Chaco Canyon

Ted. When Judy and I visited New Mexico four years ago we visited several pre-Columbian sites. Everywhere we went, folks told us that, to understand the historic roots of the Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo people, we MUST visit Chaco Canyon, a vast collection of ancient buildings in the northwest corner of the state. 

Chaco Canyon, wherein lies Chaco Culture National Historical Park, is remote, bone dry and desolate. For the last 20 miles of a 3-1/2 hour drive from Santa Fe one must suffer a dirt road that is in poor condition. 

The flooding that the area was experiencing when we arrived in New Mexico meant that the dirt road had become impassable. Judy and I waited a week until a park ranger assured us that the road was mostly dried out and folks were finally getting in. The drive was rough but boy - was it worth the effort!

There were still some muddy stretches

Over 1,000 years ago, a people, now called the Chacoans, erected 15 major complexes of buildings in the place we know as Chaco Canyon. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park contains the largest collection of pre-Columbian buildings in the US. 

Archaeologists have made amazing discoveries there. Millions of stones and thousands of timbers were used in the building construction. No big trees grow in the area so the timbers were carried by hand from mountains up to 60 miles away. 

The tremendous amount of labor required for construction on this magnitude means that Chaco must have been the most important spiritual and trading center in the region. Large kivas (spiritual gathering rooms) are everywhere. Some structures served as astronomical tools to predict solstices and equinoxes. Artifacts uncovered include chocolate and copper bells from southern Mexico, Pacific coast shells and scarlet macaw remains from Central America.

Since the Chacoans did not develop a written language, many mysteries remain. The area has never had much water and there are no signs that food was grown locally. There are hundreds of rooms and dozens of kivas in the buildings but the evidence indicates that more than a few dozen people ever lived there! It seems possible that is was only used as a gathering site on specific occasions.  

Walking around the largest complex, Pueblo Bonito, we were stunned by the scale of construction. This one building contains over 650 rooms and 36 kivas and in places is four stories high. It’s nearly as big as the Colosseum in Rome! 

This model shows an overhead view of Pueblo Bonito

Crumbled walls

Interior walls

A sandstone cliff is directly behind the pueblo

There were many petroglyphs on the cliff wall

For those who are interested in learning more, there are lots of great photographs and fascination videos on the internet. I especially recommend two films from PBS; The Mystery of Chaco Canyon and Written on the Landscape: Mysteries Beyond Chaco Canyon. And oh - if you ever figure out why it was built, please let us know!