Attention was first publicly called, about 40 years
ago (1875-1877), by Messrs. Jackson, [1] Holmes, Morgan, and others, to
some of the ruins here considered. It is difficult to identify all of
the ruins mentioned or described by these pioneers. Their "Hovenweep
Castle" is supposed to lie in about the center of the district here
considered, possibly on Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon, although the large
castellated building [2] in Holly Canyon would also fulfill conditions
equally well. Their "Pueblo" may have been situated on the McElmo near
the mouth of Yellow Jacket Canyon. Early writers rather vaguely refer to
a cluster of castles and towers as situated some distance from the
"Burial Place," which is readily identified on the promontory at the
mouth of the McElmo, as probably those in Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon,
but the cluster may be either at Square Tower or Holly Canyon, both of
which are about the same distance from this site. As "Pueblo" is not
indicated on the map accompanying the Hayden report, the sites of rock
shelters "some 7 miles from 'Pueblo' and 3 miles from the McElmo" remain
doubtful. The author retains the name "Hovenweep Castle" for the ruin in
Square Tower Canyon.
1Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr.
(Hayden Survey) for 1874, Washington, 1876.
2The situation of a spring near Hovenweep Castle indicates that the
Great House may he the Hovenweep Castle of early writers.
In his account of ruins in the region visited, Prof.
W. H. Holmes [1] considers several other ruins, as "the triple-walled
tower" (here called Mud Spring village, p. 20), ruins at Aztec Spring
(p. 23), cliff-dwellings and towers of the San Juan and Mancos, the
"slab cysts" or burial places on the Dolores, and the promontory at the
junction of the Hovenweep and McElmo (p. 60). The best-preserved towers
and castellated buildings which his article considers occur on the San
Juan and Mancos Canyons, districts on the periphery of the region
covered by this account.
1Report on the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado. Tenth Ann. Rept.
U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1876, Washington, 1879.
These pioneer reports of Jackson and Holmes not only
called attention to a new archeological field, but also introduced to
the archeologist several new types of prehistoric American architecture
of which nothing was previously known. They have been repeatedly quoted
and are still constantly referred to by writers on southwestern
archeology.
Although Jackson made many photographs of the castles
and towers of the Hovenweep, none of these were published in his
reports, possibly because halftone methods of reproduction were then
unknown. The illustrations that appear in the text of early reports are
mainly reproductions of sketches. These reports, in which the discovery
of the tower type of architecture and its adjacent cliff-dwellings were
announced, should thus rightly rank as the first important steps in the
scientific investigations of the stone-house builders of this district
of our Southwest; although the allied "Casas Grandes" or great houses of
the Chaco had been described a few years before by Gregg, Stimpson, and
others.
We have, in addition to these pioneer reports,
several magazine articles of about the same date, the material for which
was largely drawn from them. One of the most important newspaper
articles of that date was written by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, published in
the New York Tribune, and another, of anonymous authorship, is to be
found in the Century Magazine for the year 1877. New forms of towers and
castellated buildings were added in these accounts to those of the
earlier authors.
One of the most important contributions to the
antiquities of the region about Mesa Verde was made by the veteran
ethnologist, Morgan, who published notes contributed by Mr. Mitchell on
a cluster of mounds near his ranch. As no name was given this
village it is here called the Mitchell Spring Village. Morgan likewise
mentions the ruin at Mud Spring and a tower in the ruin near his spring.
Professor Newberry was the first author to affix the name Surouaro to a
ruin situated at the head of the Yellow Jacket Canyon.
Several of these ruins were described and figured by
Mr. Warren K. Moorehead as "The Great Ruins of Upper McElmo Creek" in
the Illustrated American for July 9, 1892, the sixth of a series of
articles under a general title "In search of a Lost Race." He gives
descriptions of a "cave shelter" found near Twin Towers, Square Tower
in "Ruin Canyon," a building (Hovenweep Castle), and the tower at the
junction of the North and South Forks of Ruin Canyon. This paper is
accompanied by a map of Ruin Canyon by Mr. Cowen. In Moorehead's
discussion of these remains, individual towers and other ruins are
designated by capital letters, A—V, to some of which are also
affixed the names "Hollow Boulder," "Twin Towers," "Square Tower," etc.
Details of structure and measurements of the more striking buildings and
a discussion of certain features of structure, some of which will be
considered later under individual ruins, are likewise given.
The most important general article yet published on
the prehistoric remains of the region here considered is by Dr. T.
Mitchell Prudden, [1] who also mentions several of the ruins
here treated. His most important contribution is a description of what
he calls the "unit type," which he recognized as a fundamental
structural feature in the pueblos of this region. He also showed that
the kiva in Montezuma Valley villages is identical with that of
cliff-dwellings in the Mesa Verde, and emphasized, as an important
feature, the union of the tower and the pueblo, a characteristic of the
highest form of pueblo architecture.
1The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed in Utah, Arizona,
Colorado, and New Mexico., Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 2,
1903.
Doctor Prudden has followed his comprehensive paper
above mentioned with an account [2] of the excavation of one of the mounds
at Mitchell Spring in which he adds to our knowledge of the structure of
his "unit type."
2The Circular Kivas of Small Ruins in the San Juan Watershed. Amer.
Anthrop., n. s. vol. xvi no. 1, 1914.
In "A Further Study of Prehistoric Small House Ruins
in the San Juan Watershed," [3] Doctor Prudden has furnished
important additional data which shows the uniformity of the unit type
over a large area of the San Juan drainage.
3Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Asso., vol. v, no. 1, 1918.
The following among other prehistoric remains in the
district mentioned or described by Doctor Prudden are covered by the
author's reconnoissance:
1. Ruins at Dolores Bend (Escalante Ruin).
2. Wolley Ranch Ruin.
3. Burkhardt Ruin (Mud Spring Village).
4. Goodman Point Ruin.
5. Unnamed ruin west of Goodman Lake.
6. Ruin at junction of McElmo and Yellow Jacket.
7. Group on Yellow Jacket nearly opposite mouth of Dawson Canyon (Davis or Littrell Tower).
8. Surouaro,
9. Cannonball Ruin.
10. Towers and buildings of Ruin and Bridge Canyons.
11. Pierson Spring Ruin.
12. Bug Spring Ruins.
The following towers can be identified from his
figures: [1]
1. "Square building opposite mouth of Dawson Creek."
Prudden, pl. xviii, fig. 2. (This, building is not square, but
semicircular.)
2. Cannonball Ruin. Prudden, pl. xxi [xxii].
3. "Small tower-like structure . . . at the head of
Ruin Canyon, in the Yellow Jacket group." Prudden, pl. xxiii, fig. 2.
(This building is not in Ruin Canyon, but in Holly Canyon.)
4. "Tower . . . about the head of Ruin Canyon."
Prudden, pl. xxiii, fig. 1. (This is the most eastern of the Twin
Towers, but not about the head of the canyon.)
5. Sand Canyon Tower. Prudden, pl. xxiv, fig. 2.
1Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 2, 1903.
Although mainly devoted to descriptions of the
cliff-houses of the Mesa Verde, Baron G. Nordenskiöld's "Cliff Dwellers
of the Mesa Verde" discusses in so broad a manner the relationship of
pueblo ruins and cliff-houses that no student can overlook this
epoch-making work. In fact, Nordenskiöld laid the foundations for
subsequent students of pueblo morphology, although some of his
comparisons and generalizations were premature because based on
imperfect observations which have been superseded by later
investigations.
The partial excavation of the excellent ruin at the
head of Cannonball Canyon by S. G. Morley [2] sheds
considerable light on the morphology of prehistoric buildings in the
McElmo district. Unfortunately no attempt was made by him to repair the
walls of this ruin for permanent preservation, but it is not too late
still to prevent their further destruction and preserve them for future
students and visitors. Morley's description of the buildings is
accompanied by good photographs and a ground plan. He brought to light
in this ruin examples of the characteristic unit-type kiva.
2The Excavation of the Cannonball Ruins in
Southwestern Colorado. Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. x, no. 4, 1908.
The latest work on the McElmo Ruins, one part of
which has already appeared, is a joint contribution by Morley and
Kidder. [1] In this publication accurate dimensions and sites of
ruins in the McElmo and Square Ruin Canyons are given, with other
instructive data. Morley and Kidder have designated the ruins by Arabic
numbers, and in a few instances by names. The author has preserved these
numbers so far as possible in his account.
1The Archaeology of McElmo Canyon, Colorado. El Palacio, vol. iv, no.
4, Santa Fe, 1917.
The following ruins in Ruin Canyon and neighboring
district covered by this reconnoissance are described by Morley and
Kidder:
No. 1. Wickyup Canyon, Ruin 1 and Ruin 2, "Boulder
Castle."
No. 2. Two towers in Ruin Canyon: 1a, near
the mouth; 1b, Towers on or near forks, No. 1 [Hovenweep
Pueblo], No. 2 [Hovenweep Castle.]
No. 3. [Square Tower.]
No. 4. [Oval Tower.]
No. 5. [Tower]
No. 6. [6.]
No. 7. [Boulder Cliff-house.]
No. 8. Twin Towers.
No. 9. [9.]
No. 10. [Unit-type House.]
No. 11. Gibraltar House and ruin. [Stronghold
House.]
No. 12. [12.]
The pueblos and cave dwellings of the "Pivotal group"
(those on or near the promontory at the junction of the McElmo and
Yellow Jacket Canyons) were also studied by the authors.
Almost the whole article by Morley and Kidder, which
the editor announces will be completed in a future number of "El
Palacico" is devoted to descriptions of buildings [2] in Ruin
and Road (Wickyup) Canyons and the ruins of the "Pivotal group" at the
base of a promontory between the junction of the Yellow Jacket and
McElmo.
2The dimensions of buildings and towers given in this article are
welcome additions to our knowledge, but from lack of ground plans one
can not fully determine the arrangement of rooms designated in individual ruins.
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