National and State Register
Puzzle House Archaeological District
Montezuma County
The Puzzle House Archaeological District contains four major habitation sites, three pre-Columbian road segments, and numerous other sites, features and artifacts representing a residential community associated with adjacent Lowry Pueblo, a great house complex that shows evidence of influence or alliance with the large Chacoan centers to the south.
The sites are significant as they represent Basketmaker III through early Pueblo III (A.D. 650-1250) exploration, settlement, and community planning and development associated with a major habitation site with public architecture located with the central Mesa Verde region. The District meets the registration requirement for the Habitation Sites and Temporary Habitation Sites property types specified in the Multiple Property Listing titled Great Pueblo Period of the McElmo Drainage Unit, A.D. 1075-1300. Both property types have excellent potential of yielding important information to our understanding of Southwestern prehistory.