above: Spruce Tree House (when it was discovered, it had a large spruce tree growing in the center of it)
In 1888, a couple of ranchers in southwestern Colorado were looking for some stray cattle and stumbled upon houses built of sandstone block under large overhanging cliffs. That would signal the end of 700 years of obscurity for the cliff dwellings and the beginning of Mesa Verde National Park.
It seems we have all heard the terms: Mesa Verde, cliff dwellings or Anazasi people at some time in our lives but, unless you are from the Southwest, the terms are not a part of your everyday life or culture. But, in the four corners area, it has been a part of their culture for 1,400 years. Mesa Verde happens to be one place that you can go to see the remnants of this previously thriving society.
According to one of the rangers at the Park, there were approximately 30,000-50,000 people inhabiting the area around 1100 AD. These Ancestral Puebloans, as they are now termed, didn’t always live in cliff dwellings. From 550-750 AD they lived in pithouses on top of the mesas where their crops were grown. Then, around 1200 AD, they shifted to the cliff type dwellings that are so well preserved at Mesa Verde today.
left: From the top of the mesa with the “friendly path” leading down into the canyon.
The reason for the move is unknown but many theories exist from better defense to protection from the elements. The dwellings range in size from one room houses to villages of more than 150 rooms. The Puebloans inhabited the cliff dwellings for only about 100 years then suddenly the unique homes were abandoned. From drought and resource depletion to political and social upheaval, the theories for their exodus are many. Their migration took them south to New Mexico and Arizona where their descendants the Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Laguna and others can be found today.
above and right: Views of the countryside surrounding the park.
Mesa Verde (Spanish for “green table”) was established as a National Park in 1906 and there are over 4,500 archeological sites 600 of which are cliff dwellings. During the winter, most of the sites are closed but the Chapin Mesa Museum and the Spruce Tree House are open all year.
The museum chronicles the development of the society from the “basketmakers” 1400 years ago to the time the ancestral puebloans migrated south 700 years ago. There are numerous artifacts on display such as bone and stone tools, baskets, pottery and even some cleverly woven sandals.
left: Note the blackened ceiling from heating fires.
After scouring the museum for answers to the questions in the Dude’s ranger books, we took a guided tour of Spruce Tree House. A friendly walkway meandered down to the cliff dwelling which was preferable to the original access which consisted of notches carved into the cliff face. I can’t imagine having to do a “rock climb” to get into and out of my house everyday.
right: The crops were grown on the mesa above. How would you like to scale these rocks to “go to work” everyday?
Although the site suffered from treasure hunters and other exploitation in the early days, much of the original structure is still fairly well preserved. It has 130 rooms, 8 kivas and housed approximately 80 people. The blackened ceiling shows evidence of heating and cooking fires and I was amazed to see 700 year old wood beams still intact.
left: An “unroofed” kiva.
The ranger lead us to a hole in the ground with a ladder sticking out and invited us down. Everyone was very trusting as they, one after another, disappeared through the small opening. The ladder lead to an underground room called a kiva. It is believed that the kiva’s were used for meetings and religious ceremonies. There was a place for a fire and a built in ventilation system which kept fresh air circulating without “blowing” out the fire. The room is reported to have a constant temperature of 50 degrees Summer and Winter.
The dwelling itself resembled an apartment complex but more in a communal fashion as the rooms looked only big enough sleep in or store food with most of the living happening outdoors in communal spaces.
left: Built-in grinding stones a.k.a the original food processors.
As we toured, I tried to imagine what it would have been like to live in a rock shelter under a cliff with 80 other people but, I really couldn’t as I have no frame of reference for the lifestyle. But, from a kid’s point of view, I kept thinking, it would have made a great fort!
“Far above me, a thousand feet or so, set in a great cavern in the face of the cliff, I saw a little city of stone asleep. It was as still as sculpture — and sometimes like that. It all hung together, seemed to have a kind of composition: pale little houses of stone nestling close to one another, perched on top of each other, with flat roofs, narrow windows, straight walls, and in the middle of the group, a round tower. . . . I had come upon the city of some extinct civilization, hidden away in this inaccessible mesa for centuries, preserved in the dry air and almost perpetual sunlight like a fly an amber, guarded by the cliffs and the river and the desert.—From “The Professor’s House,’’ by Willa Cather.
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