Mesa Verde NP, Colorado

19. Cliff Dwellings

Twenty-two ruins were located in the above Navajo Hill-Upper Chapin Mesa, many of which lie within the concession and Visitor Center areas. Furthermore, the most complex prehistoric water catchment system yet defined in the San Juan Anasazi area is located here. This is the feeder system for the Mummy Lake Reservoir located in the Far View area. The system consists of five main and several lateral feeder ditches which were used to drain the broad upper reaches of Chapin Mesa south of Navajo Hill itself into a concentration basin at the constricted neck of the mesa north of Mummy Lake. Here the water was channeled into a broad intake ditch leading to the reservoir which, it was estimated, could have held over 660,000 gallons of water when full. The reservoir was constructed in such a manner that only when it was full would the surplus water overflow into still another ditch to convey it farther down the slope to the pueblos of the Cliff and Fewkes Canyons area, some five to six miles south of the concentration basin.