Visit to Montezuma Canyon with the Desert Drifter

In August of 2024, several members of The Archaeological Conservancy’s home office joined Andrew Cross (Desert Drifter) at a Conservancy preserve in southeast Utah. We were accompanied by longtime and well-known archaeologist Winston Hurst who spent the day with us, teaching us about life in Montezuma Canyon over a thousand years ago and helping us understand what cultural significance our piece of the canyon holds. This adventure took us all over the preserve and helped us deeply connect with the Conservancy’s mission- to preserve the past…for the future.

The preserve we visited is quite large. Dimples on the landscape indicate the remains of pit house structures whose roofs are now collapsed and pits are filled with dirt and debris. Two multistory Ancestral Puebloan great houses show themselves as brush-covered hills until you are right up on them where you discover stacked stone that once stood as walls. Pottery fragments and lithic debris are scattered throughout, each tiny piece a window into times gone past.

As we explored the remains of the great houses, we were in awe of the people who lived and thrived in the canyon for more than 600 years.  And we talked at length about how to best stabilize and preserve what is left of this village. There is still a great amount to learn here.

We are honored to partner with Andrew Cross to shed light on what is needed to preserve the cultural heritage of this site and many others. We hope you enjoy the site visit video shared by Desert Drifter on YouTube.

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