Square Tower House is situated in an eastern spur of Navajo Canyon nearly
opposite a great bluff called Echo Cliff. An ancient approach to the ruin
was from the canyon rim. It was used by the natives, but is almost
impassable for white visitors. Foot holes for ascent and descent had been
cut by the Indians in the cliff at a point south of the ruin which
enabled them to reach the level on which the ruin is situated. Along the
top of the talus there runs to the ruins a pathway which splits into an
upper and a lower branch. The former, hugging the cliff, passes through
the “Eye of the Needle”; the latter is lower down on the cliff.
The Square Tower House cave is shallow, its rear perpendicular, with roof
slightly overhanging. At the extreme eastern end of the ruin the vertical
face of the cliff suddenly turns at right angles, forming an angle in
which, high above the main ruin, there still remain walls of rooms. To
these rooms, which are tucked away just under the canyon rim, with only
their front walls visible, the name “Crow’s Nest” is given. One end of a
log, extending from a wall of one of these rooms, rests in a hole cut in
the side of the cliff, a well-known method of cliff-house construction.
Some rooms in Square Tower House were devoted to secular, others to
ceremonial purposes. The former have angular corners; the latter are
circular. The rectangular rooms were constructed above ground; the
circular were subterranean. These rooms do not differ radically from
those of Spruce Tree House and other cliff dwellings. They have similar
windows, door openings, and supports of balconies. There is little
difference in the size of the stones used in the masonry at different
heights. The absence of a cave recess in the rear of the building is
significant, as it allowed the cliff to be used as the back wall of the
rooms.
Square Tower House measures about 138 feet from its eastern to its
western end. There are no streets or passageways as at Spruce Tree House
and Cliff Palace, and no open spaces except on the kiva roofs. The rooms
are continuous and compactly constructed. Excepting the spaces above the
kivas, the walls are united from one end of the cave to the other. The
foundations of the secular rooms are constructed on two levels, an upper
and a lower. These rooms occupy the intervals between the kivas, never in
front of them.