Ground broken for $1 million Hovenweep center

Ground broken for $1 million Hovenweep center

Nov. 9, 2000

By Jim Mimiaga
Journal Staff Writer

OFFICIALS DIG into the site of the new Hovenweep National Monument visitors center on Tuesday. Ffrom left, they are Dennis Shaw, a general contractor with the EPC Corp. of Arizona; Brad Wallis, executive director of the Canyonlands National Historic Association; Palma Wilson, Hovenweep superintendent; Brad Shafer, a representative for Utah Sen. Bob Bennett; Jerry Banta, superintendent of Canyonlands National Park; Ty Lewis, chairman of the San Juan County, Utah, commission; and Phil Brueck, deputy superintendent at Canyonlands.

By next summer a $1 million visitors center at Hovenweep National Monument will direct tourists to nearby Anasazi structures and cliff dwellings dating back 2,000 years.

And its new, naturally concealed location will be distanced from the monument’s main attractions in order to improve the experience of visitors trying to imagine what life was like two millennia ago.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the center took place Tuesday afternoon at the headquarters of the monument on the Utah-Colorado border.

Officials say taking a trip into the past will be much easier without a flag-waving visitors center and rows of gleaming vehicles marring the view just a few yards away.

"The idea is to pull it back from the canyon rim and consolidate the new visitors center with already-existing structures farther away so that there is not that visual intrusion from the trail," said Hovenweep Superintendent Palma Wilson.

The new site is nestled in a natural depression off the road leading towards the campgrounds and ranger housing, about 200 yards back from the current visitors center.

To enhance the natural qualities of the ancient canyon community known for its mysterious monolithic stone-dwellings, the old building will be removed, and the area reclaimed with native plants. Overhead powerlines will be buried.

"That gate will be closed and locked so that everybody comes through the new visitors center once it is built," Wilson said.

Regional Indian leaders from the Navajo, Zuni and Hopi tribes with ancestral connections to the Anasazi were consulted for input on the new center’s location, design and exhibit content, she said.

THE OLD HEADQUARTERS at Hovenweep National Monument offers only a small space and a single restroom. The new $1 million center, scheduled to be completed by next summer, will be a 3,600-square-foot building with exhibits, a terrace, exhibits, and more restrooms. The center will be designed to blend into its surroundings at the site on the Utah-Colorado border.

Trail access to the canyon will also be re-located to start from the new center. And a "barrier-free" wheelchair-accessible trail will be installed leading towards an overlook of cliff dwellings from the canyon rim.

Born from funds allocated in legislation sponsored by Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, the stuccoed, earth-colored facility will cost $600,000 and encompass 3,600 square feet.

A $200,000 interpretive center inside the building will explain the Hovenweep site and direct visitors to nearby attractions related to cultural history, such as Mesa Verde and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

Remaining funds will be used for trail construction, new signs, parking, landscaping and other historic exhibits. The National Park Service is also contributing $400,000 for a septic leach field that will serve the new visitors center.

"Construction is going ahead, and dirt should start moving by next week," Wilson said. "A lot depends on the weather."