Meandering Through a Striking Outdoor Museum – Hovenweep National Monument

 I don’t understand why when we destroy

something created by man we call it vandalism,

but when we destroy

something created by nature we call it progress. 

Ed Begley Jr.

Hovenweep Castle at the head of Little Ruin Canyon

Within the barren, windswept, five hundred square mile Cajon Mesa, in an isolated corner of southeastern Utah, lies a hauntingly beautiful network of very well-built ‘ruins’, overlooking the narrow solitary Little Ruin Canyon.  In the Paiute/Ute language, Hovenweep means ‘deserted valley’, which is what Ancestral Pueblo People essentially found upon entering this region.  With a vast desolate expanse surrounding this area, it is hard to imagine the sounds of human and animal life ever reverberating up and down these canyons and valleys. 

Hovenweep preserves some of the most unusual architecture found in Ancestral Pueblo People culture. In addition, this remote peaceful setting, offers a chance to experience an environment equivalent to what the earliest inhabitants encountered. 

Evidence indicates that hunter-gatherers lived in Little Ruin Canyon as long as 10,000 years ago. The ‘ruins’ you see in the monument were built by the Ancestral Pueblo People around 1100 - 1300 CE. The same people who built the structures at nearby Mesa Verde NationalPark and Aztec Ruins National Monument.

At its peak, Hovenweep’s Square Tower Group in the Little Ruin Canyon (the only portion I visited since I don’t have a high clearance vehicle and the roads were bad after a heavy monsoon rain) was home to about 500 people between 1200 and 1300 CE.  The remains of nearly thirty kivas have been discovered on the slopes of the canyon, and a variety of other structures are perched on the canyon rims, mesitas, escarpments, precariously balanced on odd-shaped boulders, or neatly tucked under ledges. 

Square Tower Group, guide from National Park Service

Some of the structures built on this irregular topography remain standing after more than 740 years!  They were constructed from 1230 to 1275 CE, about the same time as the famous cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde.  Archeologists consider this place to have the finest examples of Ancestral Puebloan masonry found anywhere.  These ‘ruins’ evoke feelings of wonder at the inspirations and goals of their talented creators. Today’s Pueblo, Zuni and Hopi people are the descendants of those early master builders.  

More than seven hundred years ago, a lively system of settlements with a total of 3,000 people flourished in the immediate area, all within a day’s walk of each other.  Hovenweep is made up of six separate units spread over a 20-mile stretch of mesa tops and canyons.  Most, however, are in remote locations difficult to reach.  

In a region known as the Great Sage Plain, a large plateau covered with a landscape of dull loess and gray-green sagebrush, cut by finger like canyons, used to its full advantage by its ancient residents, villages were clustered around canyon-heads.  The Ancestral Puebloans ‘abandoned’ these villages around the end of the 13^th century.  Pollen studies show that much of the tree cover had been removed by then.  

The differences in geologies compounded by the varying elevation across the San Juan Region (geographically bounded by the Abajo Mountains and the Great Sage Plain to the North, the San Juan Mountains to the East, the San Juan River to the South, and the Colorado River to the West) have created localized environments that have profound effects on the variability of natural resources and agricultural productivity.  The variation in geography and elevation across this portion of the American Southwest results in localized temperature ranges, differences in annual rainfall, and diverse vegetation communities and animal habitats.

Eroded Boulder House  

Eroded Boulder House from this side of the canyon

Close up of Eroded House,
In my humble opinion, akin to a combover

Eroded Boulder House is a delightful structure visible in the canyon. It incorporates the huge rock under which it sits as part of its roof and walls. On top of the boulder are a few shaped stones where a tower once perched. 

Tower Point 

Tower Point
There are seldom any building blocks found next to the ruins
Most, if not all, were used for other structures
These three buildings are in line-of-sight of each other

The most striking feature of Tower Point itself is the commanding view up and down Little Ruin Canyon. In the alcoves just below the rim are rooms where people stored crops such as corn, beans, and squash. A surplus harvest was essential to the Ancestral Pueblo People because they had to get through the inevitable bad years when crops failed. These granaries had to be tight and secure against rodents and seeping water.  

Imagine the life and times of the residents of Square Tower community. It was a neighborhood of farmers who, with resourcefulness and proficient knowledge of climate, soil, sunlight, and moisture succeeded in raising enough food to sustain a sizable population. Life was good for a time. The seep at the canyon head flowed with water. There was enough corn to store away for lean times and there were small animals and wild plants to add to the menu. There was even enough time to construct the large towers that were integral to the community. 

Many theories attempt to explain the use of the buildings at Hovenweep. The striking towers might have been celestial observatories, communication structures, defensive bastions, storage facilities, ceremonial edifices, civil buildings, living quarters, or any combination of the above. While archeologists have found that most towers were associated with kivas, their actual function remains mostly a mystery.  

Evidence of an ancient culture is plainly abundant. Interestingly, modern restoration of the Hovenweep structures has been minimal (more interesting to me that way). Unlike nearby Mesa Verde, where most of the structures have been rebuilt, the buildings at Hovenweep have received only supportive reinforcement. 

As in Mesa Verde, Hovenweep’s buildings were constructed to take advantage of the terrain of the canyon walls, and structures were put in place to maximize access to natural resources. The Ancestral Pueblo People 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 checkdams to retain topsoil that would otherwise wash away. 

There are buildings perched on boulders, as well as underground passages leading into some Kivas. The Square Tower Group is so named for a three-story tower perched upon a free-standing boulder. Evidence suggests that these buildings could have been designed for defense, with their subterranean passages allowing safe travel between some structures.  

Stronghold House

They have stood nearly as long as the protected cliff dwellings of
Mesa Verde without the protection of alcoves
Amazing quality of masonry

Stronghold House was named for its fortress-like appearance, though it is not clear whether its architects designed it or any other structures for defense. The builders may simply have been following an aesthetic sense or responding to the challenges of the terrain. People entered the house by way of hand-and-toe holds chipped into the rock, or possibly by a wooden ladder. Stronghold House has two distinct sections, and the stone blocks are exceptionally well shaped.

View of the two sections of Stronghold House
from other side of canyon

Towers 

The masonry tower, an architectural phenomena of the late Pueblo II (1075- 1150 CE) and the Pueblo III (1150-1300 CE) periods of the ancient American Southwest is one of the most enigmatic architectural components of the Ancestral Puebloans of the northern San Juan Region. They are associated with dramatic and significant social changes that characterized the decades before the ultimate depopulation of the region in the 1300’s. 

Changes in pueblo layout, emphasis on canyon rim orientation, efforts to restrict access to important resources, and evidence for ritual transformation all point to changes in Ancestral Puebloan social organization during the late Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods.  The development and proliferation of towers during the late Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods may have been an important component of the changing social contexts of the northern San Juan Region. 

Towers were first constructed in the Pueblo II period years, although they are most commonly found in association with Pueblo III period sites. The Pueblo III period was a time of unsettled climatic conditions and intense social strife and towers may have been part of a response to these challenging conditions. The Pueblo III period of Ancestral Puebloan occupation in the northern Southwest was a time of changing population dynamics with a marked population increase and a settlement pattern tending towards aggregated communities. 

With the collapse of the Chaco regional system, the Ancestral Puebloan super-power of the Pueblo II period, and the rise of Aztec as the new political powerhouse, the social context of the post-Chaco world (Pueblo III) included increased warfare and minimal trade with groups outside the region. Environmental downturn undoubtedly had harsh effects on farming and domestic water supplies. 

The aggregation of many sites during the Pueblo III period around permanent water sources suggests a heightened protection of such resources. The frequent appearance of towers during this time period has caused scholars to argue that their presence was the result of unstable social conditions of the northern San Juan Region.

Unit Type House

Notice the difference in the quality of the masonry
foreground, poor dry stack unshaped stones,
background, good mortar shaped blocks

Unit Type House is the name archeologists gave to a basic building plan they noticed early on at sites in the Southwest. This one is a perfect example, a few living and storage rooms and one kiva, possibly home to a family or a clan. Most larger pueblos expanded by simply repeating this idea. The single kiva here (not shown) is of the Mesa Verde style. Two of the openings in the wall of the room east of the kiva were possibly used to mark summer and winter solstices, information that is extremely useful to farmers.

Unit Type House from a different direction

Square Tower

Square Tower below Hovenweep Castle
Securing a defensible location and domestic water source
appears to have been central concerns
Green trees indicate water source

The most famous ‘ruin’ I heard about before visiting Hovenweep, was the Square Tower.  The three-story-tall tower stands down in the canyon. Situated on a large sandstone boulder, it was built in a slight spiral shape, perhaps for added strength or for aesthetics. The single T-shaped doorway faces west. There is evidence of an earlier doorway facing the spring at the head of the canyon.  A kiva was excavated beside Square Tower. Unlike many tower-kiva associations elsewhere, Square Tower and its kiva were not connected by a tunnel. The large hackberry trees growing beside the tower tell of the seep that trickles under the alcove. It was the presence of this precious permanent water source that held the Square Tower settlement together. 

Hovenweep Castle

Hovenweep Castle looking southwest

The largest building in the group is Hovenweep Castle. The slots and doors of the Castle act as a solar calendar. The building is aligned so that light channels through those openings in predictable and distinct patterns at sunset on summer and winter solstice, as well as vernal and autumnal equinox.  A wooden beam in the castle was dated at 1277 CE, one of the oldest dates on any structure in the San Juan Region. 

Hovenweep Castle consists of two D-shaped towers perched on the rim of Little Ruin Canyon. The stone walls, two and three courses thick, show detailed masonry techniques. A residence was associated with the ‘castle,’ but the people who lived there were farmers, not kings and queens. 

During the same time period, at Hovenweep, in the arid sage, grass and canyon country of southeastern Utah, people of the Mesa Verde branch of the Ancestral Pueblo People also built pueblo complexes at the heads of shallow canyons fed by springs. Like the cliff dwellers, the Hovenweep groups built their room blocks and kivas mostly of shaped sandstone blocks. Unlike the cliff dwellers or the Chacoans, however, the Hovenweep people did not built Great Kivas. Rather, they built what are apparently ceremonial towers, some of the most strange and distinctive in the region. 

With no apparent thought of observational purposes, they constructed some of the towers on large boulders, others on canyon rims, still others on canyon floors. Some archeologists speculated that the towers ‘most probably had ceremonial significance in Ancestral Puebloan culture akin to totem poles for the Indians of the Northwest, obelisks for the Egyptians, or stone heads for the Olmecs and Easter Islanders.’ The towers of Hovenweep remain one of the enduring enigmas of the Pueblo Southwest.  

Checkdams 

A short distance beyond Hovenweep Castle, a line of rocks spans a small streambed. This is a checkdam, built by the original early inhabitants and partly reconstructed by archeologists in 1974. They believe the dam originally stood a foot or two higher. Hovenweep farmers built series of checkdams all over the mesa. Some dams may have slowed water in a flash flood, backed up rich pockets of soil, or enhanced the flow of springs below; others may have prevented washouts of crops planted in the canyon bottoms. 

It may have required one to two acres (0.4-0.8 ha) to grow enough food for one person for a year and allow for surplus. That meant a great deal of the mesa top land must have been devoted to agriculture. To assure a good harvest, Pueblo farmers had to hedge their bets, locating fields in favorable places, staggering planting times, and employing several water-collection methods. 

The following is from: A Towering enigma: An examination of late Pueblo II and Pueblo III towers in the northern San Juan Region by Alison Vanessa Bredthauer, 2010, University of Colorado, Anthropology 

Regardless of their function(s), what can be deducted from Bredthauer’s work is that only 10% of towers were located in canyon bottoms whilst 90% were on tops (mesa tops 20%, canyon rims 40%, canyon head 30%); 85% were circular, the other 15% rectangular; 75% had 180˚ to 360˚ views; about 60% were not attached to other structures, 27% were integrated with buildings and 13% were kiva-tower complexes; and finally, 90% were built near water sources. 

Their proposed functions:

• Astronomical observation points
• Boundary making
• Ceremonial purposes
• Defense, territory/resource monitoring
• Food processing
• Food storage
• Signaling/communication
• Social identity

Tall towers might have been more often associated with functions that required visibility including line-of-sight, communication, defensive lookouts or places of refuge. Short towers may have been more likely related to storage or food processing activities where heightened verticality is not an important element of function. 

The towers would have been easily noticed by traffic crossing and may have functioned as a locational and/or identification marker for travelers, guarding access to the water source. 

Given the scarcity of permanent water sources during the Pueblo III period and other tower-spring correlates, it is reasonable to suggest that towers served as a marker for the location of the spring and the identification and identity of its human guards.  They show evidence of food processing or domestic functions that may be interpreted as short-term occupation of the towers for people who guarded the water source. 

The location of these towers often blocked access to water sources, therefore monitoring or guarding access to the water. Some tower sites that may not be associated with permanent water sources seem to instead be within sight of cross-over trails. They seem to be related to ideas of visibility and maintained a restrictive relationship with permanent water sources, possible farmland, other sites or crossover trails. 

However, the predominance of towers at elevated locations on the landscape creating a heightened visibility, combined with their relationship with permanent water sources supports the assumption that these towers were meant to be visible markers that guarded access to natural resources such as water sources. 

Social Identity – All Mesa Verdeans built towers.  They were an integral part of their larger cultural world, giving them additional legitimacy.  It is interesting to note that tower structures did not transfer down to the Rio Grande when the northern San Juan Region was depopulated by 1300.  

In fact, many hallmarks of Ancestral Puebloan material culture such as mugs, kivas, and towers (all circular shapes) were left behind when they left the northern San Juan Region. It is thought that shedding their previous identity was an attempt to try and, sometimes unsuccessfully, blend in with their new neighbors to the south. If this is the case, then towers during the late Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods represented a visible marker of northern San Juan social identity.

Square Tower, slightly twisted
Of 54 towers found in the area, only this one is square.  Rare.
It contains small openings that could’ve possibly been used for shooting arrows.

Hovenweep House

Small, flat rocks were inserted as spalls, or chinks, in the mortar joints. 

You wouldn’t know by looking at it now but Hovenweep House was the center of one of the largest Pueblo villages in the Square Tower group. What still stands was built on solid sandstone bedrock. The rest has crumbled to the ground, but a closer look reveals its former size and pattern. As with other buildings in this area, the masons took great pains with their stonework. Some boulders were pecked on the surface, a technique also seen at nearby Mesa Verde. Small, flat rocks were inserted as spalls, or chinks, in the mortar joints. The walls may have been completely covered with thick layers of clay-based plaster. 

Always in need of more land to cultivate, the residents placed terraced gardens on the hillsides. These gardens would have been watered by runoff from the slickrock areas above. Sheltered from the wind, and with added warmth from the surrounding rock, terrace gardens may have yielded the earliest maturing crops.

Rimrock House 

Rimrock House’s masonry

Despite its name, Rimrock House may not have been a place where people lived, for it lacks any apparent room divisions. The structure is rectangular in shape and stands two stories high. Many small openings were placed in the walls, at unusual angles. Peepholes for seeing who might be coming for a visit? Observation ports for tracking the sun? Or maybe something as simple as ventilation? Their function remains unknown. 

Twin Towers 

Tower viewsheds were focused on the land best suited for dry farming. The location of towers would have captured the attention of anyone entering the area and the towers would have posed as sentinels, manned or unmanned, guarding important resources. In other words, towers would have served as markers of land tenure for the communities who constructed them.

Twin Towers, originally two stories tall
Enabling visual monitoring of valuable resources
Such as agricultural fields, water

Together, Twin Towers had 16 rooms. Their architecture is amazing; the two buildings rise from the native bedrock, their walls almost touching. One is oval, the other horseshoe shaped. Their builders skillfully laid up thick and thin sandstone blocks. Original wooden lintels are still in place in one tower. These towers are among the most carefully constructed buildings in the entire Southwest.

Twin Towers from other side of canyon

I think that Hovenweep is the most symbolic of places in the Southwest.  Hovenweep gives me a feeling similar to what I feel when I’m participating in ceremonies which require a tacit recognition of realities other than the blatantly visual.  During those times I know the nature and energy of the bear, of the rock, of the clouds, of the water.  I become aware of energies outside myself, outside the human context.  At Hovenweep, I slide into a place and begin to know the flowing, warm sandstone under my feet, the cool preciousness of the water, the void of the canyon, and the all-covering sky.  I want to be a part of the place. 

Rina Swentzell, Pueblo Indian Scholar, Santa Clara Pueblo

Twin Towers, Eroded Boulder House, Rimrock House, Tower Point (L to R)

Notice the type of sagebrush vegetation typical of the Great Sage Plain

Park logo bird – supposedly inspired from nearby petroglyph
which I wasn’t able to locate or view

I love to visit and immerse myself in outdoor ‘museums’ though I know time can be harsh on these amazing structures.  They have, however, lasted over 740 years, hoping for many more.  I would love to come back when the roads are more passable to see the rest of this incredible and thankfully far away (both in space and time) place. 

It certainly would be more interesting if we built more with the landscape rather than against it like these ancestral people did.  It is so much more fluid, beautiful, inspiring, and aesthetically pleasing.