Stabilization Records: Stabilization Record 1

(Folder 68) Report on Stabilization of Ruins at Hovenweep National Monument 1947-1948 by
Archeologist Aid James Allen Lancaster; Holly Tower Stabilization

The canyon head villages of Hovenweep contain some of the most visually striking, well preserved, and accessible examples of 13th Century pueblo architecture and community development within the northern San Juan River Basin. The six units of Hovenweep are at the center of the highest density of known archeological sites in the United States. Multi-story masonry towers and "castles," with stone walls two and three courses thick, perched atop uneven boulders and cliff ledges testify to the ingenuity and skill of the ancestral Puebloan people who engineered and built this exemplary architecture.

These photographs document the 1941 stabilization work conducted by Charlie R. Steen, seen in the temporary wooden brucing, and the 1947-48 James Lancaster long-term stabilizing masonry work on Holly Tower at Hovenweep National Monument. The museum item demonstrates the importance of not only the mission of the National Park Service to protect and preserve natural and cultural resources, but also the importance of the documentation and preservation of such activities held in the Hovenweep museum and archives. Such collections are still accessed today to help make decisions on the continuing preservation of our most treasured cultural resources.