MESA VERDE AND CASA GRANDE NATIONAL PARKS 



143 



probably designed for the protec- 

 tion of the mighty chief. The 

 Tower itself, together with the 

 various chambers connected to 

 it, really more closely approxi- 

 mates the idea of architecture 

 than any structure that may be 

 found in the ruins of the Mesa 

 Verde. 



Located in about the center of 

 the village is the only example 

 of a circular tower that can be 

 found in any of the villages. 

 This rises in the rear to the roof 

 and perhaps at one time was 

 higher in front than shown. It 

 is ringed about midway with a 

 row of loopholes and is of un- 

 usually good masonry and thor- 

 oughly well built. Whether this 

 tower was used for purposes of 

 defense, observation, or as spaci- 

 ous drawing rooms for the 

 ladies of the court has never 

 been definitely settled, for in 

 those perilous times the element 

 of defense entered into every 

 walk of life. That there were 

 several walks of life in the days 

 of the Cliff Dwellers is evidenced 

 by the fact that they manufac- 

 tured cotton cloth, fiber sandals, 

 feather cloth and many articles 

 of attire. The feather cloth 

 which these people used is par- 

 ticularly attractive and of a qual- 

 ity that would undoubedly lead a 

 woman of today through a bar- 

 gain-counter rush, were it manu- 

 factured and on sale at the pres- 

 ent time. The body of this cloth 

 is a coarsely woven cotton woof 

 in which the downy portions of 

 feathers are woven so that a 

 shawl made of this material pre- 

 sents nothing but a surface simi- 

 lar to eiderdown. Samples of it 

 were found enshrouding mum- 

 mies unearthed in some of the sealed chambers. There 

 are a great number of other ruins which, while not so 

 large as Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House, are in some 

 respects more fascinating. In Navajo Canyon, of which 

 Spruce Canyon is a branch, are the Watch Tower, Thomas 

 House and Peabody House. In Cliff Canyon are Painted 

 Mouse, Willow House, Community House and the Swal- 

 lows' Nest. In Soda Canyon there is the Balcony House, 

 the only example of cliff dwelling architecture that shows 

 the use of a balcony. Here one's imagination can picture 

 children of cliff dwellers dangling their brown toes over 



A SMALL RUIN IN A GOOD STATE OF PRESERVATION 



This is in the vicinity of the Roosevelt Dam. The overhanging ledge of the cliff admirably protects 

 the walls of the ruin from the weather, but not from the depredations of the tourists. The view 

 from the windows and doors bespeak an eye for the beautiful on the part of the builders. 



the parapet walls and hurling stones upon wild beasts 

 below, happy in the security of their impregnable homes. 

 There are other examples of the ruins of the Cliff 

 Dwellers scattered along a general line drawn in a south- 

 westerly direction from the Mesa Verde. The Govern- 

 ment has seen fit to establish a park around another group 

 of these ruins which are located at Casa Grande. The 

 entire district in the vicinity of Casa Grande, Globe and 

 the Roosevelt Dam is dotted here and there with ruins 

 of the Cliff Dwellers. Those at Casa Grande are not 

 so fine or so interesting as the ruins near the Roosevelt 



