Defiance House, three miles up the middle fork of Forgotten Canyon, is one of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Defiance House was discovered by archeologists in 1959. Surveying the area for Lake Powell, University of Utah archeologists followed a dangerous hand-and-toehold trail up the sandstone cliff and were delighted to find an Ancestral Puebloan site where "most of the roofs were still in place, and... two perfect red bowls still had scraps of food in them." They named the site "Defiance House" for the large pictograph panel painted in white pigment on the wall, which appears to show three defiant figures with shields.

Defiance House was occupied from about 1250 to 1285 AD. The site is protected from the elements in the winter and is shady and cool in the summer because it was built in a natural alcove. The conditions that made it an attractive place for its inhabitants to build are also what has kept it so well-preserved until it was found by archeologists.