Jessa and I have often travelled without a cushion—little cash on hand, nothing in our account, no credit available—and have naturally worried about breakdowns. It's usually a grim joke: "Well, I guess we live here now." But if I got the story right, this actually happened to Bill and Blanche Russell in 1920. On their way to California, and shortly after crossing the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, their Ford Model T broke down near the base of the Vermillion Cliffs. Unable to get the Tin Lizzie moving again and apparently without resources beyond indomitable will and what Nature offered close at hand—which was mainly rocks—they selected a sculpted boulder, similar to this one at Lee's Ferry...
...and built themselves a house around it.
Current visitors to the tiny "settlement" known as Cliff Dwellers sometimes assume the name refers to the Anasazi or other Indian residents, but the name was bestowed on the Russell place by cattlemen on the Arizona Strip in reference to the stone house at the base of the cliff. The Russells established a trading post, perhaps ran a few cattle of their own, and made a go of it. They were succeeded by the Greenes, who took over the trading post in the 1940s, added a boat service on the Colorado, and then in the 1950s built a motel. Cliff Dwellers Lodge, now owned by the Gunn family, is a full-service outfit: motel, restaurant, fly shop, fishing guide service, and kayak outfitters.
The original house, though now in disrepair, still attracts visitors. Many are attracted by its coziness, the low-tech ingenuity of its construction, and of course the stark beauty of its surroundings.
Few, I suspect, would consider spending a winter here, or even a winter's night. Even with two hearths and an intact roof, the desert of the Colorado Plateau can be a cold place.
[Photos by Jessica Farrell-Churchill, who always has had an eye for real estate.]
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