Cliff Dwellers Stone House near Marble Canyon, Arizona, is kinda spooky

Driving west from Marble Canyon on Highway 89A, you can not miss the "Cliff Dwellers Stone House" by the roadside. Yes, it is kind of strangely named, because no one was really living in the cliffs, but in the stone houses by the road. At least thats how the story goes.

We were driving west from Marble Canyon to nowhere in particular. The sun was about to set, and we had to go back to Page, Arizona, where we were staying. Just a bit of wanderlust made us drive further to see whats ahead, and we found the Cliff Dwellers Stone House. Serendipity at its best.

From the road, the area looked interesting. There were a few large rocks precariously balanced on earth mounds. It looked like worth a look. So we stopped. In the fading sunlight, the place looked a bit spooky, what with scull-shaped rocks strewn all around.

We found a house, the so-called "Cliff Dwellers Stone House" built under such a rock. There was no one there. We looked around at the scull-shaped rocks, went into the Stone House. Clearly it was inhabited some time in the past. The sun was setting in the meantime, and the distant hills by the Colorado river were the color of gold. This definitely was a place with a view.

The strangeness of the place got us interested in finding out more about it. It appears that the Cliff Dwellers Stone House has a unique story. During the Great Depression, Blanche and her husband Bill were moving to the Southwest. While driving through Marble Canyon in 1927, their car broke down near these big rocks. After they failed to fix the car, they camped there overnight. That was not the end.  Drawn by the beauty of the land, and perhaps by the fact that the car was beyond repair, they decided to stay and built their home here. Eventually, they built a successful trading post business, with a restaurant and a gas station. 

Later on, Art and Evelyn Greene bought the business in 1943, but moved away after a few years, since they were not sure if the precariously balanced rocks will hold. The place had been lying vacant since then. It makes for an interesting stop by the wayside.