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Spruce Tree House

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1200–1300
  • Spruce Tree House (Mesa Verde National Park)

Immediately below the National Park Service complex is the most accessible Mesa Verde cliff dwelling. A self-guided tour leads to eight kivas and over 100 rooms built into this natural cave, which is 216 feet long and 89 feet deep at its widest. Little stabilization was needed here, and the ruin is about 90 percent original. One three-story masonry wall has a colored plaster geometric design. Also open to visitors is a reconstructed, covered kiva, with its characteristic six pilasters and banquettes on the round periphery and its central sipapu, firepit, and deflector.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Superintendent's Residence
Park Headquarters
Post Office
Spruce Tree Point Museum
Spruce Tree Terrace Restaurant (Eileen Nusbaum Hospital)

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Spruce Tree House", [, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-MT25.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 602-602.

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