Beaver Creek flows regardless of the season! Most of the time it is gentle and clear. However, dry periods may reduce streamflow to a trickle hidden beneath the rocky creekbed. Limbs and twigs are often lodged in the trees along the creek. This debris is evidence of the power and height of rampaging flood waters. The cliff dwellers probably knew and accepted all these moods.

Directly across the creek, buried beneath years of river deposits, are remnants of prehistoric irrigation ditches. They were used to carry creek water into cultivated fields of corn, beans, squash and cotton.

These farmers also gathered the wild plants and hunted the animals along this streamside.

Keep an eye out for animals! Bones of deer, rabbit, squirrel, snake, turtle, fish and bird were found in the cliff dwellers’ trash mounds.

—Babs Monroe