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Show I CLIFF DWELLINGS j j OF ZSON PARK j i i ( B. W. Rozelle j At the break of dawn on a bright Sunday morning we started on our trip up the Parunuweap Canyon and river of the same name, the south fork of the Rio Virgin. Our destination destina-tion was the ruins of the cliff dwellings, dwell-ings, long since abandoned and only seen by a few of the park employees. Fred, our guide, had formerly helped on a partial survey of the canyon, so with his aid and with trust in our four mountain horses and one mule, ' we set out. The mule was slightly balky and caused us a little trouble and delay at the junction of the riv- ers, but finally, with difficulties part- j ly smoothed, we proceeded on ourj way. i Leaving the highway a little north j of Rockville, we crossed the muddy, j rock-strewn stream and started to j climb up over the lower mesas. Our j path rose as we passed along the j beautiful banks of eroded shale, mud rock and sand lying as buttresses along the foot of the mesa. These seemed to blend imperceptibly with the huge ledges of dull red block sandstone farther up which in turn j fade into the higher towering cliffs ' of red and white sandstone. After several miles of uphill climbing climb-ing and many crossings of the river we came to a rocky knoll overlooking the entrance to our canyon. To the right of us extended another equally interesting ravine traversed by a smaller creek, the Shoenburg. In a flat below us nestled a little farm and several cultivated fields. Our stand -ing ground was rocky, rough and ii- j regular and reminded one of some hillside farm in New York or Ver-I mont. On the crest of the benchland . stood the frame of a large dwelling j of native stone construction built of i carefully cut sandstone taken from the cliffs some few yards away. No finer house could be found than this j typical early pioneer architecture ' with its massive walls, divided com- j partment sand . large community: room. Once a prosperous home and the center of a large farm, this oldj ruin now stands with a few rock walls and a curious log granary as ! the only monument to the fortitude of an early Mormon pioneer who at-1 tempted to subdue and conquer the arid wilderness and the ravages of an angry river. The fields, now back j to nature, are mute evidence of the i results of the years of toil, for the river has taken its toll, and erosion j has removed much of the farm land and is cutting back the cliff, and will j in time undermine this fine old struc-1 ture. Leaving this ruin and the little farm away to our right, we entered , the open flats covered with cotton-wood cotton-wood and oak. Innumerable nets of tent caterpillars have settled on the I cottonwoods and soon will remove most of the young leaves, but the trees are sturdy and seem to resist; the ravages of thes? pasts, as they : increased in size as we proceeded up the river. Many are several feet in diameter. Our talus slopes gave way to rocky ledges of dull red sandstone and the overlying cliffs began to assume spectacular and weird shapes. Unnamed Un-named crags rose on either side to a height often of 2,200 feet. On either side the precipitous cliffs and walls are of the same general coloring and formation as those in the main canyon can-yon of Zion. The outcropping of the ledges and buttes, however, are more prominent. At a point about $V2 miles up the canyon cur guide called up to a halt and explained that the dwellings were on our left, at the base of the upper cliffs. We dismounted and began be-gan the trek up the steep slope. Not until we were actually at the ruins, some 600 feet above and a half mile away from the river, could we perceive per-ceive any signs of ancient existance. The mud and stone ruins are perched on a ledge, commanding a sweeping panorama of the river, but. hidden to view from below. The dwellings are circular in construe-, tion, with the stones cemented into place by a mixture of mud and straw. Three of them are m'.act and in a pood state of preservation; the willows wil-lows used as suppons for the roof are dry and brittle but still serve their original design. One .-mall structure surmounts a lock and consists con-sists of a single chamber, built in a half-circle and lying c'.ose to the cliff.' A larger one consists of three chain-' bers. To the left and rear of th-ve is a cave with many pieces of brok-. en pottery, charcoal and burned willow wil-low sticks. The pottery pieces were made from fine grade mud and were j burned black with no colorations. On the wall are several pictographs. The ancient inhabitants obtained their water from a small spring 30 feet below and to the left of the ruins. Their common food, maize or Indian corn, was much in evidence in the ruins. It was probably quite inferior in-ferior to that which we know today. The cobs which we unearthed from the debris were very small and irregular, irre-gular, but the number of them showed show-ed that they formed a large portion of the cliff dwellers' diet. |