Hovenweep National Monument straddles the Colorado-Utah border west of Cortez, Colorado, United States. President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Hovenweep a National Monument on March 2, 1923. The Monument consists of six clusters of Native American ruins. Four of these are in Colorado: Holly Canyon, Hackberry Canyon, Cutthroat Castle and Goodman Point. In Utah, the two sets of ruins are known as Square Tower and Cajon. The modest Monument headquarters is located at Square Tower Group between Pleasant View, Colorado and Hatch Trading Post, Utah.

Discovery

In 1854, W.D. Huntington and an expedition of colonists from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were the first people of European descent to see the Hovenweep ruins, which were already known to the Ute and Navajo tribes. The name Hovenweep, which means "deserted valley" in Piute/Ute languages, was adopted by pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson in 1874. The name is apt as a description of the area's desolate canyons and barren mesas as well as the ruins of ancient communities.

In 1903, T. Mitchell Pruden reported the results of a comprehensive survey completed of prehistoric ruins of the San Juan watershed in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. He saw many examples of the destruction caused by early collectors, who pulled down the walls of ruined dwellings, dug beneath the rooms, and unearthed associated burial mounds. In the Hovenweep area, he reported, Few of the mounds have escaped the hands of the destroyer. Cattlemen, ranchmen, rural picnickers, and professional collectors have turned the ground well over and have taken out much pottery, breaking more, and strewing the ground with many crumbling bones. In 1917–18, ethnologist J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution included descriptions of the ruins in published archaeological survey reports, and recommended the structures be protected.

Administered by the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Even with federal protection, little comprehensive archaeological excavation was done on sites until the 1970s.

Cultural History

Paleo-Indians searched for big game throughout the Hovenweep country as early as 14,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherers continued to use the area well after the appearance of agriculture about AD 500. At that time, archaeologists believe the soil in the region was deeper and the area had a higher rainfall and more moderate temperatures than it does today. Population in this area grew steadily. These agricultural people are generally considered part of the Mesa Verde branch of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples.

Between AD 1150 and AD 1200, the Hovenweep inhabitants began building larger pueblos around fortress-like towers at the heads of box canyons. The people built check dams and reservoirs and moved their fields into areas where water could be controlled. They also built large stone towers, living quarters and other shelters to safeguard springs and seeps. Goodman Point in Colorado is a good example of a large mesa-top community, constructed in the last half of the 13th century, which is associated with a number of smaller outlying sites. Domesticated crops such as maize, beans and squash were grown in terraced fields, and vital water was diverted to edible wild plants such as beeweed, ground cherry, sedge, milkweed, cattail and wolf berry, a native Lycium species. The Hovenweep people supplemented this diet through additional foraging and hunting. These construction and water related activities lead archaeologists to speculate that climatic change and increased population placed the communities under stress.

The stone course pueblos and towers of the Hovenweep people exhibit expert masonry skills and engineering. The builders did not level foundations for their structures, but adapted construction designs to the uneven surfaces of rock slabs. The towers were built in a variety of shapes; D-shapes, squares, ovals and circles. These stone pueblos were understandably referred to as castles by nineteenth-century explorers.

Tower functions are subject to speculation, as they have limited access, contain few windows and many have narrow slots or peepholes placed in the walls. Towers are often linked to a kiva, generally through a tunnel, suggesting they may have been used for ritual functions. The slots and doors of Hovenweep Castle, in Square Tower Group, have been shown to define an apparent solar calendar. The building is aligned so that light is channeled through openings into the building at sunset of the summer solstice, the winter solstice and the spring and fall equinox. The light falls in a predictable pattern on interior door lintels.

The Hovenweep people left their pueblos in the late 1200s, possibly in response to a regional drought. People in the entire Four Corners region were also abandoning smaller communities at that time, and the area may have been nearly empty by AD 1350. Archaeological and cultural evidence leads scientists to believe people from this region migrated south and east to the valleys and drainages of the Little Colorado River and the Rio Grande.

Nomadic Southern Athapaskan speaking peoples, given the name Navajo by the Spanish, succeeded the Pueblo people in this region by approximately AD 1620 to 1650. Ute tribal groups also frequented this region, primarily during hunting and raiding activities. The modern Navajo Nation lies southeast of Hovenweep, and many Navajo (more appropriately known as the Diné) live in surrounding areas, particularly near the San Juan River.

References

• Frazier, Kendrick. People of Chaco: A Canyon and Its Culture. W.W. Norton and Company, New York, 1986. ISBN 0-393-30496-5.
• Noble, David Grant, editor. Understanding the Anasazi of Mesa Verde and Hovenweep. School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1985. See article by Joseph C. Winter, "Hovenweep Through Time."
• Plog, Stephen. Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. Thames and London, LTD, London, England, 1997. ISBN 0-500-27939-X.
• Pruden, T. Mitchell. The Prehistoric Ruins of the San Juan Watershed in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.American Anthropologist, N.S. V (1903).
• Winter, Joseph C. "Hovenweep 1974." Archaeological Report No. 1, Anthropology Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, 1975.

External links

• National Park Service: Hovenweep National Monument
• American Southwest, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
• Camping, fees and Contact info for Hovenweep National Monument
• Photographic tour of Hovenweep, from USGS