A great many years ago, long before the white men came to America, there was a race of Indians called "cliff-dwellers," because they built their dwelling places far up on the sides of steep cliffs. They probably made their homes so hard to reach in order that they might be safe from visits of their enemies. While many of their homes were small single-family houses, there were also a number of large two and three-story dwellings with many rooms in which different families lived.

Some of these cliff dwellings may still be seen in the valleys of the Rio Grande and the Rio Colorado and its tributaries. Close examination shows that many of them were very skilfully built, every advantage being taken of the natural rock formations, and the stones being dressed and laid in clay mortar, very much as the bricklayer does his work on an up-to-date apartment house today. The outsides of the buildings somewhat resembled the cement houses which have been put up in later days, a coat of clay being spread on the outside walls and carefully smoothed off. Oftentimes the inner walls were plastered too.

Many relics of the inhabitants have been found in these cliff dwellings, although we cannot tell how they lived, for the region is now rainless and therefore destitute of food plants. Conditions must have been different then and the ground less barren.