Horseshoe House - Hovenweep National Monument
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94RedRover
N 37° 24.548 W 109° 01.658
12S E 674558 N 4142085
Hovenweep National Monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The "Monument" is actually a collection of ancestral ruin sites scattered in the southeast Utah and southwest Colorado region.
Waymark Code: WM5V35
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 02/14/2009
Views: 6
"...Hackberry and Keeley canyons, over the Colorado line a short hike eastward from Ruin Canyon, contain additional dwellings and towers, the most important of which are HACKBERRY CASTLE and HORSESHOE HOUSE."
--- Utah: A Guide to the State, 1941
"THE HACKBERRY CANYON GROUP, 5 m, is distinguished by the HORSESHOE HOUSE, a ruin formed by two concentric walls, a curved outer all on the north, about four feet from a curved inner wall and connected with it by partitions. The compartments between these partitions are well preserved."
--- Colorado A Guide to the Highest State, 1941
Both the Hackberry and Horseshoe Group Ruins are across the state line from the Hovenweep Visitor Center in Colorado, in the Canyons of the Ancients, an area spanning outhwest Colorado and southeast Utah contains a high density of ancestral Puebloan ruins. Scattered throughout this 23 square mile area, are thousands of ruins. The Hovenweep National Monument tends four groups of ruins throughout the Canyons of the Ancients. They are the Square Tower Group, Horseshoe and Hackberry Groups, Holly Group and Cutthroat Castle Group.
Due to their close proximity, these two groups of ruins share access trails. There is a one-mile (round trip) walking trail to Hackberry Canyon that takes you past structures in both the Horshoe and Hackberry Groups.
You will come across Horseshoe Tower which sits on a point marking the start of the Horseshoe Site. The Tower overlooks Horseshoe Canyon. Though the tower is at a defensivelly startegic location, there is evidence of the tower being walled off from the mesa top...contradictary to defense.
Continue on Canyon Rim Trail to Horseshoe House. Named so for the four structures arranged in a horseshoe shape. The stone-masonry that forms the outside wall is precisely cut. The intricately pieced togetehr wall is held together with mortar made from clay, sand, and ash, mixed with water from seeps in the canyon below. Amazingly, this mortar still stands. It is not known if specialized masons were brought into this site for the construction, or if this was truly the work of Horshoe Group's inhabitants.
see also... Utah: A Guide to the State, page 498