The country directly south of Ouray, Utah, is an unknown land to
the archeologist. Geologically speaking it is a very rugged region,
composed of eroded cliffs and deep canyons which up to within a few
years has been so difficult of access that white men have rarely
ventured into it. At present the country is beginning to be settled
and there are a few farms where the canyon broadens enough to afford
sufficient arable land for the needs of agriculture. The canyon is very
picturesque, the cliffs on either side rising from its narrow bed by
succession of natural steps (pl. 7, _a_) formed of sandstone outcrops
alternating with soft, easily eroded cretaceous rock. Its many lateral
contributing canyons are of small size, but extend deep into the
mountain in the recesses of which are said to be hidden many isolated
cave shelters, and other prehistoric remains. The cliffs and canyons of
this region are not unlike those farther south along the Green and the
Grand Rivers, a description of which, quoted from Prof. Newberry,[16]
pictures vividly the appearance of the weird scenery in these canyons.
He says:
From this point the view swept westward over a wide extent of
country in its general aspect a plane, but everywhere deeply cut by
a tangled maze of canyons and thickly set with towers, castles, and
spires of varied and striking forms; the most wonderful monuments
of erosion which our eyes already experienced in objects of this
kind had beheld. Near the mesa we are leaving stand detached
portions of it of every possible form from broad, flat tables, to
slender cones, crowned with pinnacles of the massive sandstone
which forms the perpendicular faces of the walls of the Colorado.
These castellated groups are from 1,000 to 5,000 feet in height,
and no language is adequate to convey a just idea of the strange
and impressive scenery formed by their grand and varied outlines.
Their appearance was so strange and beautiful as to call out
exclamations of delight from our party.
In this wild country up to his time rarely visited by white men, Prof.
Newberry also graphically described ruins not greatly unlike some of
those in Hill Canyon as follows:
Some two miles below the head of Labyrinth Canyon we came upon the
ruins of a large number of houses of stone. Evidently built by the
Pueblo Indians as they are similar to those on the Dolores, and
the pottery scattered about is identical with that before found in
so many places. It is very old but of excellent quality made of red
clay coated with white and handsomely figured. Here the houses are
built in sides of the cliffs. A mile or two below we saw others
crowning the inaccessible summits, inaccessible except by ladders,
of picturesque detached buttes of red sandstone, which rise to
the height of 150 feet above the bottom of the canyon. Similar
buildings were found lower down and broken pottery was picked up
upon the summits of the cliffs overhanging Grand River. Evidence
that these dreadful canyons were once the homes of families
belonging to that great people who formerly spread over all this
region now so utterly sterile, solitary and desolate.
Prof. Montgomery,[17] in an article on the ruins in Nine Mile Canyon,
gives a description of similar prehistoric remains which he had found
in that region. From this description the author of the present paper
supposes that these ruins belong to the same type or one very similar
to those found in Hill Canyon. The antiquities Montgomery mentions are
well preserved, for he speaks of one of the towers in this region as
about 50 feet high, standing in an almost inaccessible spot commanding
a magnificent view of several canyons and mountains. He says:
On the top of a mesa in an extremely dizzy situation, were the
remains of three small stone circular structures, two of which were
provided with roofs of heavy cedar logs and heavy, flat stones.
The logs and poles of these two structures would make about a cord
of wood, and they possessed distinct marks of the rude stone axes
with which they had been cut into suitable lengths. * * * On the
south side of the canyon, and about a mile from Brock’s Postoffice,
I explored a strong and well-built stone structure, which stood
upon a high and precipitous cliff. It formed about the two-thirds
of a circle, being 14 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 5½ feet high,
and was completed by a cliff in its rear. * * * In a short time
we came to the rock column, which, although hard and solid was
much disintegrated and had been vertically cleft and separated,
leaving a dangerous gap between its two inclined and overhanging
portions. By the aid of cedar poles we succeeded in clambering to
its summit, and there, in a situation that commanded a magnificent
view of many canyons and hills, we found the ruin of four circular
stone structures which, in my opinion had once been a look-out, and
signal military station. They were arranged upon the flat top of
the rock in such a manner that three smaller ones, each capable of
holding but one man, occupied the front and most exposed places,
one of them being in advance of the other two, which were nearer
the sides of the rock. The fourth and largest stone structure held
a place several yards in the rear of the three small ones, but from
it a clear view of a wide and extended tract of country could also
be obtained. They were all destitute of openings except at the top,
and their walls sloped inward from below, so that the opening in
each of the three small structures was small and only sufficient to
allow the entrance or exit of one person.
The author’s attention was called to ruins in Hill Canyon like those
above mentioned, by Mr. A. H. Kneale, agent of the Utes at Fort
Duchesne, Utah, and at the close of work at Mesa Verde a trip was
made into the region where they are found. The route was from Grand
Junction, Colorado, to Mack, Utah, by rail, thence by rail to the end
of the road at Watson. The trip from Watson to Ouray was by automobile.
At Ouray the author outfitted with wagon, forded the Duchesne River,
and crossed the Green River by ferry. Later he proceeded south to Squaw
Crossing on Willow Creek, and thence to Taylor’s ranch, in the midst of
the ruins of Hill Canyon.
The ruins mentioned below were visited, but many others were reported
by cowboys which were not seen on account of limitation in time, the
object of the visit being primarily a reconnoissance.
The following ruins were seen by the author and his companions during
their short visit to this region:
1. Ruins _A_ and _B_, on the canyon rim within sight of Taylor’s lower
ranch.
2. Two ruins on pinnacles of rocks 1½ miles from Taylor’s lower ranch
following the canyon southward.