82 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. III. 



utilized in aboriginal times, by the natives as fields and as building 

 sites for their pueblo habitations. In the walls of this section of the 

 Canyon, are also to be found several cliff dwellings. 



About two miles above Ribbon Falls, on the west side of Bright 

 Angel Creek and fully 150 feet above the Canyon floor, along the con- 

 tact between the Cambrian Tapeats sandstone and the Dox sandstone 

 of the Unkar period, was found a ruin with eleven rooms and another 

 of four rooms. The contact here is very irregular and has been weath- 

 ered into many overhangs. All the rooms in both these ruins were 

 small and several of them may have been store-rooms. The larger 

 ruin had a doorway still standing complete. The flat stone forming 

 the top of the door projected several inches on either side into the ad- 

 joining masonry. All the stones were set in mud and the walls plas- 

 tered with the same material. None of the walls extended upward to 

 the sandstone above and probably did not when the dwellings were 

 inhabited, as we found numerous pieces of thatching made of some 

 long-leafed plants which would indicate that thatched roofs were in 

 use by the dwellers. These ruins had been dug into and their scien- 

 tific value almost entirely destroyed. We, however, found corn-cobs 

 black with age, two metates, hammer stones, a sandal of fibre, a por- 

 tion of a rabbit skin garment, perforators and considerable broken 

 pottery. 



RIBBON CREEK RUINS 



Similar fields and cliff ruins are present also in the small valley, 

 which extends for about a mile above the head of Altar Falls on Rib- 

 bon creek, ending at what is known as Upper Ribbon Falls. 



In detail these ancient habitations on Ribbon creek are as follows. 



The principal ruin of this small valley is located at the base of the 

 red sandstone cliff, just south of Upper Ribbon Falls. Beginning at 

 a point about one hundred and fifty feet south of the falls, these ruins 

 extend along this basal shelf for a distance of about one hundred and 

 fifty feet. The shelf itself dips toward the north at an angle of about 

 15 degrees. A fresh break in the base of the cliff, above this ruin, 

 shows where in recent times, perhaps several hundred years ago, a 

 large section of this rock wall has broken away and fallen to the valley 

 below. Evidently at this time, the major part of this interesting 

 cliff dwelling was carried away. The existence of a number of rooms 

 projecting out from the present base of the cliff, indicates that there 

 was originally a large and rather deeply eroded cavern in which this 

 cliff dwelling was built. Only a relatively small crevice, at what was 



