This ruin takes its name from the earliest known description of it by
Morgan,[16] which was compiled from notes by Mr. Mitchell, one of the
early settlers in Montezuma Valley. Morgan’s account is as follows:
“Near Mr. Mitchell’s ranch, and within a space of less than a mile
square, are the ruins of nine pueblo houses of moderate size. They are
built of sandstone intermixed with cobblestone and adobe mortar. They
are now in a very ruinous condition, without standing walls in any
part of them above the rubbish. The largest of the number is marked
No. 1 in the plan, figure 44, of which the outline of the original
structure is still discernible. It is 94 feet in length and 47 feet
in depth, and shows the remains of a stone wall in front inclosing a
small court about 15 feet wide. The mass of material over some parts of
this structure is 10 or 12 feet deep. There are, no doubt, rooms with a
portion of the walls still standing covered with rubbish, the removal
of which would reveal a considerable portion of the original ground
plan.”
The author paid a short visit to the Mitchell Spring village and by
means of Morgan’s sketch map was able to identify without difficulty
the nine mounds and tower he represents. The village at Mitchell Spring
differs from that at Mud Spring and at Aztec Spring mainly in the small
size and diffuse distribution of the component mounds and an absence
of any one mound larger than the remainder. It had, however, a round
tower, but unlike that at Mud Spring village, this structure is not
united to one of the houses. The addition of towers to pueblos, as
pointed out by Doctor Prudden[17] several years ago, marks the highest
development of pueblo architecture as shown not only in open-air
villages but also in some of the large cliff pueblos, like Cliff
Palace. Isolated towers are as a rule earlier in construction.
[15] Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Asso., vol. V, no. 1, 1918.
[16] Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines. Cont. N. Amer.
Ethn., vol. IV, pp. 189-190, 1831.
[17] Prudden excavated a unit type ruin from one of the Mitchell Spring
mounds. (Amer. Anthrop., vol. XVI, no. 1, 1914.)
The unit type mound uncovered by Doctor Prudden is one of the most
instructive examples of this type in Montezuma Canyon, but the author
in subsequent pages will call attention to the existence of the same
type in Square Tower Canyon. All of these pueblos probably have kivas
of the pure type, practically the same in structure as Far View House
on the Mesa Verde National Park.