[Illustration: FIG. 17.—Doorway in Round Tower, McLean Basin.]
The nomenclature of the northern canyons of the McElmo has considerably
changed in the last 40 years. What we now call the Yellow Jacket was
formerly known through its entire course as the Hovenweep. A small
canyon opening near its mouth, now known as Road Canyon, was formerly
called the Wickyup. The Old Bluff City Road from Dolores, Colorado, to
Bluff City, Utah, divides into two branches a short distance before
it descends into the McElmo, its left branch passing through Road
Canyon, the right bank of which follows the Yellow Jacket, which the
traveler fords a short distance above its junction with the McElmo.
Wickyup Canyon may be called picturesque, its cliffs being worn into
fantastic shapes by water and sand. It has important antiquities, among
the most striking of which are two towers (pl. 24, _b_), crowning
the tops of low buttes or hills. The walls of these towers are well
constructed, one being a simple structure with a single room, the other
having appended rectangular rooms extending toward the northwest, some
distance along a ridge of rocks. An examination of these two towers,
which are about one-quarter of a mile apart, shows that they belong to
the same type as the simple forms of those above mentioned, and as the
entrance to Square Tower Canyon is not far away, they probably belong
to the same series. The first of the towers, called “Bowlder Castle,”
is situated a few hundred feet east of the road, from which it is
easily seen. This ruin is rectangular in shape and rises from a basal
mass of débris indicating broken-down walls of rooms. At a level with
the top of this débris on its southern side stands a well-constructed
tower with well-made doorway, the threshold and lintel of which are
smooth stones, whose edges project slightly from the surface of the
wall. One remarkable feature of this tower is that the doorway has been
walled up with rude secondary masonry (pl. 25, _a_). The south wall of
this building has tumbled over, as is usually the case, but the north
wall rises several feet above the base. The masonry of the second tower
is also broken down on the south side, but the standing remains of the
north wall, which is circular, are over 10 feet high. The indications
are that the ground plan of this building was oval in shape and that
it inclined inward slightly from foundation to apex. Scattered over
the surface are the remnants of fallen walls, and near it there is a
well-marked depression, not unlike those found in unit type mounds,
indicating kivas.