Chaco Culture National History Park

On Friday, we went to Chaco Culture National History Park. It was about 60 miles from Farmington, New Mexico - thirteen of which was on a dirt road. The ruins were like nothing I have ever seen. They were used by the Hopi and other Indian groups between 850 and 1150 AD. The great houses were built for ceremonial purposes. There were numerous kivas (Hopi for ceremonial chamber) throughout the complex. Kivas are round, below ground structures with a bench around the edges. In the middle are floor vaults which are used for a variety of purposes. They can be filled with sand and used as a foot drum where natives would dance and have the sounds carried through the ground. Sometimes they were used to store seed. In each kiva was a fire pit and deflector. There were four seating pits to hold braces for the roof. While we saw no roofs, drawings showed them to be crosshatched with smaller timber.

The buildings themselves were free standing structures, composed of numerous rooms, some multi-story. One complex of rooms could be three acres. The walls were formed with a sandstone and mortar combination looking much like stone or brick walls. They termed the construction “core and veneer” as the center of the two foot thick walls was filled with rubble. Along the backside of the buildings were round holes about nine inches in diameter at regular spacings. They held logs that extended over the rooms as roofs and out the backside as support for balconies. The site was discovered around 1849 and the balconies were in place until early 1900’s when they were scavenged for fire wood.

The wood for construction was transported from forests up to 60 miles away. Wood was cut, trimmed, peeled, and left to dry out for a year so transportation was easier. The ends were cut flush and sanded with a stone tool. They figure 26,000 trees were transported into the area for building purposes. They can use scientific methods to date the trees, telling when they were cut and, in some cases, where it came from.

Dirt had been moved to build up the plaza to twelve feet above ground level, either for prominence or to control damage from flooding.

At Chetro Ketl, there is evidence of Mexican influence in the architecture – as there is a colonnade (virtually nonexistent in the Puebloan Southwest). (See the picture below.) It is characteristic of the Toltec culture from 700 to 1000 AD in Chihuahua Mexico. Trade existed between Paguime and Chaco at that time – so possibly architectural ideas were exchanged as well.

Evidence of irrigation ditches is found. Most of the rainfall occurs in the summer, so it seems the Chacoan used the ditches to transport the water to storage ponds and fields. The canyon is at the base of mesas. There is evidence of ladders and handholds in the rock where the Chacoan climbed to the top of the mesa where they could follow roads to a variety of locations all around the four corners region.

The petroglyphs were also interesting. They are created in several ways. Incised designs are carved with a sharp instrument. Some are pecked using hammerstones and a striker (for precision). Some of the areas had been first smoothed using an abrasive stone. They also used paints to create their images. They ground up minerals such as calcium carbonate (white), hematite and ochre (red), and charcoal (black) and mixed them with a binder such a plant or animal oils, eggs, blood, or urine to adhere paint to the surface. I kept wondering if Dad had ever seen these ruins. He would have loved them!

Many of the ruins have not even been excavated. They are filled with sand and look like small mounds.

If you haven’t seen the ruins, it is definitely worth the trip.