To reach the Square Tower Canyon (pls. 11-17) one returns to the
reservoir on the Bluff Road and continues east about 3 miles farther,
where a signboard on the left hand indicates the turn off to Square
Tower Canyon. Following the new direction about southeast the great
buildings are visible a mile away. An automobile can go to the very
head of this canyon and a camp can be made within a few feet of
Hovenweep House. If the visitor approaches Square Tower Canyon from the
McElmo, he passes through Wickyup Canyon, where there are two towers on
the summits of elevated buttes, not far from the junction of the canyon
and the Yellow Jacket.
The castles and towers in Square Tower Canyon have been known for many
years and have been repeatedly photographed.[46]
[46] Among the older photographs seen by the author are those of W.
H. Jackson, prints of which are on exhibition in the State Historical
Museum at Denver, Colo.
Several descriptions of these ruins have been printed, but no
satisfactory studies of their structure have been published. They
are recognized as prehistoric and are generally thought to have been
inhabited contemporaneously with the cliff-dwellers of the Mesa Verde,
being built in the same style of architecture.