In 1886, Miss Donaghé (now Mrs. McClurg) fitted out her own expedition, consisting, besides herself, of a guide, photographer, companion-housekeeper, pack animals and saddle horses. Driven from the Mancos river by Indians, the party camped three weeks in Cliff Cañon. Here were discovered, in climbing from below, the "Three-Tiered House," "Echo Cliff House" and "Balcony House," as the explorers named them; Balcony House was found Oct. 4, 1886. In a subterranean room, was the only cliff-dwellers' loom as yet discovered in Situ.
In October, 1897, the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association came into being, as a committee of the Colorado State Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Gilbert McClurg, chairman, incorporated in 1900, with chapters also in New York and California.
Mesa Verde was made a National Park by Act of Congress, approved June 9, 1906,—the crystallization of a quarter of a century of woman's work. When the government was at last stirred to action, the boundaries of its selected lands did not include the ruin area. The women of the Association again rallied and through their influence, was passed by Congress what is popularly known as the Brooks-Leupp Amendment, providing for safety of the ruins.
Some of the labors and achievements of the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association include:
The first practical map of Mesa Verde made at the instance and expense of that body; the first wagon-road through the cañon; the trip of anthropologists (of the American Association for the Advancement of Science) as their guests, September 4 to 7, 1901, to interest scientists in the field—Dr. and Mrs. J. Walter Fewkes thus made their first trip as the Association's guests; inducing visits to Mesa Verde of men prominent in political life, to arouse national interest; at Spruce Tree House, the opening of the present Hammond Spring by dynamite, making the water supply accessible; a lease from the Weeminuche Utés (negotiated by Mrs. McClurg as special Indian Commissioner, under Commissioner Jones), for the land on which the ruins stand,—devised as a temporary means of protection from squatters; unceasing propaganda by means of pictures, books, newspapers and magazine articles, Indian music, relic displays and approximately a thousand lectures; influencing Congress for the bills appropriating $1,000 for the first survey of Mesa Verde and $7,500 for first improvements; September 4, 1917, presenting a pageant at Spruce Tree House, "The Marriage of the Dawn and
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