After discovering Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House, Richard Wetherill
and Charles Mason returned to their camp. The next morning they started
off to visit Spruce Tree House, which only Richard had seen the day
before. As they rode across the snow covered mesa they misjudged their
direction and bore too far to the south. Coming to the rim of a deep
canyon they found, not Spruce Tree House, but another large cliff
dwelling.
Although not as large as the two they had found the day before it was
still much larger than any they had seen previously. The outstanding
feature of the ruin was a tall square tower, a four-story structure that
rose against the cliff. Because of it they later named the ruin Square
Tower House.
The two men now began to realize the importance of their discoveries.
During the past few years they had seen many small ruins along the
Mancos Canyon to the south. Now they had pushed up the canyons to the
north and in the space of two days had found not only the ruin Acowitz
had called the “greatest cliff dwelling,” but two more large ruins. As
they sat on their horses above Square Tower House they could see that
off to the north and west were many more canyons. Surely more of the
mysterious structures awaited discovery.