Chaco, NM 10/3

We took a ranger lead tour (actually Kelly was a volunteer, the seasonal ranger had already left the area.) through this ruin. She was wonderful. One could tell right away that she loved this place. As you go through the pictures, know that the tops of the ruins have been stabilized by Indians that are hired by the park system. Kelly, emphasized how talented the Indians are for the stabilization effort.

She talked a great deal about the early excavations. Hundreds of thousands of relics were taken from this area in the 1920's. They can be seen in New York and at the Smithsonian. The museum at the visitor's center has very little in this respect.

The park system knows of ruins in the area that will not be excavated; as excavation practices continue to improve, they want to save ruins for the future.

They say that Pueblo Bonito had 600 rooms. When it was built, there was no wood in the general area. It has been proven that they brought tree trunks from far away as 60 miles and that they were carried. Geologist have proven that they were not rolled. Folks, we're talking about serious tree trunks. The wood still exists in the pueblo, scientist took cores and dated them. They sampled over 2000 logs. They also have determined that over 200k trees were brought into the pueblo.

There is a theory that they created teams of 8 to carry the logs. Each team would go 20 miles and pass the log off to the next team; then go back for another log. The communication and support system had to have been tremendous. It had to have been quite a sophisticated society.

The plug that you see in this picture is where the core was taken for dating the wood.

This is a 'T' shaped doorway, it is believed that there was trading with Mexico, as this is a door shpe used by Mexicans.