House Rock, Arizona


House Rock is an ghost town near the northwest end of the House Rock Valley in northern Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The community was named after the House Rock Valley, which was named by the John Wesley Powell Expedition in 1871.

Description

The mostly abandoned locale is just east of the Kaibab National Forest and the mouth of House Rock Canyon at the southwest corner of, but just outside of, the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Little remains of the community, other than a few houses and a small cemetery, but the site is an important road junction for access to the nearby national monument, being the southern terminus of House Rock Road. Since the monument is surrounded on the north, east, and south sides by the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, the only possible road access is from the west. House Rock Road runs along the western edge of the monument, north from House Rock, through the length of the Coyote Valley, to end at US‑89 at the southern end of Five Mile Valley in Kane County, Utah.

History

Not much information is available regarding specific history of House Rock, but it did begin appear on maps produced by the United States Geological Survey as early as 1936. With the construction of US 89 in the early 20th century, it would likely have been a somewhat significant location, since the nearest communities along US 89 were Jacob Lake and Cliff Dwellers Lodge --that later community of which is sometimes confused with House Rock.

In popular culture

One of the houses in House Rock was featured in the February 2014 edition of Arizona Highways.