The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 3, 1901, Page 2

(2] e o o THE SUN DAY CALIL. T ENTHUSIASTICWOM ENHEW-APATHWAY: To-mie LOFTY-RUINS or e MESA-VERDE - CLIFT- DWFLLERS THREE OF THE OFFICERS OF THES COLORADO CLIFF DWELLERS o e e —_— Mrs. McClurg, the first woman to attempt so hazard- ous a journcy. Obliged to hide for days from hostile Indians. Finally rcaches the homes of the ancient Cliff Dwellers. Socicty hes been formed to preserve these wonders and make them accessible to the general public. ————— el HE cliff dwellings of Colorado are to be made into a national park. ® When Mrs.®McClurg learned that ,fl@rulns of the ancient dwellers in the Mesa Verde were inaccessible to any but the holdest and most tireless ex- plorers, and that no woman had ever seen them, she made up her mind right thea and there tovlook them over at' her le s- ure and when it sulted her fancy, Few women would care to risk theif lives just to scramble up almost to the heavens to minutely examine ruins that are ‘80 &;h'} that one hesitates to name the yearg, but then those kind of things come naturally to Mrs. McClurg, Before her marriage she was a Miss Virgin'a Doneghe, a «descendant of Edward A, Doneghe, who made the first anthropo- logical collection for Harvard and Yale, For centuries these ruins have been cons!dered by archaeologists to be among the finest and most Interesting in the world. All this time they have stood al- most unknown and wholly mneglected in the Mancos Canyon of S8outhwestern Col- orado, Only two scientific have ever penetrated the country, but a few careless sightsecrs and tourists have succeeded in getting where trample, pull and carry away pleces of pottery valdable only to science, " Now these ruing have been opened and made accessible to the public by Mrs. Gilbert McClurg at the head of the Colo- expeditions they could ASSOCIATION - BALCONRY HOUSE rado ClLff Dwelling Assoctation, which 's comgoscd of fifty women. she labored, never In 1835 For sixteen years once loging sight of her object. she persuaded a party of friends to go with her. While they were struggling along, but merry withal, they heard a familiar but dreaded whoop. There was no time .for ceremgny and no time to think about where-one was stepping. The main idea was to get away, as far away from the Indians as possible. It was far preferable to fall and be’ decently dashad to pieces than it would be to drop into the hands of the hostile and merciless wretches. For days they had to hide, afraid to draw a long breath for fear of being dis- covered. While trying ‘to explore under cover of darkpess Mrs. McClurg fell and nearly lost her life. While she suffered hunger and thirst, weariness, danger and yam, it never occurred to her to give up Never once did she show the nor did she allow her lier plans. white -feather, Afriends to become discouraged if she could help it. All that could ever be dragged from her was: “I am awfully anxious to have ather women see what I have seen, and so theroughly “enjoyed, but I do not want and sincerely trust that no woman will ever suffer ac 1 have done.” The inaccessibility of the dwellings was the first and greatest obstacle that con- fronted them. Unfortunately, they are between thirty and forty miles frem any railroad, over a rough, wild, uninhabites country, and the cliffs can be reached only after a long and tiresome ride and at great expense of time and money. The first object to be attained was the wagon road. And that was where tlie chief difificulty arose. The Mesa Verde is a part of the Ute reservation, and the Indians objeeted se- riously to white people traveling '~ over their land. ¥inally Mrs. McClurg, who knew the Indian chief, hit upon a clever plan. She appeared before the couneil and through an interpreter asked to lease the land at their own price. The end of it was that the chiefs signed a lease giving the assoclation the right to build and use a wagon road, and It was in conslderation of the yearly sum of $300. fhe road was immediately commenced, and when it was finighed a party of twen- ty-two started to celebrate its formal opening. They left the train at Mancces, where they were received by Mrs, C. L. Eldredge, the secretary of the association, and Alfred Weatherill, one of the ploncer pathtinders of the Mesa Verde, Ail that day tney traveled, and when the sun hid itself behind the cliff the end of the road had just been reached. Only the most enthusiastic cared any- thing about c!iffs or dwellings just then, All they wanted was a chancé to stretch their cramped limbs and to refresh (Le mner man, The ruins would wait untii the morrow. The path steep, and cone is mightily to get there at all, and the first to reach is the BSandal House, or ‘“Moceasin House,” as it is sometimes called. This ruin is small, but to any house is long and obliged to The easiest scramble THE PART Y rm\-r/""\ MESA X INWINE 7 . Ol THE TRAIL. well preserved and beautiful. Tt nestics under a shelving rock for all the world like a toy castle. There are two square rocms; the round room, or estufa, was called, and passageways around and behind it. All the doors are low and lhe windows are It looks more casile like on' account of its turrets, which are broken now and fallen into decay. as it narrow. One ruin baffled the most courageous. It seemed located in the heaveans, yet the two tiers, one above the other, in the julting structure of the cliff, the upper and lower houses being separated by a narrow shelf ledge of rock, were tempt- ingly visible, All they could do was to pause thousands of feet below it and name it after Mrs. Mary Hemenway. Those ancients must have been thrifty souls, for every available bullding site boasts of a fortress home, If the space was small then the house was correspond- ingly so. The smallest seem hardly capa- ble of holding more than one person and one entertains grave doubts for their com- fort. In the various canyons there are between five and six hundred dwellings of different sizes. The Cliff Palace stands like a miniature impregnable fortress against the intense blue of the sky. Just to look at it made the hearts of some of the explorers sink. They suddenly recollected that it would be wisest not to leave the horses alone and they stayed in camp to welcome the weary wanderers home. * While they started out together they soon fell into parties of twos and threes, making their slow and tedious way wher- ever and however they could. It was a terrible climb. In some places great piles of rocks and fallen bowlders barred the way, in others there were masses of tan- gled brysh and undergrowth which scratched the hands and faces and tore the clothes. Then again a precipitous cliff made them crawl about it on their hands and knees and the dizzy heights would make them hang on cat-like by means of knees, back, toes and fingers, Anything rather than lose the balance and be dashed to pleces on the rocky ledges below. The eleven who finally reached the destination were dripping with perspiration, parched with thirst, shaking with exhaustion, torn, scratched and thoroughly weary, 4 Nothing mattered but rest and water, The tired souls threw to rest near the tiny spring that is at the foot of the old Cliff Dwellers’ stair- case, themselves down Who cared whether the water was warm and whether it was filled with wigglers Not one there. I was considered a matter of but little im- and plenty of diri? portance. A feeling almost of awe filled the trav- elers as they gaszed with reverence upon the homes of a people moldered to d-cay thougands of ycars ago. The first impr sion made upon all was one of inter surprise. The ruins are not the rude huts of savages, but, though primitive in s‘ructure, have suggestions of architeci- ural grace. The general sentiment in tha first view of the Clff Palace is to marvel at its beauty. As it is, it is sheltercd from both storm and enemy, but it looks lonely and isolated; it is filicd x;'iLh the debris of its own ruins and the rooms are choked with dusit. The finest of all the dwellings in the Unii~d States is very large. It is fash- much like the popular apart- ment to-day. On the ground floor there are 127 rcoms, some: of them ioned very house of very large, and some SO small that they look just like little ders. There are two noticeable facts nected with the house. One of the khevi or estufas sth:'s the places for the sacred The con- fires and sound walls and ceilings. from the top (hrough None of the openings were which admigsion was gained. three rooms so situated has doors or windows, and it is very evident that they were used for religious and eceremanial purposes. The other evidence was that the same house was used for the dead as for the living. Several of the walls were tighaly walled up, but when broken down were fcound to contain well prezerved sleletons. Pieces of hide, ears and cobs of corn, picees of feather ctoth, urns and vases, and- renes made aof yucca fiber, besides arrow heads, parts of bows, and some remains of turkey boncs, were found, but the vandal hands of s'ghtseers have car- ried off everything that it was possible to remove. There is nothing now left ex- cepting that which is too heavy and too unwieldy to carry away. Spruce House, so called from the fact that a monster spruce tree has grown up through the walls, showing the ages that must have come and gone since the tiny scedling found its home in the ruins, is the blessed refuge of the visitor. Aside from its romantic location, and the thick growth of trees that afferds the weary traveler a little rest, there is a stream of clear, cold water. To improve this spring Mrs. John Hays Hammond has given $300 that it may be accessible to climbers, There are about fifty or sixty rooms in the house, but the wails are so badly crumbled that it is lmpossible to know anything about them. Balcony House is in many respects the best preserved of all. And again it shows the most recent occupancy. All the wally are gsmooth and even the stones are well fitted togethgr. The tower ig still straight, square, and has three windows, The whole idea gathered is that a very few men could hold out indefinitely against a vastly superior enemy. The mames of* all these houses have been derived from something connected with them. For instance, Balcony House is so called from the projection that was undoubtedly used to sit and rest upon. Like all the ruins difficult of access, and is filled with dry dust and fallen walls, The Colerado Cliff Dwellers’ Assocla- tion has presented a bill asking that “the cliff dwellings of Colorado shall not be destroyed by time or vandalism, but that they may be preserved for the bene- fit of secientific investigation for years to come."”’ 1f this bill is passed, as it is confident- ly expected it will be, the ruins w:ll long remain a pride and a pleasure for the people of the United States, and a wonder and an attraction to foreigners, in Cliff Canyon it is