Although Canyon de Chelly is one of the best cliff-ruin regions of the
United States, it is not easily accessible and is practically unknown.
At the time of the conquest of this country by the "Army of the West" in
1846, and of the rush to California in 1849, vague rumors were current
of wonderful "cities" built in the cliffs, but the position of the
canyon in the heart of the Navaho country apparently prevented
exploration. In 1849 it was found necessary to make a demonstration
against these Indians, and an expedition was sent out under the command
of Colonel Washington, then governor of New Mexico. A detachment of
troops set out from Santa Fe, and was accompanied by Lieutenant
(afterward General) J. H. Simpson, of the topographical engineers, to
whose indefatigable zeal for investigation and carefulness of
observation much credit is due. He was much interested in the archeology
of the country passed over and his descriptions are remarkable for their
freedom from the exaggerations and erroneous observations which
characterize many of the publications of that period. His journal was
published by Congress the next year[1] and was also printed privately.
[Footnote 1: Thirty-first Congress, first session, Senate Ex. Doc.
No. 64, Washington, 1850.]
The expedition camped in the Chin Lee valley outside of Canyon de
Chelly, and Lieutenant Simpson made a side trip into the canyon itself.
He mentions ruins noticed by him at 41/2, 5, and 7 miles from the mouth;
the latter, the ruin subsequently known as Casa Blanca, he describes at
some length. He also gives an illustration drawn by R. H. Kern, which is
very bad, and pictures some pottery fragments found near or in the ruin.
The name De Chelly was apparently used before this time. Simpson
obtained its orthography from Vigil, secretary of the province (of New
Mexico), who told him it was of Indian origin and was pronounced
_chay-e_. Possibly it was derived from the Navaho name of the place,
Tse-gi.
Simpson's description, although very brief, formed the basis of all the
succeeding accounts for the next thirty years. The Pacific railroad
surveys, which added so much to our knowledge of the Southwest, did not
touch this field. In 1860 the Abbe Domenech published his "Deserts of
North America," which contains a reference to Casa Blanca ruin, but his
knowledge was apparently derived wholly from Simpson. None of the
assistants of the Hayden Survey actually penetrated the canyon, but one
of them, W. H. Jackson, examined and described some ruins on the Rio de
Chelly, in the lower Chin Lee valley. But in an article in Scribner's
Magazine for December, 1878, Emma C. Hardacre published a number of
descriptions and illustrations derived from the Hayden corps, among
others figures one entitled "Ruins in Canon de Chelly," from a drawing
by Thomas Moran. The ruin can not be identified from the drawing.
This article is worth more than a passing notice, as it not only
illustrates the extent of knowledge of the ruins at that time (1878),
but probably had much to do with disseminating and making current
erroneous inferences which survive to this day. In an introductory
paragraph the author says:
Of late, blown over the plains, come stories of strange newly
discovered cities of the far south-west; picturesque piles of
masonry, of an age unknown to tradition. These ruins mark an era
among antiquarians. The mysterious mound-builders fade into
comparative insignificance before the grander and more ancient
cliff-dwellers, whose castles lift their towers amid the sands of
Arizona and crown the terraced slopes of the Rio Mancos and the
Hovenweap.
Of the Chaco ruins it is said:
In size and grandeur of conception, they equal any of the present
buildings of the United States, if we except the Capitol at
Washington, and may without discredit be compared to the Pantheon
and the Colosseum of the Old World.
In the same year Mr J. H. Beadle gave an account[2] of a visit he made
to the canyon. He entered it over the Bat trail, near the junction of
Monument canyon, and saw several ruins in the upper part. His
descriptions are hardly more than a mention. Much archeologic data were
secured by the assistants of the Wheeler Survey, but it does not appear
that any of them, except the photographer, visited Canyon de Chelly. In
the final reports of the Survey there is an illustration of the ruin
visited by Lieutenant Simpson about thirty years before.[3] The
illustration is a beautiful heliotype from a fine photograph made by
T. H. O'Sullivan, but one serious defect renders it useless; through
some blunder of the photographer or the engraver, the picture is
reversed, the right and left sides being interchanged, so that to see it
properly it must be looked at in a mirror. The illustration is
accompanied by a short text, apparently prepared by Prof. F. W. Putnam,
who edited the volume. The account by Simpson is quoted and some
additional data are given, derived from notes accompanying the
photograph. The ruin is said to have "now received the name of the Casa
Blanca, or White House," but the derivation of the name is not stated.
[Footnote 2: Western Wilds, and the Men who Redeem Them:
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Chicago, Memphis, 1878.]
[Footnote 3: U.S. Geog. Surveys West of the 100th Meridian,
Lieutenant George M. Wheeler in charge; reports, vol. VII,
Archaeology; Washington, 1879, pp. 372-373, pl. xx.]
In 1882 Bancroft could find no better or fuller description than
Simpson's, which he uses fully, and reproduces also Simpson's (Kern's)
illustration. In the same year investigation by the assistants of the
Bureau of Ethnology was commenced. Colonel James Stevenson and a party
visited the canyon, and a considerable amount of data was obtained. In
all, 46 ruins were visited, 17 of which were in Del Muerto; and
sketches, ground plans, and photographs were obtained. The report of the
Bureau for that year contains an account of this expedition, including a
short description of a large ruin in Del Muerto, subsequently known as
Mummy Cave. A brief account of the trip was also published elsewhere.[4]
The next year a map of the canyon was made by the writer and many new
ruins were discovered, making the total number in the canyon and its
branches about 140. Since 1883 two short visits have been made to the
place, the last late in 1893, and on each trip additional material was
obtained. In 1890 Mr F. T. Bickford[5] published an account of a visit
to the canyon, illustrated with a series of woodcuts made from the
photographs of the Bureau. The illustrations are excellent and the text
is pleasantly written, but the descriptions of ruins are too general to
be of much value to the student.
[Footnote 4: Bull. Am. Geog. Soc., 1886, No. 4; Ancient
Habitations of the Southwest, by James Stevenson.]
[Footnote 5: Century Magazine, October, 1890, vol. XL, No. 6, p.
806 et seq.]
In recent years several publications have appeared which, while not
bearing directly on the De Chelly ruins, are of great interest, as they
treat of analogous remains--the cliff ruins of the Mancos canyon and the
Mesa Verde. These ruins were discovered in 1874 by W. H. Jackson and
were visited and described in 1875 by W. H. Holmes,[6] both of the
Hayden Survey. This region was roamed over by bands of renegade Ute and
Navaho, who were constantly making trouble, and for fifteen years was
apparently not visited by whites. Recent exploration appears to have
been inaugurated by Mr F. H. Chapin, who spent two summers in the Mesa
Verde country. Subsequently he published the results of some of his
observations in a handsome little volume.[7] In 1891 Dr W. R. Birdsall
made a flying trip to this region and published an account[8] of the
ruins he saw the same year. At the time of this visit a more elaborate
exploration was being carried on by the late G. Nordenskioeld, who made
some excavations and obtained much valuable data which formed the basis
of a book published in 1893.[9] This is the most important treatise on
the cliff ruins that has ever been published, and the illustrations can
only be characterized as magnificent. All of these works, and especially
the last named, are of great value to the student of the cliff ruins
wherever located, or of pueblo architecture.
[Footnote 6: U.S. Geol. Survey, F. V. Hayden in charge; 10th Ann.
Rept. (for 1876), Washington, 1878.]
[Footnote 7: The Land of the Cliff Dwellers, by Frederick H.
Chapin; Boston, 1892.]
[Footnote 8: Bull. Am. Geog. Soc., vol. XXIII, No. 4, 1891; The
Cliff Dwellings of the Canons of the Mesa Verde.]
[Footnote 9: The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, by
G. Nordenskioeld; Stockholm and Chicago, 1894.]