Near Pleasant View in Montezuma County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
The Best Rooms in Town
Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark
| | Canyons of the Ancients National Monument | |
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 17, 2025
1. The Best Rooms in Town Marker
Inside, the round walls leaned up to a roof that was often smaller than the floor area. The effect is essentially a dark, warm dome with a beam of light shining in through the smoke hole and roof entrance.
Stephen H. Lekson, 1988, Kiva 53 (3):225
In the AD 1100s, Lowry Pueblo's eight, mostly underground, round rooms provided indoor cooking space, warmth, and a cozy atmosphere for gatherings. Some of these energy-efficient rooms are still visible; others are covered by the modern surface; and no two are alike. Archaeologists call these round rooms pithouses, pit structures, or, borrowing a Hopi word, kivas.
In the 1930s, when Lowry Pueblo was excavated, archaeologists believed that around AD 750 families moved out of pithouses and began using rooms on the surface as their main living space. The pithouse was thought to then change into a kiva used mostly by men for religious ceremonies. Now many archaeologists recognize that round rooms continued to be the family center for both daily household and ceremonial activities until after about AD 1300.
All those round rooms at Mesa Verde and Chaco were not the first kivas. They were instead the last pithouses. After about AD 1300, the pithouse no longer served as the center of the household, reflecting dramatically new social and
this page online
Stephen H. Lekson, archaeologist
Erected by United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Anthropology & Archaeology • Architecture • Indigenous Peoples and Communities.
Location. 37° 35.074′ N, 108° 55.201′ W. Marker is near Pleasant View, Colorado, in Montezuma County. It can be reached from County Road 7.25 0.3 miles south of County Road CC. The marker is located on the Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark interpretive trail. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Pleasant View CO 81331, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the American Mountain West, in Colorado Plateau, and at the Four Corners. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once Mexicos Alta California.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Painted Kivas (here, next to this marker); Construction, Expansion & Remodeling (here, next to this marker); What Did it Look Like? (a few steps from this marker); Life Outside (within shouting distance of this marker); Footprints (within shouting distance of this marker); The Great Kiva (within shouting distance of this marker); Lowry Ruin (within shouting distance of this marker); Common Ground (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Pleasant View.
Related markers. Click here for
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 17, 2025
2. Lowry Pueblo Southeast Entrance
This very short doorway into an interior kiva is just a few meters from the historical marker.
Also see . . . Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark (www.cyark.org).
Excerpt: The Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark is a Puebloan Great House that contains thirty-seven rooms, eight kivas, and one Great Kiva. Archaeologists have dated the construction and occupation of the site to 100 years in the 11th Century though there is evidence that people continued to use the site into the mid-1200s. Lowry Pueblo was first recorded in 1918 by the Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American ethnology and was first excavated by Paul S. Martin from the Chicago based Field Museum in 1930, 1931, 1933 and 1934.(Submitted on December 29, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 17, 2025
3. The Best Rooms in Town Marker
The marker is located at the southeast corner of the main pueblo ruins. Today the historic structures are protected by a contemporary free-standing steel canopy. The nearby interior doorway is in the background behind the marker.
Credits. This page was last revised on December 30, 2025. It was originally submitted on December 26, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 45 times since then and 24 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on December 29, 2025, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
