Archeological investigations in New Mexico, Colorado, and UtahFewkes, Jesse Walter
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Archeological investigations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Colorado -- Antiquities; Indians of North America -- Antiquities; New Mexico -- Antiquities; Utah -- Antiquities
This group of mounds has received its name from Kit Carson Spring which
lies in their neighborhood. It is situated north of Navaho Church on an
elevation overlooking the road from Gallup to Crown Point. The members
of the group are numerous, but each mound is comparatively small. In
no case were walls found rising above the mounds, but as nearly as
could be judged from their shape, the buildings covered had rectangular
outlines and were accompanied by circular depressions. Fifty feet south
of the largest mound of this group there is a semicircular pile of
rocks which measures 42 feet on the south side, and with a radius of
30 feet from this side to the curved wall. The main ruin has lateral
extensions on the north and south ends, and measures 70 feet by 41
feet. The lateral extensions give the mounds the shape of the letter E
and enclose a square room of rectangular form measuring 20 by 15 feet.
RUINS IN HEMLOCK CANYON
Hemlock Canyon, north of the road from Gallup to Crown Point, has
the general features of other canyons in this neighborhood. At its
mouth there are fertile fields, and a good spring which a Navaho has
appropriated by building a hogan and fencing off the entrance. About
a half mile from this spring following the right bank of the arroyo,
which rarely contains water, there is a house (pl. 11, _a_) built in a
recess of the cliff about 10 feet above small scrub trees which here
grow in abundance. Its foundation is about 6 feet long, and the wall
is slightly curved and well constructed, showing a doorway shaped like
the letter T. This house is not regarded as a dwelling, for it is too
small for a family, and no household implements have been found within
the enclosure. It belongs rather to a type of cave-house called “ledge
rooms,” many examples of which occur near larger dwellings. It was
probably a storeroom, although possibly a retreat where priests retired
to pray for rain, as was once the custom among the Hopi. The people
to whom this house belonged probably dwelt near their farms a short
distance from the base of the cliff. There is a similar room known to
have been constructed by Navahos a few feet off the road from Gallup to
Crown Point, which is still used for a granary, indicating the probable
use of the small building here described.
RUINS NEAR BLACK DIAMOND RANCH
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