The great house was rediscovered in 1823 by the Mexican governor of New Mexico, José Antonio Vizcarra, and in 1849 Lieutenant James Simpson of the United States Army Corps of Engineers documented the major ruins in Chaco Canyon.

Chetro Ketl's purpose is widely debated but many archeologists believe the building was a place of large-scale ceremony that held an important position within the larger Chacoan system.

Archeologist Stephen H. Lekson believes Chetro Ketl was a palace inhabited by Chacoan royalty, and the scale of its construction was motivated by what architects call "massing": building imposing structures with the intent to impress onlookers.

[2] Cynthia Irwin-Williams proposed that the first human presence in Chaco Canyon dates to a hunter-gatherer society that she named the Oshara tradition, which developed within the local Archaic (c. 6,000 to 800) Picosa population.

At least two groups of transitional Basketmaker II people inhabited the San Juan Basin during this period, as increased rainfall allowed for sustained agriculture and permanent settlements by 1 CE, when the water table rose and intermittent streams became more reliable.

Population increases during the 6th century led to the settlement of the area's lowlands, including Chaco Canyon, as the Basketmaker II people changed from a primarily hunter-gatherer society to one based on farming.

[17] Fagan notes, "Within a few centuries, as rainfall became more irregular and life less predictable, the Chacoans embarked on a cultural trajectory that melded ancient traditions with new ideas that were to crystalize into a brilliant and short-lived Southwestern society.

[23] Anna Sofaer proposed that many of the great houses in Chaco Canyon were constructed to emphasize astronomical alignments; during the minor lunar standstill, the full moon rises along Chetro Ketl's back wall.

Water was also collected from small reservoirs in the slick rock and deep wells in the bed of Chaco Wash.[40] Only the most highly skilled Chacoans shaped and set stone; others carried supplies and mixed mortar.

[51] Lekson shortened Hawley's second period to 1030–75, and subdivided it into at least eight different construction events, including the successive additions of upper stories along the main room block, running the length of the building.

[55] Chetro Ketl's Kiva G complex was constructed using McElmo-type masonry, and ceramic evidence uncovered from refuse found in the great house indicates a significant McElmo presence.

[69] When cartographer Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco drew a map in 1774 of Spanish land holdings in the region, he labeled Chaco Canyon with the word Chaca, but it is unlikely he ever visited the area.

[73] A group led by the governor of Jemez Pueblo, Francisco Hosta, explored the canyon; its members included Simpson and the brothers Richard and Edward Kern, who were respectively an artist and a cartographer.

[74] Simpson was impressed by Chetro Ketl's masonry, which he described as "a combination of science and art which can only be referred to a higher stage of civilization and refinement than is discoverable in the works of Mexicans or Pueblos of the present day.

Wetherill was well known for his discovery of some of the largest Ancestral Puebloan dwellings in Mesa Verde, and after an invitation from amateur archeologist Sidney Palmer to survey Chaco Canyon, organized a one-month expedition to the region.

[87] Hewett suspended his research during Judd's 1924–27 excavation of Pueblo Bonito, financed by the National Geographic Society, but returned to Chetro Ketl in 1929 with graduate students from his newly founded Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.

[104] Lekson notes that after "spectacular amounts of material" were recovered at Pueblo Bonito, "expectations for Chetro Ketl were undoubtedly high", and although Hewett and his students were ultimately disappointed, he describes the wooden artifacts as "an extraordinary collection".

[101] Several minerals used for paint pigments were excavated from Chetro Ketl, including charcoal, shale, malachite, iron oxides, hematite, limonite, gypsum, and azurite.

[106] The relative lack of exotic material uncovered at Chetro Ketl, such as shells, copper bells, and macaw feathers, may indicate its lesser importance compared to Pueblo Bonito, where those items have been found in abundance.

[107][i] In 1937, W. W. Postlethwaite, who had for three seasons directed Hewett's excavation of Chetro Ketl's great kiva, oversaw the final work at the site conducted by the University of New Mexico and the School of American Research.

He ascribes the "almost total disappearance" of the Chetro Ketl artifacts, which were viewed as unimpressive in comparison to those found at Pueblo Bonito, as a consequence of Hewett's flippant treatment of the collection.

[101] The Museum of New Mexico holds several items excavated from Chetro Ketl, including pieces of turquoise, a black-on-white pottery canteen, and a fourteen-foot-long stone and shell necklace.

[139] Lekson, Windes, and Fournier believe the architectural parallels between the colonnade at Chetro Ketl and structures in Mexico "are probably attributable to the adoption of Mesoamerican symbols appropriated by the flow of ideas carried by merchants".

[142] Chetro Ketl's position in downtown Chaco and its proximity to South Gap further aided agricultural efforts near the great house, as summer storms tended to linger in the opening, funneling moisture to the area.

[143] There is no obvious visual evidence of the linear features usually associated with farm fields in the land surrounding Chetro Ketl, but in 1929 aerial black-and-white images by Charles Lindbergh revealed what appeared to be a rectangular plot.

[159] Because so many of these rooms are featureless interior spaces that lie below several stories, the scale of their construction may have been motivated by what architects call "massing"; building structures with the primary intention of impressing onlookers.

[176] Neutron activation analysis linked an artifact from Chetro Ketl to the Cerrillos Turquoise Mines, located 20 miles (32 km) south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

[177] Analysis of chipped stone from Chetro Ketl's trash mound indicates that more than fifty percent of the chert found there was imported from Washington Pass in the Chuska Mountains, 47 miles (76 km) away.

He views the structures near South Gap "as a larger settlement of significant complexity" that "when coupled with Chaco's regional centrality and relatively high population density" should be considered "nearly urban".

[116] Treasure hunting, livestock grazing, and early National Park Service stabilization efforts also contributed to the degradation of the structure, as have deep excavations that left Chaco Wash prone to flooding.