~~~
“Ah! So you will be joining us Mr. …Tremon, is it?” Rachel greeted as Daniel approached the Rangers’ office.
The Smiths and another couple were waiting with her. All smiled, but Mrs. Smith’s hid a bit of mischief behind it. She winked when she knew she had Dan’s eye for a moment.
“Alright!” Rachel said as she tucked a couple pieces of paper in a fanny pack she had under her Ranger’s coat. “I think we’re all set. If you will just follow me past the museum here, we’ll be taking a fairly easy path down to the edge above Spruce Tree House and stop there for a moment.”
The path through the oak was pleasant, and though there was a spittle of rain in the air it was mostly dry along the walkway itself providing sure footing. Here and there Daniel observed some peculiarities he didn’t see too frequently in Woodland Hills. Along the side there was a very small cactus growing, looking very much like the pot shaped cacti one might see in animated movies and such, except that it stood only about 3 inches tall and wide.
“Ra…Miss,” Daniel stumbled nervously and thought perhaps he should address her formally while they were touring. “I see a little cactus here. Are there any of the big Saguaro cactus on the mesas too?”
Clearly Rachel hadn’t really pondered that question before. “Well, no. We’re really too high in elevation for that. I’m not really sure why that’s managed to grow there. But we have a pretty odd mix of growth here. I think part of it is because the elevations change so much, and maybe part of it is the Native Americans who lived here propagated species from other areas of the southwest.”
Perhaps Ranger Rachel had never thought about the cactus before, but she definitely had answers. He liked that. She knew her job just as well as she seemed to enjoy it. That was admirable to Dan.
As they tromped down the path a little four-inch lizard skittered across in front of the party. Everyone paid it a respectful glance as it clambered over a rock and hid from view, but it seemed odd to even see one out. The temperatures had climbed to the low 60’s already so it was very comfortable, but Daniel didn’t think the animals came out too much once winter had started settling in. About them the sky was a lighter shade of gray and even a stab or two of winter sun shone through throwing highlights on certain regions of rock about them as they descended a little from the mesa top. But around the mesa and off into the distance there were certainly very heavy clouds weighing in their thoughts about December weather. Only a single bird flew during this first stage of their hike and it seemed to be simply moving from one side of the gorge ahead of them to the other, perhaps alighting in a nest there. It was definitely not on the hunt, and that seemed more appropriate to Dan considering the impending storm front in the distance.
Finally they stopped in an area sequestered on three sides by giant boulders thirty or more feet tall about them. There were hand rails continuing from the path they had already followed out to the apparent edge of the mesa, but here was a widening area of tarmac and several signs providing information and directions. There seemed to be two or three pit houses, or Kivas in the area immediately behind the area Rachel had taken up to address the five of them.
“Behind me you will see a couple pit houses that we have dated to about 900 AD. These are the more sophisticated pit houses and are the last stage before building the Kivas we’ll see in a moment down in Spruce Tree House,” she announced sounding official.
“One of the pits has been reconstructed so you can see how they may have assembled the wood and thatch roofs.
A third pit is over here just to my left. You can see a ladder coming up out of the ground. In this case what we seemed to have found is a Kiva-type construction with the stones not only used to line the walls but to create an arched ceiling and then back-filled with earth to insulate.
If you happened to visit our museum or have been here before you may have heard about the ‘chimneys’ these people made to keep the houses warm. The earthen pit house has this feature too, and in fact it’s how we happened to find this building. Once the ‘chimney’ was found we were able to locate a small hole in what seemed to be a man-made chamber, but the inside had been filled with all sorts of things, including earth, some skeletons of both animal and human, pottery, and other remnants.”
Rachel’s expression changed mildly from lecturer to co-conspirator but she maintained her formality in tone as she continued.
“We’re not really sure why they would have filled up this room.”
“I was just going to ask!” chortled the man in the other couple who had joined the tour.
Rachel smiled and laughed a little with it, but this was not the one he was familiar with. He thought of it as her “formal” smile she must use while on tours, just like the formal tone she used while leading the group as well. It was familial and comfortable enough for the audience at hand but certainly practiced.
“Everyone does,” she continued. “That’s why we actually have two archeologists who focus on these pit houses each year during their work on the Mesa. To date we just don’t have any real ideas. The human skeletal remains appeared to be just fragments from a couple different complete skeletons and were probably previously buried and brought here later. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for the pottery or other animals either. Some of the pots appeared to be just thrown in and broken while they were filling it in, and others are so far just shards of pottery we haven’t found yet.
It’s difficult to guess why they might have done it, but it probably happened late in the 10th century just as they were getting ready to move down into the cliff faces below.”
Then Rachel stepped aside somewhat purposefully and said, “If you would like to explore the three pit houses here you may take about ten minutes and then we’ll continue down to Spruce Tree House. Please be careful climbing in and out of the earthen kiva as it is a small opening and inside the rough stands only about four-and-a-half to about five feet tall at the opening.”
Daniel did peak in all three and was impressed at the construction. In some ways he felt these homes in the earth would be more comfortable than his own back in Woodland Hills. He longed for a more simple life and that drew him to reflecting about what he’d do for work in the spring. When his turn came to enter the covered kiva he quickly shook those thoughts off and scolded himself, remembering that he’d come just to relax and enjoy himself for a while.
Inside the kiva it was considerably darker than even the gray and drizzly exterior had been. He let his eyes adjust and realized a pit home may not, in fact, be the place for him. He felt claustrophobic. But at the same time, there seemed a sense of loss to him standing in the room. The building had a very physical sense of being emptied out. It was a sensation of people having been, and then being no longer that struck him. It was like heat flowing out of a building in winter. Even though the heater will run, the same set temperature in winter feels colder than summer because the heat is escaping from the room. The kiva seemed to be doing the same, drawing energy out of him, giving Daniel a chill despite the coat he was wearing that was too warm for the sixty-degree weather.
When Daniel emerged out of the hole, Rachel motioned and called for everyone to rejoin the group. As they did Daniel stood next to her, subconsciously trying to shake the cold he’d felt.
“That was a weird sensation in there,” he mumbled quietly to her.
Rachel turned her head abruptly and searched his face for a moment. It surprised Dan a little and he reflexively leaned back a bit from her. Then she regained her composure and watched the group assembling. Whispering she replied back to him.
“I know what you mean I think.”
“Ya?” Dan attempted a whisper back but his voice was too deep to be terribly quiet.
“Ya. I don’t like it in there. Even in the summer.”
Then as the other four lined up before them and struck poses of anticipation, Rachel quickly returned to her tour mode.
“Alright! Are there any questions?”
No one had one they wanted to address, but everyone joked lightly about not having much elbow room in these homes.
“Let’s head down to Spruce Tree House.”
Speak Rain Page 8