Monthly Archives: July 2016

102-Cortez, CO

Hovenweep – ancient puebloan structures right on edge of a canyon

There are so many ancient puebloan sites in the southwest Colorado area and we could only visit a few of them. One of the most interesting is Hovenweep which is actually just across the border in Utah. We visited some structures built right along the edges of a canyon which would seem a very strange place to want to live when there is so much flat land around the canyon. One theory of why they built right on the edges of the canyon is to preserve the flat land for farming.

Another unusual feature of many of the structures along the canyon is that they are small but built very tall, resembling towers. Some are round and some are square.

Here are some pictures:

102-Cortez, CO

Canyons of the Ancients

Also in the southwest part of Colorado is a national park called “Canyons of the Ancients”. It’s a large and spread out park containing several areas where ancient Puebloans built structures and lived. Much of the area is only accessible by 4-wheel drive, but we visited one spot called Lowry Pueblo where there is a great house with over 100 rooms and it’s estimated that several hundred people lived there at one time. Like most of the other ancient puebloan sites, it was occupied in the 1100-1200s and was abandoned in the late 1200s. It was previously thought that the abandonment of all the ancient puebloan sites in such a short timeframe had extra-terrestrial roots (ET came and took them) or that there were wars among the native tribes, it is now thought that they simply felt it was time to move along to a new area. There could have been a drought and the resources may have been used up. Modern natives who can trace their ancestry, through oral history, to these sites feel that’s what happened – they decided to move along. Modern natives still visit many of these sites to speak to their ancestors and hold ceremonies.

At Lowry Pueblo some of the walls were reconstructed and some were dug out partially. The interior section of the great house where all the rooms are connected and at least 2 stories high, is protected by a modern roof against further wind and rain erosion. The pueblo is built on a small hill with great 360 degree views!

Here are some pictures we took:

101-Pagosa Springs, CO

Chimney Rock – natural rock formation plus ancient Puebloan site

While in southwest Colorado we wanted to visit Chimney Rock, which is a very interesting natural rock formation. What made it even more interesting is that the ancient puebloans built structures near the rock formations, high on the top of the very steep mountain.

There are actually 2 rocks, chimney rock and companion rock. The ancient puebloans built a great house and kiva, like so many other of their structures, with the north wall aligning along the sunrise at summer solstice. Here at Chimney Rock there’s an added feature that if you look along the northern wall at summer solstice the sun rises not only along the northern wall, but also between the two rock formations. It is thought that this is why they built in such an unlikely place with no water and such a steep climb up to the structures. There are other places where ancient puebloans built structures in what would seem difficult spots but apparently had significance to them. There are smaller structures about halfway up the mountain and it’s thought that most of the people in this area lived there, with the great house and kiva at the summit reserved for the upper class – those who knew how to read the sun, moon and stars and direct the timing of various activities such as planting, hunts, etc.

Here are some pictures we took: