Chaco Canyon
At first glance it is a mystery how a great prehistoric empire could arise from the salt brush desert flats of northwestern New Mexico. Over the decades I have been to many large prehistoric ruins but Chaco Canyon is the only place where a good right fielder could throw a baseball from one large castle like adobe structure to the next. It is architecture on a monumental structure and no doubt was meant to impress. Pueblo Bonito was the largest residential structure in North America until the late 1800s when an apartment building in Philadelphia finally surpassed it.
The question still remains why did such a magnificent empire rise out of this region of the world where there are few obvious resources and farming to support a big population would have been difficult. The answer begins with the eruption of Sunset Crater in 1064. The volcano would have filled the skies with soot and ash. The sunrises would have been beautifully apocalyptic. Although volcanoes are geological activities many of the effects the human beings noticed would have taken place in the sky, clouds of soot and ash hovering in the air. During the decades preceding and after the volcanic eruption there were a series of solar and lunar eclipses which would have reached totality in the southwest. Most importantly the Crab Nebula went supernova in 1054. Arab and Chinese astronomers both made careful records of the exploding star, which for a period of about two years was the brightest object in the sky except for the moon and sun.
With all this commotion in the skies is it any wonder that in the following century an empire based upon bonding people together with ceremony and displaying mastery of astronomy arose? One of the most famous instances of archeoastronomy was discovered at Fajada Butte. Shadows, referred to as sun daggers shot across a petroglyph spiral and stabbed it in the center to mark the summer solstice. So many tourists visited Fajada Butte that the earth settled, the rock casting the shadow shifted and the solar sun dagger no longer strikes the spiral in the center. Pictographs of the Crab Nebula supernova are located at the far end of Chaco Canyon.
Attempting to visit Chaco Canyon you begin to get a sense of why people are so amazed at its location. This amazement is isn’t because the region is so spectacular but the opposite. The scenery around Chaco Canyon is rather ordinary and you are absolutely next to nothing. Driving the roads you wander through emptiness for miles and hours before coming to a small canyon which holds some of the most incredible architecture in all of North America.
Pueblo Bonito may have been the largest residential building in all of North America for over 600 years but most of the year, people did not live there. Pueblo Bonito and the other massive pueblos built there were not built as year round residences but as ceremonial sites, similar to the cathedrals of Europe which were also being constructed around this time.
On both sides of narrow Chaco Canyon there are a series of large, multistoried pueblos, most of them are large enough to hold several kivas. These were places where people gathered after long pilgrimages to participate in ceremonies which united the region. Chaco Canyon was linked by a network of roads, some of them hundreds of miles long, which travelled in straight lines. People from all across the region, in all directions, came to Chaco Canyon. It is believed that the rulers of Chaco were able to control turquoise mined in the region, which they traded with kingdoms in northern Mexico. We find macaw feathers in Chaco. Apparently it was a lucrative trade. The hours of labor necessary just to build something a spectacular as Pueblo Bonito is tremendous. Yet the network of adobe castles in Chaco Canyon were erected relatively quickly over a few decades. The timbers used as roof beams and door supports were sometimes dragged hundreds of miles to reach Chaco Canyon. It must have been the pilgrims who constructed the wonderful buildings they worshipped in. The believers own labor, muscle, toil and sweat put these buildings together stone by stone after journeying hundreds of miles by ritual roads to get here. We do not know much about the ceremonies which were held here but we do know that at least one of them involved taking beautiful pots, featuring exquisitely painted designs and hurling them from a precipice to shatter far below.
I wander excitedly from ruin to ruin, amazed at how close they are to each other. Each of them is so unique and beautiful, and yet all of them are the same, large adobe buildings meant to impress. How impressive it must have been when the people gathered and each plaza was filled with bonfires, dancers, audiences, and the pounding of drums echoed up and down the sandstone canyon walls.
If you are planning on camping in Chaco Canyon you had better make sure you have reservations first. There are limited camping spots and nothing available nearby. My first night camping in Chaco after the sun had set, I discovered that my tent was beneath an owl perch who hooted all night long. It was charming for the first hour.
Shortly after sunrise, I waited for them to open the gates and I wandered down the row of giant pueblos with a few other early risers. I paused only briefly, I would come back and photograph them later. I mean I couldn’t help taking some photographs, the architecture really is spectacular but only a few. First, I wanted to make the long hike to the far end of the canyon and see the Crab Nebula pictographs for myself.
The hike rolled past the great houses, giant adobe castles appearing on both sides of the canyon; Casa Rinconada, Chetro Ketl, Pueblo Bonito (I could not help but gasp at the size), Pueblo del Arroyo, Kin Kletso, and then finally little Casa Chiquita. From here the trail followed the canyon wall, providing welcome shade on what was already a very hot summer day, even early in the morning. From time to time, petroglyphs would appear on the rock wall.
At one point during the hike I heard a mechanical buzzing sound overhead and looked up to see an ultralight airplane with a single pilot flying above the magnificent ruins. How spectacular the place must have looked from the sky. Charles Lindbergh was among the first aviators to fly above Chaco Canyon and take photographs of the ruins from the sky. Eventually the trail wanderedinto salt bush flats where there was no protection from the broiling sun.
When I finally came upon the world famous pictographs they were located in an unassuming place, a small and insignificant , eroded sandstone alcove. Pictographs of the Crab Star Nebula are scattered across the southwest and many of them are identical to the one at Chaco Canyon — a star, crescent moon and handprint. The light from the supernova eruption reached earth in 1054 and was so bright that it could be seen in the daytime all across the planet. Hopi oral traditions recall the birth of this “Bright blue star” and claim that it was a signal for the clans to convene in Chaco Canyon. I stood beneath it in awe; staring at a historical record of an astronomical event which helped initiate the rise of one of the greatest prehistoric empires in North America.
After the long walk back I allotted some time to explore Pueblo Bonito. The giant complex of multi-storied rooms and multiple kivas, the biggest in Chaco Canyon is also the most excavated and studied in Chaco Canyon. These excavations began with Richard Wetherhill in the 1880s. The Wetherhill family first became involved with archeology when the ruins at Mesa Verde were discovered on their ranch. Chaco Canyon was an opportunity to extend the family business. Richard Wetherhill’s grave is located in the canyon. Academic research took off in earnest when Neil Judd began digging on assignment from the National Geological Society in the 1920s. This and subsequent research was so important that it led to Chaco Canyon being declared a World Heritage Site.
The masonry and architecture at Pueblo Bonito are exquisite. You can feel the power as you stand in the plaza flanked by towering stone walls and standing above multiple submerged kivas. Most of the year this great structure was empty but when it was filled and the people had gathered to sing and dance what a stunning experience it must have been. I love wandering the mazes of doorways inside Pueblo Bonito as if I am trying to unwind mazes of mysteries surrounding past spectacles.
Perhaps the best views of Pueblo Bonito do not come from inside the giant pueblo but from the Pueblo Alto trail, climbing the cliffs above Bonito and looking down on it. The giant empire of Chaco Canyon seems to have collapsed almost as quickly as it arose about 1250 AD. Just as nobody seems really certain of the purpose of Chaco Canyon when it was thriving, nobody really seems certain of why it collapsed. For the most part it appears to have been abandoned peacefully. There is evidence of some strife and warfare but nothing on a large scale. There are even isolated examples of cannibalism. Once people stopped believing whatever it was that Chaco was preaching, people stopped making the long pilgrimages and the place was abandoned.
In his Book of the Hopi, Frank Watters retells a Zuni oral history about the rise and fall of Chaco Canyon. The Zuni have a tradition that on the summer solstice they race out to Corn Mountain and back. The winning clan receives a lot of prestige and usually wins a lot of wagers. One year a band of wandering sorcerors asked if they might participate in the race. It would have seemed cowardly to have refused. So the elders allowed the wandering band of magicians to run in the solstice race around Corn Mountain and back.
To prepare for the race, the wandering sorcerors practiced rituals of sword swallowing, gaining strength. The race began with a whoop and a holler as the racers took off as fast as they could, disappearing beneath a cloud of dust rising from their pounding feet. Hours later, one of the racers emerged from the cloud of dust, returning to Zuni after running to Corn Mountain and back. The winner was one of the wandering sorcerors.
After winning the race the wandering sorcerors made a request of the Zuni elders. They wanted to stop their wanderings and live among the Zuni. The elders were afraid of letting these powerful magicians live among the people. Still it would be rude to deny a request from someone who won the sacred solstice race. The elders stated their land was full but if the vagabond magicians wished there was a beautiful canyon next to Zuni which was currently empty. It was Chaco Canyon.
The wandering sorcerors moved to Chaco Canyon and began to build their empire. They continued to practice their rituals of sword swallowing becoming stronger and more powerful until they grew like giants, their shadows stretching across the land. People from all across the earth made pilgrimages to Chaco Canyon to give gifts of tribute to the sword swallowing magicians. These wandering sorcerors were at last so big that they could stand on their tiptoes and nibble from the clouds as if they were made of cotton candy. The clouds were so delicious that the sorcerors were unable to stop themselves and soon they had eaten all the clouds. Without any clouds there was no more rain and without rain, no more pilgrims came to Chaco Canyon bearing gifts. The sword swallowing giants began to shrink, growing smaller and smaller until they were no bigger than specks of dust, blown about the desert by the wind.
