"On the Mormon Road (a trail from the Mormon settlements in Utah to the Hopi Country) travelers found shelter where two large rocks had fallen together. In 1870-1880 Jacob Hamblin and his party used this trail about once a year and on one trip some unknown person used charcoal to inscribe on the top of the rocks the words 'Rock House Hotel.' Other travelers soon inverted the name to its present form. They also applied the name to a nearby spring." [Will C. Barnes Arizona Place Names, Revised and enlarged by Byrd H. Granger. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, c. 1960, 1985]
It also became a stop on the Honeymoon Trail from Lee's Ferry to the temple in St. George, Utah. The structures used the large rocks of the area as the base for the buildings. Walls were added to the rocks and roofs constructed. Today the site is a a pull-over on Highway 89 A about 8 1/2 miles west of Marble Gorge. Often Native American artisans set up shop inside the largest room. Walls, particularly the inside walls have suffered from the usual graffiti.
