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It is located in a projecting corner of the bluff and marks the eastern limit of the cavate lodges at this end of the canyon. The group consists of five rooms, and has the distinction of extending four rooms deep into the rock. The main room is set back about 13 feet from the face of the bluff, about 7 feet of this distance being occupied by a narrow passageway and the remainder by a cove.
The cavate lodge of the Rio Verde is a more easily constructed and more convenient habitation than the cliff-dwelling of Canyon de Chelly.
This purpose would be almost as well served by the openings of the cavate lodges as by the notched doorway, and at the same time the smallest possible opening was exposed to the weather. The two types of openings seem simply to be two different methods of accomplishing the same purpose one in solid rock, the other in masonry.
Continuing along the left bank of the river, from the row of cavate rooms, just described, on the first mesa, we round a promontory and enter a small canyon, which is perforated on each side with numerous other cavate dwellings, large and small, all of the same general character as the type described.
At the time of my visit the water of Rio Verde at this point was confined to a very narrow channel under the bluff near its right bank, but the appearance of its bed showed that in heavy freshets during the rainy season the water filled the interval between the base of the cliffs in which the cavate dwellings are situated and the bluffs which form the right bank.
When the geological and topographical environment favored their construction, cliff outlooks were built; from a different geological structure in certain regions cavate lodges resulted; in other places there were "watch towers;" in still others single rooms were built, either lone or in clusters, and these results obtained quite as often if not oftener within the historic period as in prehistoric times.
Major Powell ascertained that these cavate lodges were occupied by the Havasupai Indians now living in Cataract canyon, who are closely related to the Walapai, and who, it is said, were driven from this region by the Spaniards.
These statements are true even of the so-called fortresses, of the cavate lodges, of the cliff ruins, and of many of the large village ruins scattered over the southwestern portion of the United States.
The cavate lodges on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in the vicinity of the modern pueblo of Santa Clara, were also visited in 1885 by Major Powell and are thus described by him: The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on water.
Here also there is an exceptional development of cavate lodges, and corresponding to this development an almost entire absence of cliff dwellings. From the large amount of data here a fairly complete idea of this phase of pueblo life may be obtained.
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