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- Title: Square Tower House
- Description: Square Tower House was used as a resting and storage site very early in the human history of the Mesa Verde area. At 26 feet tall, the Square Tower is the tallest structure in Mesa Verde. It contains one of the latest construction projects at Mesa Verde, the Crow’s Nest, which was built high in a crevice in the cliff face. Square Tower House was occupied between 1205-1281. About 60 of the original 80 rooms are still standing. After Square Tower House's discovery in 1888, it suffered from the same looting that was experienced at other sites in Mesa Verde. This era of rampant looting was ended officially in 1906 with the Federal Antiquities Act, and that same year with the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park. In 1919, Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution began to systematically excavate and stabilize many of Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings. He worked at the Park over the span of a decade and excavated and stabilized 15 sites that were then opened for public visitation, including Square Tower House. In December, 2006 a large boulder detached from the alcove face in Square Tower House and damaged a two story structure and a kiva. This natural process is ongoing and helped to form the alcoves over thousands of years. The mission of the National Park Service is to protect these structures, not rebuild them. Thus, these structures will be stabilized to prevent further collapse, but the walls will not be rebuilt to their previous state.
- Views: 1323
- Added: Dec 3, 2017
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5/5 (4 votes)
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