So it was that when drouth settled down upon the Mesa Verde in the year 1276 A.D., the people thought nothing of it. They had just enjoyed several good years and they worried little when the crops failed. They took the usual precautions and the priests assured them that the next year would be normal again. But the drouth did not break. Year after year it continued. A generation passed and still the drouth did not end. The rings of trees which grew at that time show that the drouth continued for twenty-four years. From 1276, through 1299, rainfall was below normal in the Mesa Verde and surrounding regions. Many of the years were unbelievably dry. Some were only moderately dry and a few were almost normal. But throughout the long period, rainfall was far below average. Winter snows were light and failed to restore the soil moisture. Summer rains were often completely lacking. Each year the soil lost more of its moisture and only the hardiest plants were able to survive. During the entire period there probably was not a harvest worthy of the name. The drouth was the worst ever known in the Southwest and its effect on the people of the Mesa Verde was tragic. Year after year the crops withered in the fields. Wild food plants also died or failed to reproduce. The larger game animals drifted off to the mountains and the smaller animals diminished in numbers. In their search for food the women scoured the mesas until there was not an edible plant left. The men hunted far and wide with less and less luck. Still the drouth continued. Water supplies dwindled. During the winter the pools in the canyon failed to fill and the lack of moisture caused the springs to become mere trickles. It was impossible to wring water from the earth when no water was there. The people were faced with three terrors; the lack of food, the lack of water, and the wrath of the gods. The first two actually existed; the last existed only in their minds. Consequently, it was the worst of all. Added to their tragic need of food and water was the horrible fear that their gods had deserted them. How the priests must have labored. Every ceremony, every trick they knew was repeated time after time as the drouth progressed. The cliff dwellings echoed with the chants and Sun Temple, the great ceremonial building, must have been the scene of countless super-ceremonials as the priests of the various villages threw their combined strength into the fight. Still the drouth continued!