 

 of making Mesa Verde live again in the light of the 

 past. His evening camp-fire talks explain the problems 

 of the day. 



