Eagle County‘s first Trophy Home dates back 6,000 years! Built buy nomadic Native Americans, the historical, well preserved Yarmony Pit House was in use through the 1800’s. Native American’s nestled at this site during the long Colorado winters, using this habitation for hunting grounds for thousands of years! They gathered here prior to the Anasazi Indians creating Colorado’s Mesa Verde and well before the Great Pyramids of Egypt or Stonehenge were erected!
First unearthed in 1987 near State Bridge, the Yarmony Pit House is one of Colorado‘s oldest archaeological sites. Discovered accidentally during a routine road improvement project, Yarmony Pit House soon changed the previously held perception as to how far north Native Americans wintered.
Over 4,000 unscathed artifacts were unearthed during the excavation headed by Michael D. Metcalf. To preserve the Yaromony site, archaeologist’s have back-filled the area with sand. This not only preserves the integrity of the pit houses, but will also allow future archaeologist’s to re-explore this area without further contamination or erosion to the site. Metcalf would like to expand the survey to include more of Colorado’s River valleys with the intent of discovering more Native American Pit Houses, which will in turn fill in some of the gaps in our Colorful Colorado history!
