Yucca National Monument Not, Colorado A Total Waste of Time
This would be hilarious if it weren’t the truth!!!
You can’t make this up!
What was President Woodrow Wilson thinking when he proclaimed this site as a National Monument on December 19, 1919? There is also a coin to commemorate it, and most of the ruin is on the face of it.
DO NOT PLAN YOUR TRIP OR VACATION Around Yucca National Monument/Park
Your Government Tax Dollar at WORK.
Yucca National Monument. What A Total Waste, and Waste of Time!!
Getting to this is also a joke, it is on a county road, then turns into private land with no trespassing signs posted in several locations. We first thought a old shack was it, but ventured on thinking we would hear gun shots at any time. Drove past a gate that had private land, no trespassing, with no place to turn around, we drove in and in the process saw a treated walkway with railing, and the Yucca National Monument sign hanging on a gate at the end of the walkway. Still fearing for our lives, we got out to investigate it, waiting on a crack of a gun going off. To our disbelief, there was a pile of rubbish on a cow patty laden path, and a brick wall at the end. Climbing to the top of the mound, we discovered that it we were standing on the entire ruins, with the width 1/3 the length of the entire site. To think that this pile of rubbish surrounded by private land is a National Monument is totally mind blowing! If it really has historical value, there is no signs or respect visible anywhere except cow droppings! Total Disrespect if it is to be respected!!
Yucca House National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yucca House National Monument is a United States National Monument located in Montezuma County, Colorado between the towns of Towaoc (headquarters of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe) and Cortez, Colorado. Yucca House is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site.
Geography
Yucca House National Monument is located in the Montezuma Valley at the foot of Sleeping Ute Mountain, called mountain with lots of yucca growing on it by the Ute people, and inspiration for the name of the national monument.
History
The site is one of many Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) village sites located in the Montezuma Valley occupied between AD 1100 and 1300 by 13,000 people.
Two unexcavated settlement areas covered in vegetation include:
• Western Complex was a large pueblo of up to 600 rooms, 100 kivas and a giant, perhaps community, kiva. A spring runs through the complex. A large building about 80 × 100 feet, Upper House, was made of adobe. The ruins are about 12 to 15 feet high, but may have been twice that height.
• Lower House is an L-shaped pueblo 200 feet by 180 inches with a plaza, 8 small rooms 7 × 2 feet and a large kiva
Nearby were the ancient pueblo village of Mud Springs at the head of McElmo Canyon[4] and Navajo Springs, was the original site of the Ute Mountain Indian Agency south of Sleeping Ute Mountain in the early 1900s.
Like other nearby Ancient Pueblo peoples, the Yucca House pueblo dwellers abandoned their homes, but because a major excavation has not been completed it is not known when, or if there is a relationship between these people and those of nearby pueblo settlements.
Archaeological study and excavation
The following archaeological studies were conducted:[2][7]
• William Henry Holmes visited in 1875 and in 1878 produced a report for the United States Geological Survey. Holmes erroneously named the land Aztec Springs believing that ruins were the home of a band of Aztecs. He created the initial map of the ruins.
Holmes reports: These ruins form the most imposing pile of masonry yet found in Colorado. The whole group covers an area of about 480,00 square feet, and has an average depth of from 3 to 4 feet. [...] The stone used is chiefly of the fossiliferous limestone that outcrops along the base of the Mesa Verde a mile or so away.
• In 1918 J. Walter Fewkes studied and remapped the ruins
• An excavation was completed by the Museum of Natural History in New York in the late 1910s led by Earl Morris and, in the 5th year of excavation led by Dr. Clark Wissler. Wissler found that the interior walls of the remarkable shrine room were painted white with a red border and the floor covered with expertly cut slabs of stone, similar to one of the rooms at the Mesa Verde National Park. A sacred 2½ foot serpent was carved into wood at the ceiling.
• In two separate projects in 1964, Al Lancaster studied the area and stabilized the masonry wall of Lower House in 1964 and Al Schroeder found that some of Upper House was constructed of adobe, quite rare for sites built in the 13th century
• Studies were conducted in the late 1990s following the donation of additional acreage which expanded the number of sites. The study included analysis of pottery on the new site and remapping the site with modern technology.
Native Homes And Their Dance, Cortez Co 2011
The drive down from Mesa Verde can be scary because it is steep and alot of twists and turns.
But it was so beautiful that we kept having to stop and take pictures on the way.
When we got back into Cortez we found out about a pow wow to learn about their culture and dances.
The women's dance has very little movement, where the men's dance is all over the place.
Some of their music was rather calming.
For more information on Mesa Verde visitmesaverde.com
About Cortez Cultrure cortezcultrualcenter.com
The Native Dancers - Business contacts only - rroach_2@yahoo.com
Permission to record and publish the performance was given by the performers, Norman and Romona Roach.
Music by Rickvanman