OUT THERE: Spend some quiet time with the ancients
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 07:00
- Written by R. Scott Rappold
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD, THE GAZETTE
CANYONS OF THE ANCIENTS NATIONAL MONUMENT• The desert breeze, hot and grainy, does little to cool the triple-digit temperatures of a July afternoon in the high desert of southwestern Colorado.
Rattlesnakes, scorpions and cacti await to punish a misstep. There is not a drop of water to be found. What does grow here — twisted piñon pine, piercing yucca — looks hardy enough to survive on the surface of the moon.
But the harsh environment hides one of Colorado’s great historical wonders, thousands of homes and buildings used by the Anasazi people for centuries. Most are now rock piles or remains of foundations, but some have survived the eight centuries of abandonment to tell the story of a civilization that existed long before this place was called Colorado.
This area has the highest density of known archaeological sites in the nation. And it’s disappearing, one stolen pot and stone tool at a time.
This is endangered Colorado.
10,000 years of human habitation
Unlike its popular neighbor Mesa Verde National Park, it’s difficult to get an immediate sense of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.
Like Mesa Verde, the area has been used by humans for 10,000 years. A people called the basketmakers settled here in 1500 B.C., and by A.D. 750, farmers called ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi, were building permanent settlements. They ranged in scope from humble, one-family stone enclaves built around caves to dramatic cliff palaces.
Mesa Verde has one road into the park, traffic jams, summer crowds and park ranger tours. Visitors can hike a short distance to still-standing stone cities built into the sides of cliffs.
The national monument sprawls over 166,000 acres, most of that untracked backcountry, and the desert has reclaimed most of the Anasazi civilization’s glory. What remains to see requires lengthy drives and, where only building foundations remain, a little imagination.
But visit the national monument and you can find yourself alone with the ancients.
That’s part of the problem.
Looting, vandalism
More than five times a year, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management discover that someone has illegally dug up an ancient artifact. They can fetch a hefty price on the black market, despite federal laws against looting. Ten times a year, some sort of vandalism occurs.
“It’s a loss, because when people dig in these sites, they’re basically destroying part or all of a non-renewable resource. This is public land and these resources belong to the American people,” said BLM archaeologist Linda Farnsworth.
With numerous roads offering access to the rugged canyons of the monument, and an estimated 40,000 archeological sites — three-fourths of them undocumented — the area has long been the target of artifact thieves. Just two rangers patrol the vast area.
These issues were a main reason the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2000 took the unusual step of asking President Bill Clinton to designate national monument status, something that usually comes from Congress.
On July 12, dignitaries gathered at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores to mark the 10th anniversary of the occasion.
The area is a signature part of the National Landscape Conservation System, 27 million acres overseen by the BLM in eight Western states, areas set aside by the federal government to protect cultural or natural resources.
“Canyons of the Ancients and other places like this place are really where the American experience began,” Richard Moe of the Durango-based Conservation Lands Foundation said during the celebration. “We have to protect these places.”
Thefts continue; there are as many, if not more, thefts now than before it was a national monument, said monument manager LouAnn Jacobs.
But there are also more people looking for thieves. National monument status has meant greater funding, the ability to better plan and manage resources, and a lot more eyes on the ground: 40,000 visitors a year.
“Because we have more volunteers out there who are paying attention, we’re seeing more,” Jacobs said.
An outdoor museum
Since the national monument was created, there has been little development. Most of the area remains rugged backcountry with few trappings of modern civilization.
That’s the point.
“The hallmark of the monument is the fact (that) we have this full range of human development — and especially the ancestral Puebloan development — in a relatively undisturbed, pristine environmental setting,” said Farnsworth, the archaeologist. “You can see how the folks here built on the environment and interacted with the environment. The physical remains, the sites, are sort of a testament to how closely they were tied to that.”
Road signs direct visitors to three excavated sites. Lowry Pueblo is a partially restored site with 40 rooms and a great example of a kiva, a common area used for religious rituals. It sits next to a parking lot, with rest rooms and a picnic area.
Painted Hand Pueblo requires a drive on a rough, but passable, dirt road and a quarter-mile hike. Its main feature is a much-photographed lookout tower.
The other site the BLM lists on maps is the Sand Canyon Pueblo. No walls remain, but interpretive signs describe what life may have been like there.
For a more back-country experience, hike the Sand Canyon Trail, which runs by numerous secluded ruins in the national monument’s most beautiful setting. See this week’s Happy Trails for details.
Visitors are free to camp anywhere except among the ruins, though not many do. The area has a desert’s extreme weather and all water must be carried in to your campsite.
You are free to roam off-trail and explore the dusty canyons; the next great find could be right under your feet.
Said Farnsworth, “There’s quite a bit that still remains to be found and documented.”
She just hopes it doesn’t disappear first.
‘Spiritual imprint’
Ernest M. Vallo Sr. of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico traces his heritage to these canyons. So do modern-day Hopi, Zuni, Laguna and Rio Grande Puebloans.
“This area here is very, very important to us,” said Vallo, who came to Dolores for the 10th anniversary celebration and helped make an informative DVD for visitors, “Visit with Respect.”
Sometime around 1300 AD, the Anasazi civilization in Colorado became untenable. Population growth, soil exhaustion and changing weather led them to abandon their great cliffside cities and canyon houses, and they migrated south.
But when he returns here, Vallo said he feels their presence.
“It’s left a spiritual imprint and that’s why we still show reverence,” he said. “Our ancestral people are real close and that’s why I still have that respect.”
If you go
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
Getting there: Take Interstate 25 south to U.S. Highway 160, and follow that west to Cortez. Head north on Colorado Highway 145 and follow signs to the Anasazi Heritage Center. It’s about a six-hour drive.
Admission: $3 to the heritage center, free for the national monument
Camping: Free within the national monument, but summer temperatures soar and water is scarce. More civilized camping can be found at McPhee Reservoir.
Once you’re there: Ruins have been excavated and informative signs erected at three key sites — Lowry, Painted Hand and Sand Canyon pueblos. Each is 10 miles or more from the highway.
To see the monument on foot, hike in the Sand Canyon area.
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