FEWKES) RUINS BETWEEN WINSLOW AND THE HOPI PUEBLOS 35 



go as far down as Yoltz crossing, he forded the river only a few 

 miles above that place. 



The hills bounding the valley retreat a considerable distance from 

 the banks of the river in that section of its course, and the road winds 

 through a level plain destitute of rocks suitable for building pur- 

 poses. At certain points, however, the author passed low mounds, 

 not accurately mapped, ujjon which were scattered fragments of pot- 

 tery, most of which was of rough manufacture. These mounds may 

 have been sites of small adobe buildings which have weathered away, 

 leaving only jjiles of soil. He attempted no excavations and found 

 no standing walls of adobe or stone, but the presence of fragments 

 of pottery in quantity would seem to indicate former habitation. 



It would be instructive to dig into one of these mounds, which ai'e 

 undoubtedly artificial in character, in order definitel}' to determine 

 their character, which it must be confessed is now highlj' problematic. 



Although the cavate ruins near Flagstaff and the ruins near the 

 Black falls were not carefullj^ examined until 1900, they are described 

 here for comparative purposes. 



CAVATE RUINS NEAR FLAGSTAFF 



The following account of these ruins and of those near Black 

 falls was published in the American Anthropologist in 1900 (volume 

 2, page 4l'3) : 



Sitgreaves, in 1852, seems to have been the first writer to refer to 

 the ruins about Flagstaff and along the Little Colorado. He figures 

 one of the ruined pueblos near the ca.scades or falls," a ruin of the 

 same general character as those near Black falls, which he probably 

 did not visit. Major Powell, in 1885, Aisited and later described* the 

 cliff houses, the cavate rooms of the volcanic cones, and several 

 pueblo ruins north and northeast of Flagstaff. He did not visit the 

 Black falls ruins, which are undoubtedly similar to some of those 

 which he descriljes. Since Powell's description the literature of 

 the Flagstaff ruins has been confined mostly to popular newspaper 

 articles, archeologists seeming to have paid little attention to this 

 neighborhood. 



The cavate rooms near Flagstaff are excavated in the lava, or vol- 

 canic breccia, and may be classified as (1) cavate rooms with vertical 

 entrances, and (2) cavate rooms with lateral entrances. The former 

 are well illustrated by the "Old caves," 9 miles east of Plagstaft"; the 

 latter bj^ the "New caves," 12 miles from the same place, in the same 

 direction, and by cavate rooms half a mile west of Turkey tanks. 

 These two types of cavate rooms are similar, and their former inhab- 

 itants were apparently of the same culture. Major Powell learned 

 from the Indians of Cataract canyon that the ancestors of the Hava- 

 supais occupied these cavate houses, and he states that "they doubt- 



a Probably the " cascades" were the Grand falls, miles above the Black falls. 

 bSee Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 1891. 



