Entering Yucca House National Monument you notice the clusters of large arid mounds surrounded by numerous seep springs indicated by a marshy habitat. The two most conspicuous mounds are the largest portions of Yucca House. The most prominent of all the mounds is called “Upper House” which rises 15 to 20 feet above its foundation and dominates many of the surrounding smaller mounds. The only freestanding wall at Yucca House National Monument is a portion of the northeast corner of Yucca House called the “Lower House.” At first glance Lower House appears to be about a hundred yards away from the Upper House.
The buildings at Yucca House National Monument were built by the ancestors of today’s Pueblos and now exist as a monument to the cooperation and stewardship of the natural, cultural, and historical resources.
Currently, there are no facilities or fees at Yucca House National Monument.
Introduction
Yucca House National Monument is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan surface site. Yucca House is located in Southwest Colorado between the towns of Towaoc and Cortez. Currently, there are no facilities or fees at Yucca House. Yucca House National Monument preserves a large Ancestral Puebloan surface site in southwestern Colorado. It is located west of Mesa Verde National Park between the towns of Towaoc and Cortez. The ancient structures are on the gently sloping base of the Sleeping Ute Mountain. The name “Yucca House” was selected for the monument because the Ute Indians called Sleeping Ute Mountain by a name meaning yucca, for there is an abundance of the yucca plant growing on the mountainsides. Sign the visitor book, walk around the mounds, and absorb the beauty of the site in this valley. Try to imagine life here hundreds of years ago.
The site is now a cluster of mounds with no sign of a wall rising above the surface. Due to the large size and extent of the mounds, there is every reason to believe that, when excavated, they will prove of great archeological interest and educational significance. The land upon where Yucca House resides (approximately 10 acres) was a gift from the late Henry Van Kleeck of Denver, Colorado. The stone used to build Yucca House is mainly fossilferous limestone that outcrops along the base of the Mesa Verde tableland a mile away.
The mounds have been known for many years, and were first described by Professor William H. Holmes in 1877. The two most conspicuous mounds were designated by him as the “Upper House” and the “Lower House”. The former is the most prominent of all the mounds in this ancient site, rising from 15 to 20 feet above its foundation, and dominating the many smaller mounds which surround it. The “Lower House” is different, and stands isolated by a hundred yards from the cluster of mounds that compose and include the “Upper House”.
The National Park Service does not recommend travel to Yucca House National Monument for a casual visitor. There are currently no facilities at the monument. The dirt road to Yucca House is impassable in wet weather.
The monument, which is patrolled periodically by a Park Ranger, is under the supervision of the Superintendent at Mesa Verde National Park.
History & Culture
Once home to some of the ancestors of today’s Pueblo people, Yucca House has been known for centuries by the Utes and Navajos who live in the region. Rich oral traditions tie the native people to the land. The first written documentation of Yucca House was by Professor William H. Holmes in 1877 as part of a United States Geological Survey Report. Holmes was humbled and awed as he described a prolific spring surrounded on three sides by the most immense dwelling located to that date. He sketched and drew a general floorplan based upon fallen walls and the piles of stone.
Pioneers and ranchers believed that these homes were built by the Aztec people of Mexico. Understandably at that time, Holmes named the building and the spring “Aztec Springs.”Sleeping Ute Mountain forms a breathtaking backdrop for Yucca House. The Ute people call the peak “wisi-vu ka-vi” in their native tongue meaning “Mountain full of yucca.” Similarily the Tewa Pueblo name for Sleeping Ute is Papin (pa, yucca; pin, mountain). After the establishment of Aztec National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico, this site was renamed “Yucca House.”
In 1919, Henry Van Kleek, a Denver pioneer and the original landowner, donated Yucca House to the federal government, hoping that it would be excavated in the near future. On December 19, 1919, Woodrow Wilson set aside Yucca House and the surrounding acreage to be forever preserved and protected. Despite letters urging the National Park Service to excavate the site, a lack of funding, public interest, and accesibility prevented it from being unearthed. Van Kleek sold the surrounding land to the present-day owners Ray and Hallie Ismay in 1921. Yucca House National Monument has been a protected island isolated on all sides by agricultural land for the last 75 years. Yucca House will persist as an undeveloped archeological reserve until the benefits of research outweigh any potentially destructive methods applied. Many of the larger archaeological sites in the region have disappeared through urban development or have been irreparably damaged by vandalism. If or when excavated, it is believed Yucca House will reveal precious knowledge concerning the northern branch of the Ancestral Puebloan culture.
New research is well on its way with the recent 24-acre donation from the Ismay family. They donated a strip of land to facilitate access to Yucca House National Monument. Hallie Ismay modestly proclaimed, “Yucca House is just like it has always been, at least since I’ve been here. Of course, we have always tried to look after it.” When asked if she would like to see Yucca House excavated, she affirmed a sense of preservation and protection. “I’d love to see what is in there, but to me I believe it would be a waste of time and money to do something like full excavation, especially because they have so many other buildings to show how Ancestral Puebloan life was. They should save this one.”
Although Yucca House appears to be nothing more than a massive mound of rock and greasewood, a large pueblo lies beneath this vegetation. Very little is known about the site because a meager amount of research has been conducted to date. In 1964 the only free standing wall on the northeast section was stabilized by Mesa Verde’s stabilization crew under the supervision of Al Lancaster. Artifacts recoverd from similar sites in the Four Corners region suggest a Pueblo III (1100-1300) period occupation. The Ancestral Puebloan people thrived for nearly seven centuries before they began to leave. Drought, climatic shifts, deforestation, nitrogen depletion of soils, social factors, and over-population all could have contributed to the move southward. The people living on the Colorado Plateau migrated out of the area by 1300 A. D. These people adapted to different landscapes and lifestyles, eventually becaming the contemporary Pueblos along the Rio Grande River, in north central New Mexico, and in northern Arizona. The legacy left behind at Yucca House attests to today’s enduring Puebloan people and their rich cultural tradition.
Like any home across the Southwest, the Ancestral Puebloan people built their dwellings around the springs using the water for drinking, making mud mortar, and irrigating crops. Ancestral Puebloan livelihood depended upon their water source.
Visualize Yucca House as a village surrounded by farmland, watered by the life-giving spring. Look east and imagine the rising sun as its sustaining rays strike rows of corn, beans, and squash. See the people tilling out weeds with pointed sticks, hoping for the next round of showers for an abundance of food come harvest. Envision walking a half mile in yucca sandals to gather stones from distant natural outcroppings. Were these fossil-rich rocks special to them Sweat rolled off their bodies as they shaped rough hewn rock with river stones into individual building bricks. Working with neighbors, laughter accompanied grunts of effort as they constructed their wooden roofs.
Chants may have been whispered to the sacred wind as they finished painting their walls with bands of pigmented plaster. In circular subterranean chambers, ceremonial rooms called kivas, imagine elders sharing stories of “when the world was soft/beginning.” Picture a time of feasting and dancing as wild game was brought home. Imagine the aroma of roasted turkey, dried corn, and Utah Juniper smoke as it burned in fire hearths across the village. For generations the Puebloan ancestors lived in harmony with the land, the plants and wildlife, and with each other.
Traveler Facts
Contact Information
Yucca House National Monument
c/o Mesa Verde National Park
PO Box 8
Mesa Verde NP, CO 81330
Phone: 970-529-4465
Fax: 970-529-4637
Operating Hours & Seasons
Yucca House National Monument is open year-round, weather permiting.
Location
The road to Yucca House National Monument is along a private road. To access the site, drive eight and a half miles south of Cortez from the US 160 and 666 juncture. Turn west on County Road B. Drive 1.25 miles and turn north on the private drive. Please be courteous of the private landowners and close all gates behind you as you enter to prevent livestock from escaping. There are no services available, such as gasoline, food, water, or lodging. The closest gasoline and grocery facilities are in Cortez, CO.
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