Crack-in-Rock Community
In 1931, MNA co-founder Harold S. Colton identified
a group of archaeological sites on and near Crack-inRock Mesa as an Ancestral Puebloan community. Crack-inRock Mesa is one of a series of eroded Moenkopi Formation
sandstone landforms on the edge of the Black Point Monocline.
Each of these inclined mesas support sandstone cliffs 15–30 feet
(5–10 m) in height, with large and steep talus slopes below.
The mesas line up north to south and dip steeply eastward
towards the Little Colorado River, which flows in the
valley below. This project examined Middle Mesa,
Horseshoe Mesa, and a landform the MNA – NPS crew
called Little Mesa, all of which lie south of Crack-inRock Mesa. The rich accumulation of petroglyphs
that occur on the rock faces of these mesas and on
talus boulders on the slope below the cliff reflect
human activity during the last 3,000 years, and
possibly longer. Ceramic types, architectural form,
and petroglyph styles indicate that most of the
activity occurred during the late 12th and early 13th
centuries. Colton described this community as:
SIDEBAR
Crack-in-the-Rock [NA 537] is the most northern
of the ruins that can be included in the Flagstaff
region…the northern cuestra [sic] bears no sign of
a residence of ancient man except his petroglyphs,
the second supports a well-planned fort. This is
Crack-in-the-Rock. South of Crack-in-the-Rock are
two or three other cuestras, each bearing ruins
and covered with petroglyphs. Indeed no better
exhibition of primitive drawing can be found in
the region.
Portion of a regional survey map and legend
created by MNA co-founder Harold S. Colton
(pictured at left) and published in 1932, just
eight years after Wupatki National Monument
was established. The only available water and
land for growing crops is located along the Little
Colorado River, between one and one and a half
miles away. Middle Mesa and Horseshoe Mesas
are shown just south of Crack-in-Rock.
A monocline is a landform underlain by folded layers of rock. Black
Point Monocline is named for a volcanic flow known as Black Point, just
north of Crack–in–Rock Mesa. A cuesta (misspelled in the quote above)
is a tilted mesa.