Prehistoric villages, castles, and towers of southwestern Colorado — John Shaqi
Prehistoric villages, castles, and towers of southwestern ColoradoFewkes, Jesse Walter
History
Prehistoric villages, castles, and towers of southwestern Colorado
Fewkes, Jesse Walter
Colorado -- Antiquities; Mesa Verde National Park (Colo.) -- Antiquities; Pueblo Indians -- Antiquities
Ruin B (pl. 20, _b_), situated a short distance north of Ruin A, also
stands on the canyon rim. The north wall is entire, but the south wall
has fallen. What remains indicates that the ruin was about square, with
corners on the north side rounded, imparting to it a semicircular form.
The entrance into this room may have been through the floor.
TOWERS [C AND D]
These towers (pl. 23, _a_, _b_) show some of the finest masonry known
in this region, being constructed on fallen bowlders which their
foundations almost completely cover. Holly Tower (pl. 23, _b_) measures
16 feet high and 21 feet in diameter. It is 7 feet wide, its top rising
to a height level with that of the mesa on which stand buildings
already considered. One of the two rooms of this tower is narrower
and wider than the other, shown in an offset as if constructed at a
different time. Its foundations are 17 feet long by 8 feet wide, the
highest wall measuring, at the southeast corner, 12 feet 8 inches.
There is a fine doorway, wide above and narrow below, in the north
wall. The approach at present is difficult on account of the height
of the rock on which it stands, but there are evidences of former
footholes.
HOLLY HOUSE
Several broken-down walls, some of which are over 6 feet high, situated
east of Ruin A, appear to belong to a pueblo of considerable size (fig.
11, _E_, _F_), but the large foundation rock on which it is situated
has settled, its top having separated from the edge of the canyon, so
that the corner of the building (_F_) is out of plumb. The walls on the
adjoining cliff are also much broken down, although several sections
of them rise a few feet above the general surface. The cause of this
change in level of the base may have been an earthquake or the settling
or sliding of the bowlder on the talus down the hill. The united
building appears to have been a pueblo of rectangular form. Its walls
are so broken down that it was not possible to determine its exact
dimensions.
RUINS IN HACKBERRY CANYON
HORSESHOE HOUSE
The large building in Hackberry Canyon, one of the terminal spurs of
Bridge Canyon, a mile northeast of the cluster in Holly Canyon, is
particularly instructive from the fact that surrounding the remains of
a circular tower, for two-thirds of its circumference, is a concentric
wall with compartments separated by radial partitions (fig. 12, 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Horseshoe (Hackberry) Canyon.]
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