The area southwest of the Rocky Mountains has been home to humans since prehistoric times but current belief suggest that large numbers first appeared in the Four Corners area around 1200 B.C. Initially settling around water sources in the arid environment and primarily hunters and gatherers, later they spread out across the plains and canyons, becoming farmers and building permanent dwellings. Known as either the “Anasazi” or the “Ancestral Puebloans”, a sophisticated culture flourished until around 1300 A.D. until mysteriously the area was abandoned. Today there are over 10,000 archeological sites in the Four Corners area, only a few of which have been excavated and are open to visitors. In the absence of any written record, archeologists have tried to draw conclusions about the Ancestral Puebloans but the fact remains that the cause of their exodus from the area is still unknown. In 1775 the Escalante-Dominguez expedition left Santa Fe and explored northwest in an effort to try and find a route to the Spanish missions in California. They reached the Delores River in August of that year, having found a number of ruins in their path. Believing that the natives and ruins were an extension of the Aztec empire of Mexico, they gave related names to geological features along the way. This misconception lasted well into modern times and thus many sites, towns, government entities, etc., in the area bear Aztec-related names. The modern town of Cortez, now county seat of Montezuma County, was founded in 1886 to house the men who were working on the construction of a large irrigation effort that diverted the waters of the Delores River into the Montezuma Valley. This is ranching and farmer country and Cortez is the commercial center of southwest Colorado. While tourism is important, most visitors pause for a short time and then head 40 miles east to the trendy tourist town of Durango. Using Cortez as my home base, we will venture out to a number of ancient sites.
About 12 miles north of Cortez the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument Visitor Center is my first stop. The visitor center rests at the base of a small hill southwest of the Delores River on the edge of the southwestern plain. Designed as a modern “pueblo”, the visitor center sits just beyond the ruins of a small Ancestral Puebloan building.
A short climb to the top of the hill reveals expansive views in all directions. To the southwest Sleeping Ute Mountains rises above the Montezuma Valley.
Below to the east is the Delores River and the land stretching towards the San Juan Mountains.
The top of the hill is crowned by the remains of a pueblo, clearly built on this site because of the defensible location.
The overall plan of the site is a central kiva (circular room used for important ceremonies) surrounded by a block of rooms. This pueblo was built around 1120 AD.
The actual visitor center was closed (only open on weekends out of season and I’m here during the week) but I have a map of the local area and so go wandering off! The Canyons of the Ancients National Monument sprawls across nearly 170,000 acres of high desert west of Cortez. The Puebloans flourished in the area for hundreds of years in a variety of distinct sites include single family dwellings, small family clusters, and a number of larger communities. Puebloans clustered around the small canyons that interrupt the plains because they either had small creeks or, more likely, a spring available for water. Sand Canyon Pueblo is an example of a pueblo built in a U-shape sheltering a small spring at the head of a canyon.
Sand Canyon
The rough gravel road to the canyon passes through farmland until a thin line of green indicates the trees that grow along the canyon rim.
Sand Canyon Pueblo was surrounded on three sides by a small wall which served as a dam to guide the seasonal rains and snowmelt into the canyon to “recharge” the spring. The pueblo was large, containing 420 rooms, 100 kivas and 14 towers. The site has not been restored at all but archeologists have been able to map out the floor plan of the pueblo as well as hypothesize the way that it may have appeared above the end of the canyon.
Again, the site has not been excavated and reconstructed so one walks through the original remnants of the pueblo. This is a remote site at the end of a rough road so there aren’t many visitors. Chirping birds and haunting winds fill the air around the remnants of a civilization that was flourishing at the same time as ancient Rome. Hints of what once are interrupted by forest and brush. Here a partial wall in front of me, there the outline of a room…
At one point I could stand at the edge of the canyon looking south. The view is deceiving in that the dense forest only covers the floor and walls of San Canyon, out of sight are the rolling plains.
Walking back along the rim of the canyon I pass by the eastern side of the pueblo.
About 20 miles north across the plains is Lowry Pueblo, a smaller pueblo than Sand Canyon perched above a different canyon.
Lowry Pueblo
Lowry Pueblo is named after George Lowry, a homesteader in the area in the late 1800’s. The pueblo, built around 1060 AD, is an example of a medium sized pueblo and housed around 100 people. First excavated in 1930 the site was partially reconstructed and covered by the Bureau of Land Management to stabilize the ruins. Another rough gravel road leads to a line of trees that line the rim of a hidden canyon.
The pueblo lies atop a small hill at the rim of the canyon which falls behind. The roof that was constructed to help protect the ruins is the first thing that comes into view above the brush, then one sees the rest of the ruins stretching out to the north.
Between 500 AD and 1300 AD the plain that stretches across southwest Colorado and southeast Utah was the most densely populated region in the Ancestral Puebloan world, as evidenced by this site just 20 miles northwest of Sand Canyon. The main building has nearly 30 rooms and three small kivas while across a small plaza to the east is a large kiva, once a ceremonial center for the region (not shown on this diagram.) The BLM cover is over the bottom third of the pueblo at the end marked “You are here.”
The exterior walls of the pueblo were solid on the first floor, for defensive purposes there was only one entrance to the interior. This is the only entrance to the interior of the pueblo.
The pueblo actually rose three stories into the sky as this reconstruction demonstrates.
The row of holes evident in interior walls were actually slots for log beams to fit in so that support could be provided for the upper floors.
Down a gentle slope that would have been the pueblo plaza is the site of the Great Kiva, designed for community and area ceremonies at nearly 50 feet in diameter. The Great Kiva is one of the earliest structures at Lowry Pueblo and was remodeled many times during its use.
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As with the rest of the Ancestral Puebloan settlements in the area Lowry Pueblo was abandoned around 1300 AD, reason unknown. Our next destination is east of Cortez so it’s back to the rough road…
The Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the plains in roughly two stages. The first stage, around 1200 AD, saw the Puebloans leave the plains and move into the canyons south of Cortez, probably for defensive purposes. The second stage, about 100 years later around 1300 AD, saw the complete abandonment of the area and migration to the south and east where the Ancestral Puebloans assimilated with existing tribes living in the pueblos along the Rio Grande River Valley and central New Mexico. During that hundred year transition period large, magnificent pueblos were built in the canyons south of Cortez, now preserved in Mesa Verde National Park.
Mesa Verde
Traveling from Cortez one follows along the base of a row of cliffs on the south to the national park entrance station eleven miles to the east.
Once through the entrance station the road climbs up onto the mesa above via a series of switch backs and then follows along the rim heading west for about 10 miles.
Occasional glimpses of the Montezuma Valley and Cortez happen to the north.
To the south the plateau stretches to distant mountains in New Mexico, interrupted by deep canyons carved by the eroding rain and snow.
The national park focuses on two side-by-side mesa “fingers’ that reach out south, separated by deep canyons on both sides. Wetherill Mesa, the west mesa, is only open in the summer and even then only to smaller vehicles. The Lunch Box doesn’t fit the requirements so we have to pass it by. Chapin Mesa is the main focus of the park and the canyons that surround it are home to the multiple ruins. Our first stop is Spruce Tree Terrace, a visitor center and site of one of the pueblos that can be accessed on foot (for those who choose to walk down the canyon and then, more importantly, trek back up! Not for this old man…) Standing at a viewpoint above I see those hardy enough to be walking down to get a closer look.
Fortunately for me, the zoom on my camera works just fine and I get a good look from a crowded viewpoint terrace.
A couple of miles down the road a loop circles around the end of the mesa. A viewpoint gives a look across Navajo Canyon to Wetherill Mesa on the far side.
Next up is Square Tower House, first viewed by local rancher Richard Wetherill in 1888. Preservation of the ruins began in 1919 and periodic maintenance has taken place since then in an effort to preserve them from the impact of the extreme weather in this part of the country.
While the large pueblos that dot the canyons that border the mesa were all built during the first migration around 1100 AD, they were not the first presence of the Ancestral Puebloans in the area. Smaller communities lived among the mesas dating from 700 AD, often living in pit houses dug into the ground. A small pit house village hugs the edge of the mesa. The remnants are protected undercover as they are extremely susceptible to the impact of erosion.
There are two of these covered sites, the larger protects newer construction. Around 900 AD the transition from living in pit houses to an above ground pueblo began as natives learned more advanced building techniques from the Chaco Canyon people to the south.
The small holes in the walls were probably for ventilation purposes.
After the Puebloans moved into the canyons they built a large D-shaped building atop the mesa around 1250 AD, now called the Sun Temple. Perched on the point of the mesa surrounded by the cliff pueblo villages, the purpose of this structure really isn’t known. An overhead view of a reconstruction of the ruins shows the D-shape as well as that the only entrance is on the straight south wall.
Stepping into the entrance, the view left and right is of a series of rooms in both directions.
The view from the door looking south is of the confluence of the two side canyons.
Just east of the Sun Temple the view opens up across the side canyon that houses the main concentration of ruins.
A closer look reveals that the east branch of the canyon is lined with spectacular structures tucked into the various caves, arches and alcoves of the far canyon wall.
The road to that side of the canyon was closed due to construction so this is as close as I could get. Turning around and heading north back out of the park I am again surrounded by deceptive views south across the mesas hiding the canyons below while to the northeast across the Montezuma Valley, the La Plata Mountains frame the blue sky.
Our pursuit of the Ancestral Puebloans now takes us into northwestern New Mexico.
Next up: The Land of Enchantment
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