Holly Group Ruins - Hovenweep National Monument, Colorado
Posted by: 
94RedRover
N 37° 23.466 W 109° 02.523
12S E 673323 N 4140058
Hovenweep National Monument is a collection of ancestral Puebloan people, situated in the Canyons of the Ancients. The Holly Group's prominent features, Tilted Tower and Boulder House were inhabited between 1200 AD and 1300 AD.
Waymark Code: WM5A9K
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 12/06/2008
Views: 11
The Canyon of the Ancients is an area of southwestern Colorado and southeast Utah, which includes a high concentration of ancestral Puebloan ruins. This area had a high population density, and "villages" such as this group date from around 400 AD through 1300 AD, when the area quickly and mysteriously was abandoned on a grand scale.
The Holly Group, named for Jim Holly, an area rancher when the group was found in the 1800s, was built at the head of Keeley Canyon near a natural seep (spring water source). The Boulder House is situated on a sandstone boulder, adjacent to the precious water source.
The architecture of the Boulder House and Tilted Tower are similar. Each are multi-stroy towers that seemed to have been built without scaffolding. Construction of the floors worked from the inside upwards, one floor at a time. The top of the Tilted Tower toppled into the canyon during a shift in the sandstone some time after the area was abandoned around 1300 AD.
To access this group of ruins, high clearance four wheel drive is required. This site is not easy to find on a map...from 491 outside of Cortez, take County Road BB and travel 6 miles to County Road 10. Take the four wheel drive trail marked with the bird to the ruins.
Trailhead: N 37° 24.030 W 109° 02.261
Type: Ruins
How did you find this "Ancient Evidence": Deliberately Searching
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