Hovenweep National Monument takes its name from a Paiute and Ute word meaning “deserted valley,” a name given to this extraordinary place by pioneer photographer William H. Jackson after his visit in 1874. The vast and lonely expanse now surrounding these solitary canyons contrasts with a time when they were home to hundreds of men, women, and children. Established as a National Monument in 1923, Hovenweep preserves what archeologists consider the finest examples of ancestral Puebloan masonry found anywhere, including multi-story towers standing alone along canyon rims and ingeniously engineered structures perched on massive boulders and ledges within the canyons.