by Alex Gugel , all rights reserved
Mesa VerdeWetherill Mesa: Long House & Step House |
Brochure of Wetherill Mesa: Long House & Step House at Mesa Verde National Park (NP) in Colorado. Published by the Mesa Verde Museum Association.
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WETHERILL MESA
Long House
Step House
In 2016 the National Park Service celebrates 100 years of
caring for America’s natural and historic treasures. Join
us in our second century of stewardship. Learn, have fun
and make memories in our national parks.
M E S A
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N A T I O N A L
P A R K
W
etherill Mesa, located on the west side of Mesa Verde
National Park, is a long, narrow peninsula of land
bounded by deep canyons with many natural alcoves in the
sandstone cliffs. A visit to Wetherill Mesa allows you to explore a sequence
of archeological sites that offer glimpses of nearly
700 years of Ancestral Puebloan life.
It is a 12-mile (19-km) drive from the road
junction at Far View to the Wetherill Mesa parking
lot. You may visit Step House on your own without
a ticket. Tickets are required for the ranger-guided
tour into Long House.
Wetherill Mesa looking south.
Step House
to Far View
STEP
HOUSE
L
parking
o
g
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W
C
a
Trail to
Nordenskiold
#16 Overlook
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T
Ro
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H
ck
BADGER
HOUSE
COMMUNITY
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Ca
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LONG
HOUSE
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L
yo
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Trail to
Long House
ou
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H
M
Lo n g
N
s
e
S
Lo
op
A
Long House
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M E S A
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LONG HOUSE FACTS
◆ village set in 298' long alcove with a
curving back wall
◆ about 150 rooms and 21 kivas
◆ beams date from A.D. 1145–1279
◆ inhabited by 150 to 175 people
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W E T H E R I L L
M E S A
LONG HOUSE
Ranger-led tours of Long House are offered several times each day
during summer and are about 90 minutes long. Tickets are required; be
sure to purchase a tour ticket before you drive to Wetherill Mesa. Roundtrip distance of the tour is 0.75 mile (1.2 km), with stairs and switchbacks
leading into and out of the dwelling. There is a 130-foot (40-m) change in
elevation. Once in Long House, you will climb two 15-foot (4.6-m) ladders
and descend an uneven stone staircase.
Long House, approximately equal in size to Cliff Palace, fills an
expansive 298-foot-long sandstone alcove from end to end. The village
includes about 150 rooms, 21 kivas, and a row of upper storage rooms. It may
have been home to as many as 175 people. There are architectural features
in Long House which suggest it was also a public place where people from all
over Wetherill Mesa gathered to trade or hold community events. A wellpreserved four-story triangular tower rises from floor to ceiling at the far west
end of the alcove. The formal plaza in the center of the site is larger than in
most villages, with unusual features for Mesa Verde archeological sites. The
benches, vaults, and raised firebox suggest to some scientists that this large
open space was a dance plaza or great kiva, similar
to Fire Temple on Chapin Mesa. Additionally, the
the high number of rooms and kivas in Long House,
plus the presence of the formal plaza, suggest the
community was a particularly significant
place for Ancestral Pueblo people,
perhaps serving both civic and
ceremonial functions.
In 1891, Swedish scientist Gustaf
Nordenskiöld was guided into
Long House by members of
the Wetherill family, for
whom Wetherill Mesa
was named. In his
classic publication,
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The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde, Nordenskiöld described “a long row of
half dilapidated walls in a high-vaulted cave. It is this ruin that has received
the name of Long House . . .” He added Long House to his numbering system,
and carved “No 15” into bedrock in two places. Nordenskiöld believed the
more complex architecture of the tall tower and the kivas in Long House indicated some level of community planning, but in his opinion the “arrangement
of the other rooms shows an almost entire want of system.” He suggested that
the small upper openings were used by archers, with bows and arrows poised,
to protect the village from intruders. Today, archeologists think the openings
may have served as visual aids to nearby landscape and village features and
admitted fresh air and light.
Long House, as
photographed by
Gustaf Nordenskiöld
in 1891.
Home
The earliest masonry rooms from the cliff dwelling period are at the
rear of the alcove. As time passed, the residents frequently added, abandoned,
reoccupied, and remodeled rooms. The spaces were simple and functional: a
room with a small corner hearth, a workspace against a cooler back wall, a
terraced garden plot or a turkey pen. As in other alcove sites, the builders of
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W E T H E R I L L
M E S A
All the wooden
beams in place
at Long House
are original,
and were cut
between A.D.
1145 and 1279.
The ladders
pictured here
are modern
and for the
visitors'
convenience.
Long House built stone retaining walls which they filled with soil to level the
naturally sloping floor. The residents also repaired and reinforced lower walls
as upper stories were added.
Although village lay-out evolved over time, construction techniques
were sophisticated. The sandstone blocks often were finely dressed, laid in
mortar, and carefully chinked with small stones, creating structures of great
beauty that sometimes were covered with earthen plaster and finished with
painted embellishments.
Food
Mesa Verde’s semiarid climate and moderately high elevation posed
challenges to Ancestral Pueblo farmers. The growing season is short, and total
precipitation, including rain and snowfall, averages about 18 inches (45.72 cm)
annually. But ‘average’ precipitation statistics don’t reveal yearly weather extremes. In years of above average summer rainfall, fields could have produced
abundantly. In drought years, crops likely shriveled and died.
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M E S A
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The ancient farmers
found and used the fertile
deeper soils on the mesa
top above Long House.
They may have also farmed
in smaller plots formed
by check dams or farming
terraces on the canyon slopes.
They successfully grew corn,
beans, and squash as staple food
items. In years with favorable
growing conditions, three or
four acres may have yielded
30 to 40 bushels of corn.
The Ancestral Pueblo
The many symbolic
people were also skilled hunters and
images of turkeys found
gatherers. They augmented their crops by encouraging
at Mesa Verde may attest
to the importance of
native edible plants like amaranth, and knew how to use all
this bird in the Ancestral
kinds of wild foods: mule deer, rabbits, rock squirrels, wood
Puebloan way of life.
rats, ricegrass, chokecherries, Utah serviceberries, pinyon
nuts, wild onions, and lambsquarter. They also domesticated turkeys, and
raised them for meat, bones, and feathers, making turkey bone tools and tubes
and turkey feather blankets and clothing. Turkeys may have become even
more important for food as deer populations declined in the 1200s.
Tools
Long House yielded a remarkable abundance of artifacts that reflect the
skill of these people: pottery bowls, coiled baskets, cane and wood arrows, stone
projectile points, pot scrapers made of pumpkin rind, turkey bone awls, embroidered cotton cloth, corncobs, carved prayer sticks, travertine pendants, and
all kinds of stone tools, including crushers, choppers, hammers, drills, knives,
anvils, ax heads, and polishers. An astounding array of fiber items was finely
preserved in the dry alcove, especially goods made from the versatile yucca
plant: sandals, baskets, rope, twine, binding, netting, and needles. Made by
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W E T H E R I L L
M E S A
human hands for many uses, these artifacts give us insights into the daily labor
and ritual of this community.
Water
Where rain or melting snow percolates down through sandstone and
meets an impermeable layer like shale, it emerges as a spring. A lush line
of moss and other greenery marks such a spring in the back of the Long
House alcove. Residents developed this critical water source by pecking small
channels and catch basins into the bedrock so they could dip a ladle into the
pooled water, then transfer it into a pot for drinking or cooking. Look for
the colorful rock paintings on the
rock face above the spring; they may
speak of the special regard people
had for this essential resource.
Adaptation
Through the nearly seven
centuries Ancestral Pueblo people
lived on Wetherill Mesa, they were
constantly adapting to changing
circumstances. They relocated
when necessary to take advantage of
water sources, farmland, firewood,
living space, or better hunting and
gathering opportunities. Over many
generations, they first built pithouses
This seep spring in the Long
House alcove provided a critical
on the mesa top and in some alcoves, later conwater source for residents.
structed multi-story pueblos on the mesa tops, and
then moved into and built in the alcoves again. While some people continued
living in mesa top pueblos, such as nearby Badger House Community, the
impressive construction of Long House and the other cliff dwellings marked
the last period of Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde. When, in
the A.D. 1200s, they decided to move into the alcoves again and build villages
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M E S A
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N A T I O N A L
P A R K
T
ree-ring dating, or dendrochronology, is a
boon to archeologists for accurately dating
sites. A core sample is taken from a wooden
beam used in a dwelling. Patterns in the annual
growth rings in the sample are matched to samples from other beams to establish a sequence of
dates. Wooden beams from archeological sites
in Mesa Verde were important in establishing
a master chronology for the entire Southwest,
which now reaches back about 8,500 years.
like Long House, it may have been to open up
farmland on the mesas, to be closer to water
sources, for security, or for other reasons we
don’t yet understand.
The latest tree-ring date from Long
House is A.D. 1279. Archeological evidence
suggests that soon after, nearly everyone moved from this site, and from the
entire Mesa Verde region. The causes behind this widespread migration have
long been debated. Recent evidence paints a picture of a general rise in population, some of it from immigration, in the years before A.D. 1200. During
that time, growing conditions were favorable and food was abundant. But in
the mid to late 1200s, a long-term drought, colder temperatures, changes in
the precipitation pattern, and depleted resources may have stressed individuals and whole communities. Social or religious motivations may have been
equally compelling. Eventually, the people began to move on. They may have
left their homes individually, as families, or in village groups. Taking only
what they could carry, they left tools, pottery, and personal items behind. By
the year A.D. 1300, nearly everyone was gone.
Whatever the combination of environmental and social stresses that
led the Ancestral Pueblo people to leave this area, they took many of
their traditions, architectural skills, and artistic styles with them. By
all evidence, their descendants are the modern pueblo peoples of
the Hopi villages in northern Arizona, and the peoples of Zuni,
Acoma, Laguna, and the Rio Grande pueblos of New Mexico
and Texas. For many of today’s pueblo people, Long
House and Mesa Verde are special places, the
homes of their ancestors.
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W E T H E R I L L
M E S A
STEP HOUSE
Step House sits in a shallow, northeast-facing alcove on Wetherill Mesa.
It offers a unique opportunity to see architecture from two separate time
periods of the Ancestral Pueblo people's occupation here: a reconstructed
pithouse originally built about A.D. 620 alongside a small multi-story pueblo
built centuries later.
The Step House trail is a self-guided walk. It begins near the Wetherill
Mesa Information kiosk. The paved loop trail descending into the alcove includes several stairways. The return trail is on the opposite side of the alcove,
for a total 0.8-mile (1.3-km) walk. Elevation change is about 100 feet (30 m).
Early life in Step House as conceived
by Civilian Conservation Corps artists
who created this diorama.
STEP HOUSE FACTS
◆ two villages from different time
periods in 300' wide alcove
◆ occupied during the late A.D. 500–
600s and again in the A.D. 1200s
◆ cliff dwelling probably home to 30 to
40 people
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In the late 1800s, the Wetherill family of Mancos, Colorado; Swedish
scientist Gustaf Nordenskiöld; and others explored and dug in the Step House
alcove. In 1926, Jesse Nusbaum, Mesa Verde National Park’s superintendent
and first park archeologist, re-excavated the site. He was particularly interested in evidence of Basketmaker occupation of the alcove. He and a work crew
and six pack horses loaded with equipment and camp supplies hiked to the
site in February, breaking through chest-high snow in spots. They camped
on the rim above Step House while completing their work.
Because of the stunningly crafted baskets found with their pithouses,
the people who lived in the area from about A.D. 550 to 750 were called
‘Basketmakers’ by early archeologists. Today, archeologists refer to “Basketmaker” and “Pueblo” time periods, but recognize the people as different
generations of the same cultural group now known as the Ancestral Pueblo
people. At Mesa Verde, the Pueblo period spans the years from about A.D.
750 to 1300.
On first entering the alcove, notice the
large sandstone boulders stepping up
the slope to your left. In most Mesa Verde cliff
dwellings, access into the alcoves looks difficult
to our eyes, and the many hand-and-toe hold
trails they chipped into the rock seem nearly
impossible to navigate. But here, in addition to
other access routes, they constructed a stone
stairway. These stairs later gave Step House its
name. Without beasts of burden, the Ancestral
Pueblo people walked everywhere, from their
homes in this alcove up onto the rim to work
their fields, gather plants, hunt, and visit their
neighbors, and back again.
1
Although residents
painstakingly built these
steps, it is not difficult to
walk up the slope without
them.
12
Nusbaum excavated three pithouses here
2 Jesse
in 1926, and confirmed what he had suspected:
Ancestral Pueblo people were living here during the
Basketmaker era, centuries before their descendants built
the nearby cliff dwelling. Around A.D. 625, this village
W E T H E R I L L
M E S A
1960 pithouse
reconstruction by
the Wetherill Mesa
Archeological
Project.
was made up of about six circular,
semi-subterranean structures like
these. Pithouses served as standard housing for centuries in the
Southwest, and could have offered
comfortable living quarters to a
family of four or five. Using this
estimate, approximately 25 to 30
people may have lived in this alcove
at that time. Charred beams and
charcoal indicate these pithouses
Stabilization and preparaburned at some point. But enough intact wood remained tion of pithouse for exhibit
during the Wetherill Mesa
to provide tree-ring dates for this Basketmaker era site,
Archeological Project.
placing construction between A.D. 616 and A.D. 627.
The fourth pithouse was excavated and reconstructed during the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project, to provide an example of a typical, complete
structure as the earlier people might have used it. Pithouses were usually
12 to 16 feet in diameter with four upright support posts at each corner.
Horizontal beams rested on the posts and supported diagonal stringer poles
which slanted on to the bench to make the upper walls. The structure was
covered with layers of juniper bark, limbs, twigs, and an outer layer of mud.
People entered by descending a ladder through an opening in the center of the
flat roof. The size of the pithouse, the central hearth in the floor, food storage
vessels, and food processing areas all indicate this was someone’s home.
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Gustaf Nordenskiöld inscribed “No 21” into the rock here,
3 Inhis1891,
site number for Step House. Also look for deep grooves worn
into the same rockface. The grooves were made by residents who repeatedly
sharpened and shaped their stone tools. These people were experts at making tools of all kinds from local stone: axes, knives, spear points and arrow
points, choppers, hammers, scrapers, grinders, and more.
climbing the short ladder to Stop 4, you will see a set of
4 After
petroglyphs chipped into the boulder in front of you. The images of
animals, plants, human figures, and geometric designs are familiar, but it’s
impossible to know exactly what meaning the artists had in mind. Modern
Pueblo people recognize some of them as clan and migration symbols.
Although the people lived in this alcove for many generations, it wasn’t
until about A.D. 1226 that they built the Step House pueblo. The rooms,
up to two stories high, were built to fit beside, between, under and around
the sandstone boulders and natural obstacles.
ventilator
KIVA
5
When archeologists compare clues
in the style and construction of pithouses and kivas, they see similarities that
imply that pithouses gradually developed
architecturally into the circular underground rooms now called kivas. Most
Pueblo-era villages included kivas, likely
used for both social and religious functions.
pilaster
air deflector
bench
firepit
sipapu
walls of this kiva were once fully plastered, a practice still
6 The
followed in some Pueblo villages today. Modern residents refresh
the interior plaster every year and often paint murals on the walls. This kiva
was once decorated with a painted panel of bighorn sheep bounding across
the wall. The panel was removed in 1989 and placed in the park’s curation
facility to protect it. Now, using less invasive methods, preservationists treat
such panels in place.
Above you and to your left you can see a hand-and-toe hold trail
chipped into the face of the boulder. It led to small storage rooms on the
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W E T H E R I L L
Chapin
Gray
Ware
A
rcheologists use an established chronology of
different ceramic types to help determine
the age of a site. This allows archeologists to trace
the development of designs and styles over time,
and to compare them with archeological sites
where they’re found.
M E S A
Mesa
Verde
Black on
White
upper ledge. The residents sealed these rooms with stone slabs, likely in an
attempt to rodent-proof them. When filled with surplus corn, they would
have contained the wealth of the village: food to carry them through lean
times and seeds to plant in another spring.
the 30 or 40 people who lived here, this large flat area provided a
7 For
useful space for daily chores. More than 1,600 corncobs were found
in the floor debris here. In today’s pueblos, corn is still a very important
food. After harvest, it’s sorted by color and carefully stacked and stored for
later consumption. Modern practices like these, carried down through the
centuries, offer hints of how the ancient Puebloans lived.
Artifacts from Step House offer
more intriguing clues to
how people lived
Yucca fiber
here. A bowl with
snare
browned cornmeal
in the bottom; a
corrugated jar containing seeds of ten native
plants; five pairs of scallop-toed sandals; skin moccasins; willow baskets;
yucca cord; reed bundles; feather and fur blankets; a turkey bone awl; a
pumpkin container holding feathers; oak and mountain mahogany digging
sticks; a pouch of prairie dog skin filled with salt that came from some
distance away . . . all personal property of the people who lived here.
Like nearly everyone else in the entire northern San Juan region, the
residents of Step House moved away by A.D. 1300.
Retrace your steps back to the dirt path, exit to your left and follow the trail up
to the rim.
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To Our Visitors
Mesa Verde National Park offers a spectacular look into the lives of
the Ancestral Pueblo people who made this land their home for over
700 years. Today, the park protects over 4,500 known archeological
sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These are some of the most notable
and best preserved in the United States. Please do your part to protect
them for all to visit and enjoy.
Most of the sites you see at Mesa Verde are over 750 years old.
• Please do not touch, sit, stand, or lean on their fragile walls.
• Since archeologists need to see everything in context to understand a
site, do not disturb artifacts. Removing them is illegal.
Treat cliff dwellings and other archeological sites as you would a museum.
• No smoking or eating is permitted in the sites.
• Do carry and drink water.
• Only leashed service animals are allowed in sites or on trails.
Always stay on marked trails.
• Since people may be on trails below you, do not throw rocks or other
objects into the canyons.
• Remember that the park is at a higher elevation than you may be
used to; move slowly and drink plenty of water.
• If you have heart or respiratory conditions, be especially careful of
your health.
We appreciate your help in preserving these priceless treasures for
future generations.
This guide is Dedicated to George S. Cattanach (1926–2011), career
National Park Service archeologist. He directed the excavation at Long
House during the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project in the 1960s.
© 2013 Mesa Verde Museum Association. Published in cooperation with
Mesa Verde National Park, a World Cultural Heritage Site.
Written by Rose Houk. Special thanks to Sandy Groves, Julie Bell,
Sally Cole, and Patricia Lacey.
Illustration Credits: George H.H. Huey: cover, pages 4,7,8 (both), 9, 13
(top), 15; National Park Service: pages 2 (all), 6, 11, 12, 13 (bottom);
Christina Watkins: pages 8 (turkey), 15 (pottery); Wetherill Mesa
Archaeological Project: pages 3 (all), 10.
Cover—background: ring basket detail; inset; Long House interior view.