A 1936 historic easement provides public access and parking to the monument off County Road 20.5 within the private Box Bar Ranch.<\/p>\n
In 2014, rancher Larry Pickens asked Montezuma County commissioners to abandon Road 20.5. He said tourist traffic and parking interfered with his farm and ranch operation.<\/p>\n
But the request was denied because monument managers pointed out they hold a 1936 permanent public road easement through the rancher\u2019s land, and it can\u2019t be abandoned unless another access point was created.<\/p>\n
The monument expansion from the donated land would allow the monument entrance and parking lot to be relocated to another point on Road 20.5 away from the private ranch. The new entrance would have room for parking and might include a restroom, formalized trail and interpretive signs.<\/p>\n
Yucca House is relatively unknown. Although it is open to the public for no fee, no signs direct tourists to the monument, and most visitors find out about it only while visiting Mesa Verde, which offers tours of the 800-year-old pueblo. The monument\u2019s website states visitors \u201cmay need to pass through livestock gates and close them behind you,\u201d and that \u2018no trespassing\u2019 signs do not apply to the county road.<\/p>\n
The unexcavated pueblo village has the ruins of 600 rooms, 100 kivas, several towers, multiple plazas, unexplained structures and one great kiva.<\/p>\n
Yucca House was established in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson after an initial land donation by Henry Van Kleeck. It was expanded to 33 acres in 1996<\/p>\n