CHACO CULTURE -- CHACO CANYON, NEW MEXICO

When I was teaching on the Navajo Rez I loved visiting the ruined places. They were all over. We would find these when we were hiking and exploring around. It is really amazing to come upon a place where people lived so long ago.

This place is about 75 miles from my home. It's on the Navajo Rez. It is designated as a national historic site. It certainly is but isn't treated very much like one.

These are ruins of an ancient people. We call the place Chaco but nobody knows what these people called themselves. They were here over 2000 years ago and as you can see they built some amazing things. Some archeologists think Chaco may have been a big meeting place maybe for trading and visiting. Maybe like General Conference. lol. There are a zillion rooms but no halls. The rooms just go from one to another, all connected.

You get to take these close up pictures because access is open. You can walk around anywhere in the ruin.

The round structures are kivas. They were covered when they were in use. There are benches, drainage, and circulation ducts in the bottom. The kivas were used for ceremonial stuff, maybe like elder's quorum. Who knows?

The building was 3 stories high. Some of the other structures are thought to have been as much as 5 stories high.

The original inhabitants are what many people call the Anasazi. They deserted the place about 2000 years ago. No one is really sure why the people left. Maybe weather. Maybe enemies.

Straight south from Chaco is Sky City, New Mexico, also called the Acoma Pueblo. It is almost the same age as the Chaco ruin but it has continued to be occupied for the past 2000 years. The city is up on a mesa on the south side of the interstate highway. You can see the Pueblo sitting on the mesa there in the middle of the picture. The people living here are not very welcoming.

The Acoma Tribe has a casino and a huge truck stop right across the interstate from the pueblo.This is between Gallup and Albuquerque on I-40.