Because of this a cliff dwelling may seem, at first glance, to be an empty house. Too often visitors see only the stone walls and fail to see the people who built them. One must always remember that a cliff dwelling is the architectural expression of a settled, industrious agricultural people. For a thousand years they lived in the Mesa Verde region. From a simple beginning their culture developed steadily and the cultural peak was reached during the thirteenth century. This was the century of the cliff dwellings. Because of strong enemy pressure the people moved to the caves and built the cliff dwellings for which the Mesa Verde is famous. THE END OF THE STORY Just before the close of the thirteenth century the story ended. Menaced by their enemies and with their existence threatened by the great drouth of 1276-1299 A.D., they moved to the south and east. Gradually they mingled with other Pueblo Indians and soon were no longer recognizable as a Mesa Verde group. Their descendants are to be found in some of the present-day Indian Pueblos along the Rio Grande, in New Mexico. [Illustration: The scene pictured is from a diorama in the Mesa Verde Museum. In this carefully reproduced cliff dwelling the former inhabitants carry on the many activities of their daily lives.] REFERENCES CITED Chapin, F. H. 1892. The Land of the Cliff-Dwellers. W. B. Clarke and Co., Boston. Fewkes, J. W. 1909. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Spruce-tree House. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 41. 1911. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 51. 1916. Excavation and Repair of Sun Temple, Mesa Verde National Park. Reports of the Department of the Interior for 1916. 1916. The cliff-ruins in Fewkes Canyon, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. “Holmes Anniversary Volume,” pp. 96-117. Washington. Holmes, W. H. 1878. Report on the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado, examined during the summers of 1875 and 1876. United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1876, 10th Annual Report, pp. 383-408. Jackson, W. H. 1876. Ancient ruins in Southwestern Colorado. U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1874, 8th Annual Report, pp. 367-81. 1929. The Pioneer Photographer. World Book Co., Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York. Mason, C. C. 1917. Article on discovery and exploration of the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. The Denver Post, July 1, 1917. Nordenskiold, G. 1893. The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde. Translated by D. Lloyd Morgan. Stockholm. LITHOPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY CUSHING-MALLOY, INC., ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, 1954