Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10684.jpg
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  • OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS 29 feet from an inner circular one and united to it by two radial partitions forming compartments still well preserved. The height of the outer wall is 12 feet; that of the inner somewhat less. Half fallen walls of a cliff dwelling of considerable size are found in a cave situated below this building, and upon a neighboring point stands a square tower with high walls and carved corners. The Cajon Canyon group includes a number of important antiquities. The several multiple-chambered towers of the Hovenweep Monument belong to a prehistoric type distinct from pueblos, for nothing is found in modern pueblos comparable to them. They do not suggest habitations, for they would hardly accommodate the number of workmen necessary to build them. Their general appearance suggests granaries, forts, castles, or some communal use, possibly religious. Then, too, they are sometimes too shut in by surrounding cliffs to serve as watch towers and are accompanied by cliff dwellings which show evidences of habitation. Whatever their use, they are a specialized architectural type and apparently localized to this section. The Hovenweep Monument lies about 50 miles west of the Mesa Verde National Park, and since there is no resident custodian the superintendent of that park assists in its administration. It is, however, under the general supervision of the superintendent of southwestern monuments. Each of the four groups of ruins is situated within a mile of the main-traveled road between Dolores, Colo., on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, and Bluff, Utah. The ruins are accessible by automobile, and a side trip may be easily made to them in connection with a visit to Mesa Verde Park. KATMAI NATIONAL MONUMENT Katmai National Monument, situated near the base of the Alaska Peninsula on the southern shore of Alaska, bordering Shelikof Strait, lies midway of a volcanic belt which has shown extraordinary activity during recent years, and is the largest and most spectacular member of the monument system, with an area of over a million acres. Here is located Mount Katmai, which in 1912 gave vent to a violent eruption, the initial stage lasting three days, during which several cubic miles of material were emitted. This eruption was of such violence as to rank in the first order of volcanic explosions. The crater left by the explosion, measured along the highest point of the rim, has a circumference of 8.4 miles. The volcano is now quiet, and in its crater lies a lake of milky blue water over a mile long and nearly a mile wide, in which is a little crescent-shaped island measuring 400 feet from tip to tip. 53287°—26 3
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).