Chimney Rock National Monument

by Greni Graph

Title

Chimney Rock National Monument

Artist

Greni Graph

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

#201504049457 Chimney Rock National Monument is a 4,726-acre U.S. National Monument in San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado which includes an archaeological site. This area is located in Archuleta County, Colorado between Durango and Pagosa Springs and is managed for archaeological protection, public interpretation, and education. The Chimney Rock Archaeological Site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970. U.S. President Barack Obama created Chimney Rock National Monument by proclamation on September 21, 2012, under authority of the Antiquities Act. The rock itself is over 535 million years old, and offers 75-mile panoramic views of the local area. The Ancient Pueblo People site, designated on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, was a community inhabited between Durango and Pagosa Springs about 1,000 years ago with about 200 rooms. Rooms in the buildings were used for living, work areas and ceremonial purposes. The site is located within the San Juan National Forest Archaeological Area on 4,100 acres of land. Between May 15 and September 30 the Visitor Center is open and guided walking tours are conducted daily. Housing approximately 2,000 ancient Pueblo Indians between A.D. 925 and 1125, the settlement included a Great House Pueblo with round ceremonial rooms, known as kivas, and 36 ground-floor rooms. A grizzly bear jaw found in one of the rooms when excavated suggested a reverence for the animal, and modern Chaco oral history suggests that the Bear clan originated in the Chimney Rock area. The Chaco culture which inhabited the Chimney Rock area was hierarchical, with a priest class overseeing the area's inhabitants. The construction of the Great House Pueblo at the top of the ridge, close to Chimney Rock and its neighbor Companion Rock, had a large ceremonial role in the later years of Chaco presence. As the moon makes its lunar cycle across the sky over a period of 18.6 years, it appears in a "lunar standstill" between the two rocks every 9.3 for a period of approximately 2 years. Evidence suggests that Great House Pueblo was first built in 1076 during a lunar standstill and expanded and finished in 1093 during another. It consists of 36 rooms and two kivas. Archaeologists believe that Great House Pueblo was mainly ceremonial in nature, with only one or two families living in its rooms. During certain key ceremonies, it functioned as a hotel for visiting notables, some of whom came from as far away as Chaco Canyon, in modern day Northern New Mexico, 90 miles from Chimney Rock. Material to build the Great House Pueblo came from downhill and was hauled by hand up the ridge line from further below. Five pithouses, titled Room A through E, probably housed the workers who built Great House Pueblo. Rooms A and B were excavated in 1921-1922 by early archaeologists, but their insufficient knowledge of how to stabilize walls, coupled with a decision to use the wood they found in the ruins for their campfires, has left little knowledge of these ruins, with little left today. The pottery was preserved and is now stored in bboxes in the basement of the Anasazi Center in Durango. Halfway between the worker's houses and the Great House Pueblo was a ruin that archaeologists named the "Guardhouse." It Stretched from one side of the ridge to the other, and housed one family. Rather than serving as a defensive post against invaders, it more likely performed crowd control, keeping undesirables out of the Great House Pueblo, and letting the elites through. After excavation this ruin became extremely unstable and was eventually removed by the Forest Service for fear of visitors' safety. The base of the trail up to Great House Pueblo begins next to a pit house complex made up of three pit houses and accompanying workrooms. An extended, multi generational family would have lived in this complex. Excavations of the workrooms showed separate areas with grinding stones for corn and a sort of "man cave" where men would make arrowheads and tools. The last two excavated sites are a singular pit house and the Great Kiva. The Great Kiva shows similarities to others across the southwest, with a central fire pit, diverting stone and ventilation shaft.

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April 19th, 2015

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