Hovenweep National Monument protects five prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a 20 mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border. Multi-storied towers perched on canyon rims and balanced on boulders lead visitors to marvel at the skill and motivation of their builders. Hovenweep is noted for its solitude and undeveloped, natural character. The Square Tower Group is the primary contact facility with a visitor center, campground and interpretive trail. Other groups (or villages) include Holly, Horseshoe, Hackberry, Cutthroat Castle and Cajon.
History & Culture
Human habitation at Hovenweep dates to over 10,000 years ago when nomadic Paleoindians visited the Cajon Mesa to gather food and hunt game. These people used the area for centuries, following the seasonal weather patterns. By about A. D. 900, people started to settle at Hovenweep year-round, planting and harvesting crops in the rich soil of the mesa top. By the late 1200′s, the Hovenweep area was home to over 2,500 people. The towers of Hovenweep were built by ancestral Puebloans, a sedentary farming culture that occupied the Four Corners area from about A. D. 500 to A. D. 1300. Similarities in architecture, masonry and pottery styles indicate that the inhabitants of Hovenweep were closely associated with groups living at Mesa Verde and other nearby sites.
The ancestral Puebloans prepared their land for cultivation much like farmers do today. They created terraces on hillsides, formed catch basins to hold storm run-off and built check dams to retain topsoil that would otherwise wash away. Storage granaries under the canyon rims protected harvests of corn, beans and squash for later use.
Most of the structures at Hovenweep were built between A. D. 1200 and 1300. There is quite a variety of shapes and sizes, including square and circular towers, D-shaped dwellings and many kivas (Puebloan ceremonial structures, usually circular). The masonry at Hovenweep is as skillful as it is beautiful. Even the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde rarely exhibit such careful construction and attention to detail. Some structures built on irregular boulders remain standing after more than 700 years.
Many theories attempt to explain the use of the buildings at Hovenweep. The striking towers might have been celestial observatories, defensive structures, storage facilities, civil buildings, homes or any combination of the above. While archeologists have found that most towers were associated with kivas, their actual function remains a mystery.
By the end of the 13th century, it appears a prolonged drought, possibly combined with resource depletion, factionalism and warfare, forced the inhabitants of Hovenweep to depart. Though the reason is unclear, ancestral Puebloans throughout the area migrated south to the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and the Little Colorado River Basin in Arizona. Today’s Pueblo, Zuni and Hopi people are descendants of this culture.
The first historic reports of the abandoned structures at Hovenweep were made by W. D. Huntington, the leader of a Mormon expedition into southeast Utah in 1854. The name “Hovenweep” is a Paiute/Ute word meaning “Deserted Valley” which was adopted by pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson in 1874. In 1917-18, J. W. Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution surveyed the area and recommended the structures be protected. On March 2, 1923, President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Hovenweep a unit of the National Park System.
Attractions
The Cajon Group
The Cajon Group (pronounced ca-hone) consists of the ruins of a small village constructed in the same configuration as Hackberry, Horseshoe and Holly. The surviving structures are situated at the head of a small canyon and evidence indicates that 80 to 100 people may have lived here. Under a ledge are several small structures as well as pictographs painted in the Mesa Verde pottery style. In the canyon below, the remains of an earthen dam built to store water can still be seen today. On the western slope of the canyon stands the remains of a remarkable circular tower that conforms perfectly to the shape of three large, irregular boulders. This round structure on a completely uneven surface demonstrates the skill and determination of the ancestral Puebloans that lived at Hovenweep.
The Cutthroat Castle Group
The earliest historic record of Cutthroat Castle dates from 1929, when it was documented by archeologist Paul Martin. The site was added to Hovenweep National Monument in 1956. Unlike the other Hovenweep pueblos, the structures at Cutthroat Castle are not located immediately at the head of a canyon, but further downstream. The Cutthroat Group also appears to have a large number of kivas (Puebloan ceremonial structures) relative to other building types. Puebloan kivas are usually built into the earth and are typically round. An exception is the kiva incorporated into Cutthroat Castle, which rests on top of a boulder.
In Puebloan religion, the kiva is a structure that connects with different worlds. The floor is related to the world below and is usually built below ground level. The entrance to a typical kiva is through the roof, which relates to the world above. Cutthroat Castle Kiva is surrounded by another structure or room. Access into this surrounding structure appears to have been from below the boulder on which the kiva is built, through a split in the boulder.
Though it may appear isolated, the ancestral Puebloan population at Cutthroat Castle was quite large. Natural resources in the area, particularly the forest of pion and juniper trees, provided the Puebloans with a variety of useful materials. Pion seeds were a food source rich in calories and protein. Pion sap or pitch was used as a waterproof sealant for baskets. Shredded juniper bark was used for clothing and sandals. Trees were burned in fires and used as building materials. In fact, by counting the tree rings present in structural timbers, archeologists can determine exactly when these sites were built.
Researchers studying prehistoric diets have found sagebrush flowers, seeds and leaves in the Puebloans’ waste. As a minor part of their diet, sagebrush would have been a good source of iron and Vitamin C. In larger amounts, it kills intestinal parasites.
Quartz pebbles from stream beds provided material for stone tools. When these rocks are broken using another rock or a piece of antler, they have edges as sharp as glass. Puebloans shaped these hard rocks into tools such as knives, scrapers and projectile points.
The geology of the surrounding landscape produces springs and seeps. In these canyons, permeable Dakota sandstone rests on top of impermeable Burro Canyon shale. Water from rain and snow soaks through the sandstone, but is forced to flow outward when it meets the shale. When this water reaches the wall of a canyon it forms a spring. For the Puebloans, these canyons with seeps and springs were the ideal place to locate a village.
The Holly Group
The Holly Group is named for Jim Holley who ranched and traded in this area during the late 1800′s. Holly Site includes Tilted Tower and Boulder House, located at the head of Keeley Canyon. Traveling the pedestrian trail from east to west, the base of a tower structure can be seen along the canyon rim. This multi-story pueblo called Tilted Tower was built atop a large sandstone boulder that shifted sometime after the canyon was abandoned (A. D. 1300). The upper stories of the tower tumbled into the canyon while the footing remained attached.
The design and construction of Tilted Tower is similar to Boulder House, which is the large multi-story tower located inside Keeley Canyon (lower right in the photo above). Built atop a large sandstone boulder on the canyon bottom, Boulder House is detached from the canyon rim and like many of the towers at Hovenweep National Monument, it is located adjacent to a seep. In contemporary Puebloan culture, springs are special locations associated with stories that talk about the origins of Puebloan peoples. Boulder House was built sometime after A. D. 1200 and it appears that the tower was constructed without outside scaffolding. Each floor was built from the inside, one floor at a time, building upward. Looking at Boulder House, you can still see the steps or hand-holds that were pecked into the boulder below the entrance.
Archeological analysis of the Hovenweep towers suggests these structures were used for multiple activities, although some activities were probably very specialized. The presence of grinding stones such as manos and metates indicates plant materials were being ground, probably for food production. Stone tools typically used for chopping, scraping and cutting suggest a variety of activities associated with daily life were occurring within the towers. The presence of bone awls suggests activities associated with weaving might have also occurred. In addition, archeologists suggest these towers were usually paired with kivas (Puebloan religious structures) and the towers may relate to how the kiva connects with the outside world. The deliberate location of towers and kivas at the heads of canyons goes beyond architecture and has everything to do with the hydrology of the canyon and the way Puebloan peoples envisioned their world. Some of the towers and kivas are placed virtually on top of the springs and seeps that emerge from these canyons.
The Horseshoe Group
The walking trail to Hackberry Canyon is a one-mile round-trip walk that includes the structures at both Horseshoe and Hackberry. Structures at these sites were built approximately 800 years ago by the ancestors of today’s Puebloan people. Today their descendents are among the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona.
Tower Point Ruin (shown in photo above) is built on a point that marks the start of the Horseshoe Site. From this tower, inhabitants could see clearly into Horseshoe Canyon. At one time, the tower was walled off from the mesa top, raising questions about the use of such structures for defense.
Further along the Canyon Rim Trail is Horseshoe House, which is composed of four masonry structures that together form a horseshoe shape. From the trail it is easy to see the precisely cut stone-masonry that forms the outside wall of Horseshoe House. Each stone was shaped for a precise fit before being set into place. Clay, sand and ash, mixed with water from seeps in the canyon below, made the mortar that still holds these walls together. One unresolved question is whether specialized masons built these structures, or if the entire community contributed to their construction.
The Hackberry Group
About 500 yards east of the Horseshoe structures is the Hackberry Site. Archeologists speculate that Hackberry canyon may have had one of the largest populations of all the Hovenweep units because of the constant seepage of water in the canyon. As many as 250 to 350 people may have lived here. It is unclear if the residents were related or represented different clans and lineages.
The concentrations of structures at both Horseshoe and Hackberry demonstrate the importance of water to the people who lived here. Large multi-story pueblos and towers, located at canyon heads with seeps and springs, are the defining characteristics of the late Pueblo III time period. In this climate, precipitation comes in the form of winter snows, spring rains and isolated summer thunderstorms. The intermittent rains of summer were crucial to the survival of crops and Puebloans responded by constructing water-control features. In washes on the mesa tops, small stone dams were built so that sediment could accumulate and water could soak into the ground, flowing slowly into nearby garden plots.
A 23 year-long drought beginning in A. D. 1276, possibly combined with warfare, overpopulation and limited resources, forced the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people to leave Hovenweep. By the end of the 13th century, Puebloan communities across southeast Utah and southwest Colorado migrated south, joining the pueblos of the Rio Grande River Valley in New Mexico and the the Hopi in Arizona.
The Square Tower Group
The Square Tower Group contains the largest collection of ancestral Puebloan structures at Hovenweep. The remains of nearly thirty kivas (Puebloan ceremonial structures) have been discovered on the slopes of Little Ruin Canyon and a variety of other structures are perched on the canyon rims, balanced on boulders and tucked under ledges. It’s possible that as many as 500 people occupied the Square Tower area between A. D. 1200 and 1300.
Square Tower, for which the group is named, is a three-story tower built on a boulder at the head of Little Ruin Canyon. A nearby spring would have been an important resource for the inhabitants of Hovenweep. To increase water storeage, a checkdam was built above the spring in order to slow storm runoff. The unique location and appearance of Square Tower fuels speculation that it was a ceremonial structure.
Located near the visitor center and campground, the Square Tower Group is the only unit of Hovenweep accessible by a paved road. A moderately strenuous trail follows the canyon rim and offers excellent views of every structure. Most visitors spend two or more hours exploring the area. Between the visitor center and the first overlook the trail is paved and may be traversed by visitors in wheelchairs with assistance.
Recreation
Visitors to Hovenweep National Monument can enjoy short hikes, natural quiet and some of the finest examples of ancestral Puebloan architecture in the southwest. The trail system provides access to each of the cultural site units. All units are open to the public but most are in remote locations and can be difficult to reach. The Square Tower Group is an ideal place to begin your exploration of Hovenweep. Stop by the visitor center, attend an interpretive program and be sure to hike all or part of the two mile self-guiding trail around Little Ruin Canyon.
Hiking
The trail system at Hovenweep provides visitors excellent views of all the archeological sites. The Square Tower Group features a two mile loop that begins at the visitor center and is a perfect starting point for any visit. Between the visitor center and the first overlook (roughly 100 yards), the trail is paved and may be traversed by visitors in wheelchairs with assistance. Most visitors spend an hour exploring the area, with the full two mile loop taking at least 1.5 hours.
Hiking trails also exist at the outlying sites, which include Cajon, Cutthroat Castle, Holly and Horseshoe/Hackberry. Most are short (a half mile or less one-way), primitive and lightly maintained. Backpacking is not permitted at Hovenweep.
Getting There
By Car
The road to the Visitor Center and Square Tower Group is paved from Cortez, Colorado, on County Road G (the McElmo Canyon Road) and from White Mesa (south of Blanding) on Highway 262. The road from Highway 666 (near Pleasant View) is dirt and may be impassable after storms. This road accesses most of the outlying units in Colorado.
All roads into the outlying units are dirt and are not maintained regularly. High-clearance vehicles are recommended for visiting these sites.
Traveler Facts
Contact Information
Hovenweep National Monument
McElmo Route
Cortez, CO 81321
Phone 970-962-4282
Operating Hours & Seasons
Hovenweep National Monument is open year-round. The visitor center is open daily from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., with extended hours during summer. The visitor center is closed winter holidays. Hiking trails are open during daylight hours.
Weather/Climate
Southeast Utah is part of the Colorado Plateau, a “high desert” region that experiences wide temperature fluctuations, sometimes over 40 degrees in a single day. The temperate (and most popular) seasons are spring (April through May) and fall (mid-September through October), when daytime highs average 60 to 80 degrees F and lows average 30 to 50 degrees F.
Summer temperatures often exceed 100 degrees F, making strenuous exercise difficult. Late summer monsoon season brings violent storm cells which often cause flash floods.
Winters are cold, with highs averaging 30 to 50 degrees F and lows averaging 0 to 20 degrees F. Though large snowfalls are uncommon (except in nearby mountains), even small amounts of snow or ice can make local trails and roads impassable.
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