Attention was first publicly called, about 40 years ago (1875-1877),
by Messrs. Jackson,[1] Holmes, Morgan, and others, to some of the
ruins here considered. It is difficult to identify all of the ruins
mentioned or described by these pioneers. Their “Hovenweep Castle” is
supposed to lie in about the center of the district here considered,
possibly on Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon, although the large castellated
building[2] in Holly Canyon would also fulfill conditions equally
well. Their “Pueblo” may have been situated on the McElmo near the
mouth of Yellow Jacket Canyon. Early writers rather vaguely refer to
a cluster of castles and towers as situated some distance from the
“Burial Place,” which is readily identified on the promontory at the
mouth of the McElmo, as probably those in Square Tower (Ruin) Canyon,
but the cluster may be either at Square Tower or Holly Canyon, both
of which are about the same distance from this site. As “Pueblo” is
not indicated on the map accompanying the Hayden report, the sites of
rock shelters “some 7 miles from ‘Pueblo’ and 3 miles from the McElmo”
remain doubtful. The author retains the name “Hovenweep Castle” for the
ruin in Square Tower Canyon.
[1] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. Rept. U.S. Geol. Surv.
Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1874, Washington, 1876.
[2] The situation of a spring near Hovenweep Castle indicates that the
Great House may be the Hovenweep Castle of early writers.
In his account of ruins in the region visited, Prof. W. H. Holmes[3]
considers several other ruins, as “the triple-walled tower” (here
called Mud Spring village, p. 20), ruins at Aztec Spring (p. 23),
cliff-dwellings and towers of the San Juan and Mancos, the “slab cysts”
or burial places on the Dolores, and the promontory at the junction
of the Hovenweep and McElmo (p. 60). The best preserved towers and
castellated buildings which his article considers occur on the San Juan
and Mancos Canyons, districts on the periphery of the region covered by
this account.
[3] Report on the ancient ruins of Southwestern Colorado. Tenth Ann.
Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey) for 1876, Washington,
1879.
These pioneer reports of Jackson and Holmes not only called attention
to a new archeological field, but also introduced to the archeologist
several new types of prehistoric American architecture of which nothing
was previously known. They have been repeatedly quoted and are still
constantly referred to by writers on southwestern archeology.
Although Jackson made many photographs of the castles and towers of
the Hovenweep, none of these were published in his reports, possibly
because halftone methods of reproduction were then unknown. The
illustrations that appear in the text of early reports are mainly
reproductions of sketches. These reports, in which the discovery of
the tower type of architecture and its adjacent cliff-dwellings were
announced, should thus rightly rank as the first important steps in the
scientific investigations of the stone-house builders of this district
of our Southwest; although the allied “Casas Grandes” or great houses
of the Chaco had been described a few years before by Gregg, Stimpson,
and others.
We have, in addition to these pioneer reports, several magazine
articles of about the same date, the material for which was largely
drawn from them. One of the most important newspaper articles of that
date was written by Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, published in the New York
Tribune, and another, of anonymous authorship, is to be found in the
Century Magazine for the year 1877. New forms of towers and castellated
buildings were added in these accounts to those of the earlier authors.
One of the most important contributions to the antiquities of the
region about Mesa Verde was made by the veteran ethnologist, Morgan,
who published notes contributed by Mr. Mitchell on a cluster of mounds
near his ranch. As no name was given this village it is here called
the Mitchell Spring Village. Morgan likewise mentions the ruin at Mud
Spring and a tower in the ruin near his spring. Professor Newberry was
the first author to affix the name Surouaro to a ruin situated at the
head of the Yellow Jacket Canyon.
Several of these ruins were described and figured by Mr. Warren K.
Moorehead as “The Great Ruins of Upper McElmo Creek” in the Illustrated
American for July 9, 1892, the sixth of a series of articles under a
general title “In search of a Lost Race.” He gives descriptions of a
“cave shelter” found near Twin Towers, Square Tower in “Ruin Canyon,”
a building (Hovenweep Castle), and the tower at the junction of the
North and South Forks of Ruin Canyon. This paper is accompanied by a
map of Ruin Canyon by Mr. Cowen. In Moorehead’s discussion of these
remains, individual towers and other ruins are designated by capital
letters, A-V, to some of which are also affixed the names “Hollow
Boulder,” “Twin Towers,” “Square Tower,” etc. Details of structure and
measurements of the more striking buildings and a discussion of certain
features of structure, some of which will be considered later under
individual ruins, are likewise given.
The most important general article yet published on the prehistoric
remains of the region here considered is by Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden,[4]
who also mentions several of the ruins here treated. His most important
contribution is a description of what he calls the “unit type,” which
he recognized as a fundamental structural feature in the pueblos of
this region. He also showed that the kiva in Montezuma Valley villages
is identical with that of cliff-dwellings in the Mesa Verde, and
emphasized, as an important feature, the union of the tower and the
pueblo, a characteristic of the highest form of pueblo architecture.
Doctor Prudden has followed his comprehensive paper above mentioned
with an account[5] of the excavation of one of the mounds at Mitchell
Spring in which he adds to our knowledge of the structure of his “unit
type.”
In “A Further Study of Prehistoric Small House Ruins in the San Juan
Watershed,”[6] Doctor Prudden has furnished important additional data
which shows the uniformity of the unit type over a large area of the
San Juan drainage.
[4] The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed in Utah, Arizona,
Colorado, and New Mexico., Amer. Anthrop., n. s. vol. v, no. 2, 1903.
[5] The Circular Kivas of Small Ruins in the San Juan Watershed. Amer.
Anthrop., n. s. vol. xvi, no. 1, 1914.
[6] Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Asso., vol. v, no. 1, 1918.
The following among other prehistoric remains in the district
mentioned or described by Doctor Prudden are covered by the author’s
reconnoissance:
1. Ruins at Dolores Bend (Escalante Ruin).
2. Wolley Ranch Ruin.
3. Burkhardt Ruin (Mud Spring Village).
4. Goodman Point Ruin.
5. Unnamed ruin west of Goodman Lake.
6. Ruin at junction of McElmo and Yellow Jacket.
7. Group on Yellow Jacket nearly opposite mouth of Dawson Canyon
(Davis or Littrell Tower).
8. Surouaro.
9. Cannonball Ruin.
10. Towers and buildings of Ruin and Bridge Canyons.
11. Pierson Spring Ruin.
12. Bug Spring Ruins.