Native Peoples
This area was repeatedly occupied and abandoned in prehistory, first being used during the Archaic period 2700 to 2500 years ago. Around 700 BC, Puebloans moved onto the mesa tops and began dry farming, but the area was later abandoned until about 1110 AD, when immigrants moved here from across the San Juan River and built single-family houses throughout the best watered areas. In the 1200s, farmers from Mesa Verde migrated here, but by 11300, all the ancestral Puebloans migrated south.
The Horsecollar Ruin site is a major attraction at Natural Bridges, and it is among the largest and best preserved ancestral Puebloan structures in the Monument.The name "Horsecollar" comes from the shape of the doorways to several structures here. Abandoned more than 700 years ago, its remarkable state of preservation -- for example, an undisturbed kiva with an original roof and interior design -- is due to the isolation of Natural Bridges and the relatively few visitors who make the journey down these canyons.
Exploration & Settlement
The Horsecollar Ruins were discovered by non-Indians in the late 1880s and were a source of interest for many visitors to the area. In 1907, they were first recorded by an expedition which later recommended the establishment of Natural Bridges National Monument, designated the following year. Sometime thereafter, they seem to have been forgotten until they were rediscovered by Zeke Johnson, the first curator of the Monument, in 1936.
Park History
In 1883, prospector Cass Hite wandered up White Canyon from his base camp on the Colorado River. Instead of gold he discovered three magnificent natural bridges water had sculpted from stone. National Geographic magazine later publicized the area. In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt designated the area a national monument
Natural History
Plants & Animals
Wildlife abounds in the monument, but Bobcats, Coyotes, Bears, Mule Deer and Mountain Lions remain to themselves while evading humans. Birds, rabbits and lizards are commonly seen.
Pinyon and juniper dominate the mesa top near the visitor center. Grasses and shrubs grow in lower areas, and where water is common, perennial cottonwoods and willows grow. Numerous species of wildflowers, common to this region of the high Great Basin Desert, grow in abundance April through June.
Geology
Natural Bridges are formed where deeply entrenched streams undercut and break through fins of rock that separate their meander loops. Once the stream has broken through creating the natural bridge, it then takes the more direct route. Arches, on the other hand, are formed by frost and seeping water erosion.
At Natural Bridges National Monument, entrenched meanders of White and Armstrong creeks cut deeply into the Cedar Mesa sandstone, a pale, cross-bedded, windblown sandstone of Permian age. The three natural bridges in the Monument illustrate three stages of bridge development.
