jACKsoN.J RUINS OF SOUTHWEST COLORADO, &C. 41d 



RUINS OF THE HO V EN WEEP AND M'ELMO. 



Starting from the Pueblo of the Hoveuweep describetl on page 30 ot 

 Bulletin I^o. 1, second series, we do not find in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood any other ruins of importance, but a short distance down the caGon 

 they begin to occur quite frequently. We observe first, on the left, the 

 remains of a tower perched upon a rock, jutting out into the valley, be- 

 neath and about which are other ruins, evidently belonging to the tower. 

 In the vicinity "rock- shelters" occur upon either side ot the canon, some 

 merely as walled-up caves, while others are semicircular walls built out 

 from the rock and protected overhead by an overhanging ledge. Some 

 seven miles from the Pueblo, and about three miles above the McElmo, on 

 the western side of the valley, is a jagged, butte-like promontory of 

 brownish-yellow sand-rock, standing out from the mesa, upon the face of 

 which are a number of benches and cave-like recesses. These have been 

 built up and enclosed with neatly-laid walls, making six different houses 

 or sets of rooms upon three benches, one above the other. Access was 

 had from below by ascending a steep slope of debris for about 100 feet 

 to the foot of the rock, where we find the first and largest of the houses. 

 This is some 12 feet in length by 5 feet deep, divided midway into 

 two rooms, but rendered somewhat indistinct by the falling down of a 

 portion of the rock back of it. The second bench contained the ruins 

 of a row of three small rock- shelters. Above these were two similar 

 ruins, very difficult to reach, the ledge upon which they stand project- 

 ing over the one beneath. The perfectly flat floor of the valley at the 

 foot of the rock contained faint indications of having been occupied 

 by buildings. One of the curves of the wash, here some 10 feet in depth, 

 in cutting away the soil had exposed a thin stratum of charcoal about 

 6 feet below the surface. One piece that we picked out was 3 inches thick, 

 and the earth about the mass in which it occurred was much burnt, as 

 though the fire had been long continued. About a mile farther down 

 we came to an expansion of the valley with a canon opening in from 

 the west. 



In an examination of this for six miles, we failed to discover any 

 remains of stone buildings, but found very numerous indications of what 

 were probably adobe structures, or earthen foundations for wooden ones; 

 in every instance circular, with a diameter of from 15 to 25 feet. A dozen 

 such were found within three miles of each other. Fragments of pottery 

 of excellent quality and neatly ornamented were very abundant. Oppo- 

 site the mouth of this canon the mesa juts prominently into the valley. 

 Half-way up its face is a bench-like spur, upon which rests an almost per- 

 fectly rectangular block of sandstone that has fallen from the cliff above. 

 It measurers 38 by 32 feet and is 20 feet high. The upper surface is 

 entirely covered with the remains of a wall from 3 to 5 feet high run- 

 ning around its outer edge; a diagonal line divides its interior into two 

 nearly equal spaces, one of which is again subdivided into three smaller 

 rooms. The passages between the latter are formed by the overlapping 

 of the ends of the dividing walls, their opposite ends being set off from 

 each other about 20 inches, thus necessitating a zigzag course in passing 

 from one to the other. At the foot of the south side of the rock, and 

 directly beneath the subdivided half of it, there is a line of stone wall 

 enclosing a space 40 feet square, the rock forming one side, with the 

 centre depressed a couple of feet below the surrounding level. In the 

 right-hand corner of this enclosure, against the rock, are the ruins of 

 another building 20 feet square. Ten feet above the base, and over this 

 ruin, four holes, 6 inches deep and 4 inches in diameter, have been. 



