The total length of Spruce Tree House is 216 feet, and its greatest
width is 89 feet. During the excavation of the ruin in 1907, Dr.
Fewkes counted 8 ceremonial rooms, or kivas, and 114 rooms that had
been used for living, storage, and other purposes. At least 14 seemed
to have been storage and burial rooms so that probably not more than
100 were used as dwellings. If it is considered that a family occupied
each room, the population would have been large, but it is doubtful if
all of the rooms were occupied at one time. An average of 2 or 3
persons to the room, making a total of not more than 300 for the
entire village, would no doubt be a fair estimate.
Two hundred feet north of Spruce Tree House the canyon comes to an
abrupt box end. A splendid spring flows from the base of the sandstone
cliff, and it was to this spring that the cliff-dweller women went for
water carrying it back to their homes in their big water jars. At the
south end of the cave a trail, consisting of small toeholds cut in the
cliff, led to the mesa top above. This trail was used by the men as
they went to their mesa-top fields, where they raised corn, beans, and
squash, and by the hunters as they went in search of deer and mountain
sheep that lived in the forests above.