Short Stories Inspired by Your National Parks

National Park Essay
by Caleb McCoy, November 2002

I went to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Park where there are these neat caves where Indians used to live. The Indians were called the Mogollon people. We got to have a tour in the caves. There was soot on the ceiling from their cooking fires that made the ceiling black. The Mogollon built walls of rocks in the caves to make rooms, and we got to see inside the rooms. For the roofs they had wooden beams. They made holes in the ground for their pots so they wouldn't tip over. They also had small holes in the rock so they could grind their corn into flour. I thought it would be hard to live there because it was on a steep hill and the Mogollon children had to go down the hill to the stream with pots or skins and bring water to their moms. Also they had no glass in their windows and their walls were cracked. I learned a lot at the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It's a really cool park. Anyone who is interested in archaeology should go there.

This story was inspired by Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in the state of New Mexico.

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