Small Ruins on the Farming Terrace Trail

The Cedar Tree Tower and the 0.5 mile Farming Terrace Trail are located along a short side road near the Chapin Mesa Museum area in Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. This pair of attractions is probably often overlooked.

The Cedar Tree Tower location has a good view down a deep canyon. The interpretive information raises the question of why were towers built. This tower is in good position for signaling, but there is not another obvious tower in sight.

There are a lot of towers in the region, particularly in the Hovenweep National Monument, but the reasons for them are not clear. The Cedar Tree Tower is in combination with a circular kiva and there is a connecting tunnel. There is another tower and kiva combination on the Badger House Trail on the Wetherill Mesa part of Mesa Verde.

Nearby Cedar Tree Tower the short Farming Terrace Trail winds around a dry wash area. The Pinion Pine and Utah Juniper trees along the trail are scorched from the recent forest fires. The highlight of this trail is the series of check dams built across the gully to catch runoff and limit erosion in a dry climate. It is pointed out that in dry years these check dam areas provided more moisture for agriculture than the mesa top fields.

Upstream of the check dams there is a small ruins structure. This site isn’t pointed out and isn’t visible from the trail, though it is very close by. The Cedar Tree Tower is visible across the drainage, through the burnt over forest. It makes sense that some sort of a dwelling would be in the vicinity of the farming terraces.

This site looks like it has been excavated recently as there are piles of sandstone bricks nearby. The extensive forest fires that have occurred since 2000 are said to have revealed many previously unknown sites, and perhaps this is one. It makes an interesting addition to this short trail.