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Yucca House National Monument is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan
surface site. Yucca House is located in Southwest Colorado between the towns
of Towaoc and Cortez. Currently, there are no facilities or fees at Yucca
House.
Once home to some of the ancestors of today's Pueblo people, Yucca House
has been known for centuries by the Utes and Navajos who live in the region.
Rich oral traditions tie the native people to the land. The first written
documentation of Yucca House was by Professor William H. Holmes in 1877
as part of a United States Geological Survey Report. Holmes was humbled
and awed as he described a prolific spring surrounded on three sides by
the most immense dwelling located to that date. He sketched and drew a general
floorplan based upon fallen walls and the piles of stone. Pioneers and ranchers
believed that these homes were built by the Aztec people of Mexico. Understandably
at that time, Holmes named the building and the spring "Aztec Springs."
Sleeping Ute Mountain forms a breathtaking backdrop for Yucca House.
The Ute people call the peak "wíisi-vu káa-vi" in their native
tongue meaning "Mountain full of yucca." Similarily the Tewa
Pueblo name for Sleeping Ute is Papin (pa, yucca; pin, mountain). After
the establishment of Aztec National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico, this
site was renamed "Yucca House."
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