Archeological investigations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah

During the year 1916 the author spent five months in archeological investigations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, three of these months being given to intensive work on the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. An account of the result of the Mesa Verde work will appear in the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1916, under the title “A Prehistoric Mesa Verde Pueblo and Its People.” What was accomplished in June and October, 1916, before and after the work at the Mesa Verde, is here recorded.As archeological work in the Southwest progresses, it becomes more and more evident that we can not solve the many problems it presents until we know more about the general distribution of ruins, and the characteristic forms peculiar to different geographical localities. Most of the results thus far accomplished are admirable, though limited to a few regions, while many extensive areas have as yet not been explored by the archeologist and the types of architecture peculiar to these unexplored areas remain unknown. Here we need a reconnoissance followed by intensive work to supplement what has already been done. The following pages contain an account of what might be called archeological scouting in New Mexico and Utah. While the matter here presented may not shed much light on general archeology, it is, nevertheless, a contribution to our knowledge of the prehistoric human inhabitants of our country. Primarily it treats of aboriginal architecture.The author spent two months in searching for undescribed buildings concerning some of which comparatively nothing was known. During June, 1916, headquarters were made at Gallup, New Mexico: the Utah ruins, new to science, were visited from the Indian agency at Ouray, Utah.