Hovenweep National Monument straddles the Colorado-Utah border west of Cortez, Colorado. President Warren G. Harding proclaimed Hovenweep a unit of the National Park System 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 on the mostly unpaved road between Pleasant View, Colorado and Hatch Trading Post, Utah. Cortez is a city located in Montezuma County, Colorado. ... Order: 29th President Vice President: Calvin Coolidge Term of office: March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923 Preceded by: Woodrow Wilson Succeeded by: Calvin Coolidge Date of birth: November 2, 1865 Place of birth: Near Blooming Grove, Ohio Date of death: August 2, 1923 Place of death: San Francisco, California First... This article is about national parks. ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... There are also three Colorado Rivers: two in the United States and one in Argentina. ... State nickname: Beehive State Other U.S. States Capital Salt Lake City Largest city Salt Lake City Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. ...

In 1854, an expedition of colonists from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints first saw 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 1917-18, ethnologist J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institute included descriptions of the ruins in published archaeological survey reports, and recommended the structures be protected. Little comprehensive archaeological excavation was done on sites until the 1970's. The temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in Salt Lake City, Utah is the largest attraction in the citys Temple Square. ... Ute may refer to: The Ute, a tribe of Native Americans of the Uto-Aztecan language family. ... The term Navajo (occasionally spelled Navaho) or Diné refers to the Navajo Nation and its people, and to the Navajo language. ... Ethnologyis a genre of cultural anthropology and| anthropological study, involving the systematic comparison of the beliefs and practices of different societies. ... The Smithsonian castle, as seen through the garden gate. ...

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 Anasazi or Ancient Pueblo Peoples. Mesa Verde National Park is a United States National Park, located in southwest Colorado. ... Ancient Pueblo People, or Ancestral Puebloans is the preferred term for the group of peoples often known as Anasazi who are the ancestors of the modern 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 corn, beans and squash were grown in terraced fields, and vital water was diverted to edible wild plants such as beeweed, ground cherry, sedges, milkweed, cattail and wolf berry. 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. A plate of sweetcorn Corn is a term that applies to any staple food grain—that is, a fruit of a plant in the Grass Family (oaceae). ... This article is on the plant. ... Look up Squash in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Squash may refer to: Squash, the fruit of vines of the genus Cucurbita. ...

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. 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 lintals. A kiva is a room used by both ancient and modern Puebloans. ... A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the season and so are synchronized to the declination of the sun. ... The summer solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the Sun in relation to the celestial equator. ... In astronomy, the winter solstice is the moment when the earth is in a point of its orbit at which the northern or southern hemisphere is most inclined away from the sun. ... In astronomy, an equinox is defined as the moment when the sun reaches one of two intersections between the ecliptic and the celestial equator. ...

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. Four Corners may refer to one of the following: Four Corners, a region of the United States the Four Corners Monument at that location Four Corners, a point in Canada Four Corners, an Australian news program Four Corners, a movie by James Benning four corners offense, a style of basketball... The Little Colorado River is shown highlighted on a map of the United States The Little Colorado River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately 315 mi (507 km) long, in the U.S. state of Arizona. ... This article is about the river that empties into the Gulf of Mexico. ...

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. Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... The term Navajo (occasionally spelled Navaho) or Diné refers to the Navajo Nation and its people, and to the Navajo language. ... The San Juan River may refer to: The San Juan River in Cuba. ...

Reference

• 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.

• Winter, Joseph C. "Hovenweep 1974." Archaeological Report No. 1, Anthropology Department, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, 1975.

External link

U.S. National Park Service: Hovenweep National Monument [1] (http://www.nps.gov/hove/)