Yucca House

Visitor Guide

National Park Service

Department of the Interior

Yucca House National Monument

AS YOU ENTER YUCCA HOUSE...

...you see two areas with large mounds of rubble covered with

 vegetation. Toward the base of Ute Mountain is the “West 

Complex,” a large pueblo with an estimated 600 rooms, over 100 

kivas, and a great kiva (that perhaps served the entire community). 

A productive spring flows through the middle of the complex. 

“Upper House,” the highest portion of the West Complex, rises 15 

to 20 feet above the nearby architecture, dominating the surrounding landscape. It must have been an impressive building. To your 

east is the “Lower House” with some of the only visible standing 

masonry at the site. The “Lower House” is an L-shaped pueblo with 

at least eight first-story rooms. A low wall encloses the plaza with a 

great kiva at its center. Yucca House, one of the largest archeological sites in southwest Colorado, acted as an important community 

center for the Ancestral Puebloan people from A.D. 1150-1300.

Stabilized wall at Yucca House, Mesa Verde in background.

YUCCA HOUSE or AZTEC SPRINGS?

Yucca House was first written about by Professor William H. Holmes in 1878 

in a United States Geological Survey Report. Impressed by the most immense 

dwelling found on the survey, Holmes described a prolific spring surrounded 

by rubble on three sides. He drew the first map of the site, sketching the fallen 

walls and piles of stone. At the time of his visit, archeologists believed these 

ancient sites were built by the Aztec people of Mexico. Holmes named the site 

“Aztec Springs.”

Although archeologists have only known about the site for the last century and 

a half, the Utes and Navajos living in the region and the Pueblo people further 

south have known about this site for centuries. Furthermore, rich oral traditions 

tie the Pueblo people to this land. The modern Puebloans are the descendants 

of the people who built Yucca House. The site was renamed for its location at 

the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain to clarify that it was not built by the Aztecs 

and to avoid confusion with nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument. 

Sleeping Ute Mountain is known to the Utes and other tribes as the “mountain 

with lots of yucca growing on it.” Thus, “Aztec Springs” became “Yucca House.” 

Interestingly, there is no yucca growing in the monument today.

Cattails define marshy locations watered by 

springs.

YUCCA HOUSE AS A HOME

Like any other group of people in the Southwest, the Ancestral Puebloans built their villages around springs. The water 

was used for drinking, making mud mortar, and irrigating crops. These springs also provide an important resource for 

the wildlife living in the area today. Rattlesnakes, bobcats, mule deer, and songbirds all live in and around Yucca House 

National Monument. The monument preserves and protects the local vegetation. The Desert Shrub environment within 

the monument boundaries includes sagebrush, four-winged saltbush, cacti, 

and a number of grasses. The monument also protects one of the largest claret 

cup cactus in the area. Please help us protect both the natural and cultural 

resources.

As you walk around, take a moment to think about what it may have been like 

to live in Yucca House. In A.D. 1200 it was a vibrant pueblo, full of people 

and surrounded by farmland. Imagine the sun’s rays reflected on the carefully 

planted clumps of corn, beans, and squash. Families tended their fields and 

weeded with pointed digging sticks, hoping for summer rain showers. Smoke 

of Utah juniper filled the air and mixed with the smell of roasting turkey as the 

sun went down in the evening. Elders shared stories of “when the world was 

soft, beginning” in the circular, subterranean rooms called kivas. Ancestral Puebloans harvesting yucca 

plants and preparing fields for planting. 
RECENT RESEARCH

Since Holmes mapped this site in 1878 and Jessie Walter Fewkes studied and re-mapped the pueblo in 1918, there have 

been two recent periods of archaeological research at Yucca House. In 1964, Al Lancaster and his crew exposed and stabilized the northwest corner of the Lower House - the masonry wall that you see as you enter the site. That same year, after 

some limited testing, Al Schroeder discovered that some of the walls north of “Upper House” were constructed of adobe, 

unusual for sites dating to the 1200s in this region.

In the late 1990s, Hallie Ismay, who owned the land surrounding the monument from 1921 to 2002, donated 24 acres to 

provide an alternative route to Yucca House National Monument and protect several nearby sites. This donation also

provided an important opportunity for new, non-invasive archeological research to take place at Yucca House in 2000. This 

fieldwork, directed by Donna Glowacki, was a joint research project by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and Mesa 

Verde National Park. Since the only available maps of the site were done more than 100 years ago, the primary goal of the 

project was to thoroughly map all of the visible architecture at the site using modern techniques. They also analyzed the 

pottery lying on the surface to better understand site chronology and surveyed the newly donated land, documenting three 

new sites. We now have a much better sense of 

the spatial relationship of the site’s architectural 

features, and we know that much of the visible 

architecture dates to the Pueblo III period (A.D. 

1150-1300). Although this work added greatly 

to our understanding of the site, much can still 

be learned by limited testing at Yucca House. 

For example, when was the peak occupation; 

what was the social relationship between the 

“Lower House” and the “West Complex;” what 

was Yucca House’s role as an important center 

within the region; and when did people leave? 

Perhaps the answers to some of these questions 

can be found in the future as our techniques for 

learning about the past improve.

William Holmes’ map of 

Yucca House when it was 

first documented in 1878.

D. Glowacki, W. Dale, and 

S. Tradlener’s 2001 map of 

Yucca House.

FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

At the request of noted archeologist Jesse Fewkes, Henry Van Kleeck, who was a Denver pioneer and the original landowner, deeded 9.6 acres of land, including most of Yucca House, to the federal government on July 2, 1919. He hoped it 

would be excavated in the near future. Due to its significance as an excellent example of a valley pueblo, Woodrow Wilson 

made Yucca House a National Monument by Presidential Proclamation on December 19, 1919. Yucca House National 

Monument, one of our earliest examples of public/private stewardship of our cultural resources, remained well protected 

with the assistance of Hallie Ismay until her death in 2002. In fact, Hallie was honored by the U.S. Department of the 

Interior for 62 years of service as the unofficial custodian of Yucca House National Monument. 

Today, Yucca House is surrounded by productive agricultural lands and has beautiful views across the Montezuma Valley. 

Although many archeological sites in the region have disappeared through urban development or have been irreparably 

damaged by vandalism, Yucca House National Monument will remain protected well into the future. The long-term 

preservation of Yucca House ensures that archeologists will be able to continue studying Ancestral Puebloan society and 

what caused them to migrate from this region in the late 1200s.

Directions: From the entrance of Mesa Verde, take Hwy. 160 West through 

Cortez, to Hwy. 491 South. Continue driving south approximately 8 miles from the 

intersection of Hwy. 160 and Hwy. 491 and take a right on MC County Road B, which 

is a dirt road one mile south of MC Road C. Drive 0.8 miles, crossing a paved road 

and take the next dirt road on the right -before the farmhouse on the left. Follow this 

road north and west for 1.4 miles, head towards the white ranch house with the red 

roof on the west horizon. Please be courteous toward the private landowners and 

close all gates behind you as you enter to prevent livestock from escaping. Once at 

the ranch house, Yucca House National Monument is on the left side of the driveway. 

Facilities: There are no visitor facilities or services available, such as gasoline, food, water, or 

bathrooms. The closest gasoline and lodging are in Cortez, CO. Pets and camping are not allowed 

in Yucca House National Monument. Motor vehicles are allowed only on roadways, at pullouts, 

or in parking areas. Please pack out what you take in.

Regulations: The Federal Antiquities Act of 1906 and the Archeological Resources Protection 

Act of 1979 prohibit the removal of any object of antiquity or the destruction of any architectural 

site on federal land. Report any damaging behavior immediately to a Park Ranger at Mesa Verde. 

Be respectful of the wildlife and plants in the monument. 

For Information: Mail -Superintendent, Mesa Verde National Park, Yucca House National 

Monument, PO Box 8, Mesa Verde NP, CO 81330. Phone: (970)529-4465. Internet address: 

www.nps.gov/yuho/.

Current 

entrance

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