Hovenweep - Hovenweep House along the Little Ruin Canyon Trail

Hovenweep House along the Little Ruin Canyon Trail. Most of the ruins at Hovenweep National Monument have a square, rectangular, or D-shaped design. Although many original walls are now piles of rubble, some of the remaining structures were so well built that they rise as much as 20 feet above the ground even though the exterior mortar has mostly eroded away. Hovenweep is a Paiute/Ute word that means deserted valley. The name of Hovenweep was applied to the area by a pioneer photographer, William H. Jackson, in 1874 only a few years after the ruins were found and reported by a Mormon expedition. The ruins were surveyed by J. W. Fewkes of the Smithsonian in 1917 and 1918. Fewkes is perhaps best known for his investigations at Mesa Verde National Park. With his recommendation, President Warren G. Harding proclaimed the site under the protection of the Nation Park Service under the name of Hovenweep National Monument in 1923 (Fewkes, 1923; NPS, 2006).