Agate House: A Pueblo of Petrified Wood

Agate House stands as a testament to the ingenuity of the Ancestral Puebloans who inhabited the Petrified Forest area centuries ago. Constructed between 1050 and 1300 AD, the eight-room pueblo is made almost entirely of petrified wood, a readily available resource in this area. The agatized wood was laid in a clay mortar, showcasing an innovative use of materials in place of the more common sandstone.Archaeologists suggest that Agate House was likely a year-round residence for a single family, given its size and the effort required to build and maintain it. Others propose it may have served as a meeting place or for ceremonial purposes. The scarcity of artifacts found at the site suggests that its occupation was relatively brief.The ruins were reconstructed in 1933-34 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under the direction of C.B. Cosgrove Jr. of the New Mexico Laboratory of Anthropology. During the reconstruction, Room 7 was fully reconstructed with a new roof, while Room 2's walls were rebuilt to a height of five feet, and the remaining walls were rebuilt to a height of two or three feet. While the reconstruction utilized original materials, it is not a completely accurate replication of the original structure, but it allows visitors to envision the daily lives of its inhabitants.The Agate House Trail is a 2-mile round trip hike from the Rainbow Forest Museum parking lot. The trail provides water and sun protection recommendations due to the exposed nature of the hike.