This ruin lies under a lofty buttress of rock westward from Lloyd's
canyon, which presented the only available camping place in its
neighborhood. At the time of my visit there was but scanty water in
the canyon and that not potable except for stock. We carried with us
all the water we used, and when this was exhausted were obliged to
retrace our steps to Oak creek. There are groves of trees in the
canyon and evidences that at some seasons there is an abundant water
supply. A corral had been made and a well dug near its mouth, but with
these exceptions there were no evidences of previous occupancy by
white men. We had hardly pitched our camp before tracks of large game
were noticed, and before we left we sighted a bear which had come down
to the water to drink, but which beat a hasty retreat at our approach.
As previously stated, the knowledge of this ruin was communicated to
me by Mr Schürmann.
[Illustration: FIG. 248--Ground plan of Honanki]
The Honanki ruin (figure 248) extends along the base of the cliff for
a considerable distance, and may for convenience of description be
divided into two sections, which, although generally similar, differ
somewhat in structural features. The former is lineal in its
arrangement, and consists of a fringe of houses extending along the
base of the cliff at a somewhat lower level than the other. The walls
of this section were for the greater part broken, and at no place
could anything more than the foundation of the front wall be detected,
although fragments of masonry strewed the sides of the declivity near
its base. The house walls which remain are well-built parallel spurs
constructed at right angles to the cliff, which served as the rear of
all the chambers. At the extreme right end of this row of rooms,
situated deep in a large cavern with overhanging roof, portions of a
rear wall of masonry are well preserved, and the lateral walls of one
or two chambers in this portion of the ruin are still intact.
Straggling along from that point, following the contour of the base of
the cliff under which it lies, there extends a long row of rooms, all
destitute of a front wall.
The first division (plate CII), beginning with the most easterly of
the series, is quite hidden at one end in a deep cavern. At this point
the builders, in order to obtain a good rear wall to their rooms,
constructed a line of masonry parallel with the face of the cliff. At
right angles to this construction, at the eastern extremity, there are
remnants of a lateral wall, but the remainder had tumbled to the
ground. The standing wall of _z_ is not continuous with that of the
next room, _y_, and apparently was simply the rear of a large room
with the remains of a lateral wall at right angles to it. The other
walls of this chamber had tumbled into a deep gorge, overgrown with
bushes which conceal the fragments. This building is set back deeply
in the cave, and is isolated from the remaining parts of the ruin,
although at the level which may have been its roof there runs a kind
of gallery formed by a ledge of rock, plastered with adobe, which
formerly connected the roof with the rest of the pueblo. This ledge
was a means of intercommunication, and a continuation of the same
ledge, in rooms _s_, _t_, and _u_, supported the rafters of these
chambers. At _u_ there are evidences of two stories or two tiers of
rooms, but those in front have fallen to the ground.
The standing wall at _u_ is about five feet high, connected with the
face of the cliff by masonry. The space between it and the cliff was
not large enough for a habitable chamber, and was used probably as a
storage place. In front of the standing wall of room _u_ there was
another chamber, the walls of which now strew the talus of the cliff.
The highest and best preserved room of the second series of chambers
at Honanki is that designated _p_, at a point where the ruin reached
an elevation of 20 feet. Here we have good evidence of rooms of two
stories, as indicated by the points of insertion of the beams of a
floor, at the usual levels above the ground. In fact, it is probable
that the whole section of the ruin was two stories high throughout,
the front walls having fallen along the entire length. From the last
room on the left to the eastern extremity of the line of houses which
leads to the main ruin of Honanki, no ground plans were detected at
the base of the cliffs, but fallen rocks and scattered débris are
strewn over the whole interval.
The eastern part of the main ruin of Honanki, however, lies but a
short distance west of that described, and consists of many similar
chambers, arranged side by side. These are lettered in the diagram _h_
to _u_, beginning with _h_, which is irregularly circular in form, and
ends with a high wall, the first to be seen as one approaches the ruin
from Lloyd canyon. This range of houses is situated on a lower
foundation and at a lower level than that of the main quarter of
Honanki, and a trail runs along so close to the rooms that the whole
series is easily visited without much climbing. No woodwork remains in
any of these rooms, and the masonry is badly broken in places either
by natural agencies or through vandalism.
Beginning with _h_, the round room, which adjoins the main quarter of
Honanki, we find much in its shape to remind us of a kiva. The walls
are in part built on foundations of large bowlders, one of which
formed the greater part of the front wall. This circular room was
found to be full of fallen débris, and could not be examined without
considerable excavation. If it were a kiva, which I very much doubt,
it is an exception among the Verde valley ruins, where no true kiva
has yet been detected.[27]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY