May 12, 2001, 2001

2001-05-06 -- 2001-05-12

2001-05-06 - El Morro New Mexico

It has been quite the day, up early and over to the park only to remember the hour time difference so just walked around and looked at the San Juan River until Aztec Ruins National Park opened. It is a small park as far as these things go in this area but very interesting. There isn't anything to do with Aztecs; the town was called Aztec for some reason and this carried over to the ruins.

According to records the Spanish were the first to note these temple complexes. There was significant exploration in this area as the Spanish searched for gold, which they didn't find, and Indians to convert which they did find. The ruins had been in a state of disuse for four or five centuries and were mostly overgrown. National Geographic Society allocated the money for the archeological exploration and according to records thousands of tons of dirt were removed. The second mound has not been touched yet.

Once again this was another Anasazi or ancestral Puebloan Indian area and a very large one. The ruins were first noted by Spanish missionaries about 1776. It is the most sophisticated group of buildings I have seen to date.

These Indians must have had working knowledge of higher mathematics to plan and construct such a complex. Determining the load bearing strengths of the walls and supports, according to modern standards at least, require significant experience in addition to the spatial qualities to require conceptualizing what the ultimate building will look like sometime in the future.

The construction techniques were far advanced to any I have seen earlier. In some areas two walls were built as other construction took place, the area in-between the walls were filled in with the debris and in some cases, the walls were then veneered with close fitted rock.

Three great houses formed the heart of an elaborate complex during the 12^th and 13^th Centuries. The central area, containing more great houses, kivas - large and small, and even roadways. It perhaps was the center that provided services for an additional 100 smaller villages in the valley and hills surrounding the San Juan and its tributary, Rio de Las Animal Perdida - The River of Lost Souls.

According to the experts, the complex appears to have been designed as one building and it there was many years of construction before it reached anywhere near its end state. Where all the labor to perform these tasks and where the "experts" came from to work on these projects is not known. The farming and hunting seemed to be substantially subsistence level so where did the food come from to support this work force during the years it took to construct the Great Houses?

Just the beams for the west pueblo took four years - 1111 to 1115 to cut and bring to the site. There appears there was a "civic master plan" that encompassed as aspects of community life into a symmetrical unit. This included not only the daily living requirements but the ceremonial and secular aspects as well. This was a highly developed community with an ability to plan sequential construction within the framework of the whole.

What was the motivating force? Was there a group of elitists or priests that drove these efforts? What was the structure of the community? What if any was the role of the women during these periods of construction? Since there wasn't a written language describing the environment we may never know.

Can further exploration come up with a valid structure and theory? Why, after all the years of painstaking effort, did the community disappear?

When I compare the sophistication of these buildings with the primitive construction that I have seen just a few hundred miles to the west I am amazed. They are of the same time frame yet are centuries apart in concept. Those of the west do not seem to have any planning involved at all, but rather they just grew and flowed into the land as the requirements developed. To this point I believed that the Anasazi were primitive people who lived a subsistence life, their daily needs providing the guidance to direct that life.

This was just entirely shot down and it is back to the drawing board again. People do not understand what a living experience exists here in the Southwest. There is something new to digest on a daily basis. I spend as much time researching information over the Internet as I do during my role as an interpretive guide. School is getting out and many researchers are showing up at the park to dig further into its mysteries. I suspect this is true for all the parks including Chaco.

Another expert states that "evidence exists these abilities may have developed from a system of beliefs that drew on the recognition of the spiritual connection between the natural and human worlds. To the modern Pueblo Indians, Zuni, Hopi and Navajo, the land is sacred. The Zuni feel the land is their church, no difference exists between man and nature and that the earth itself is animate."

Aztec was one of the largest Ancestral Pueblo villages in the Southwest. Located between two major centers - Chaco Canyon to the south and Mesa Verde to the north, both areas influenced the Aztec inhabitants at different times, to what degree is still not clear. The western most pueblo which is the largest of the great houses had about 400 rooms that could have supported over 400 people. Many of the rooms formed tremendously thick walls set at right angles around the central plaza. Single story rooms were on the south side of the enclosure, the north had as many as three floors in tiers, reaching almost 37 feet high.

Mud plaster was frequently used but this covered the exceptionally close-fitting masonry. A veneer of worked stone was brought from a quarry a good distance from the site to cover some of the other walls. Wooden beams were smoothed by sandstone blocks and used to support the heavy earthen roofs and floors. These beams from a forest some twenty miles away without the aid of equipment.

Few entryways lead into the compound making defense much easier, some rooms were reachable only via the use of a ladder through the ceiling. Doors consisted of reed matting, skins or local cloth. Interiors of the rooms were often plastered and painted with whitewash and further adorned with painted bands at the floor and ceiling levels

Rooms frequently had bins built in for the storing and grinding of corn and fire pits for heating and cooking. Pots buried in the floor were used for storage of grain.

In the center of the plaza was a great kiva almost fifty feet in diameter. The structure was the center of community ceremonial affairs. The roof, estimated to weigh almost 100 tons. The columns supporting the roof stood on some disks weighing some 400 pounds and were brought from southern Colorado.

The sunken center was encircled by fifteen surface rooms that had doors out into the plaza. The sunken room had a bench that surrounded the floor, entrance was gained through stairways on both the north and south. I could not help but draw a similarity to the traditional Jewish temple where the women could stay in the balcony watching the men but could not participate. I am not inferring of course that Judaism was present but only commenting on why the separation. I have seen little about the role of the woman in this society and the information that I have read about current Hopi custom does not contradict these attitudes today. I have excluded the Navajo as they didn't arrive until many years later.

It appears that roadways were built radiating away from the structure, the exact purpose has not been determined. Theories of supply routes, routes for retrieving building materials or lines of communications; or what has been suggested by some, for religious significance and that the direction may have been more important than its destination. From what I gather these roads were built in straight lines regardless of the terrain and have been known to stop at some obstacle and continue on the other side. Many do not appear to have a destination at all and yet some are connected to known Chaco Culture sites.

I can understand how people can spend entire lifetimes investigating such archeological finds. For each question answered, another twenty must leap out begging to be answered as well. Even a non scholar such as myself finds this to be the case. This weekend has destroyed some concepts that I had developed over the last three months, I can imagine how devastating this could be to someone who has dedicated his entire adult life studying this area. Yet, new discoveries are found daily and old theories must be discarded. DNA testing will revolutionize the theories of man and his migration.

The trip to Chaco Canyon National park did not take long despite twenty miles of washboard dirt road that is best traversed at fifteen or twenty miles an hour. I am very glad that I had asked the ranger at Aztec for directions - they had a printed sheet - as the directions that my computer program produced were entirely wrong and I would have spent an hour or more back tracking to get there. There was some serious construction ongoing on the main road but it didn't slow me down that much.

I was surprised to see as many oil and gas rigs in the short strip south of Aztec. I had visualized this industry to much further south. There is a refinery in Aztec but it doesn't impact on the gasoline prices which are ten cents a gallon cheaper than Arizona. Arizonians state this is because gasoline in New Mexico is 86 octane rather than 87 octane but this theory does not work out either. The key of course is taxes or greed. There is a gas station in Holbrook that is $1.97 a gallon, one mile further down the road the gas is $1.61 regardless of brand.

Chaco Canyon contains the largest collection of prehistoric ruins north of Mexico; until the late 19^th Century, they were the largest buildings in North America.

The canyon is about three hundred feet below the level of the mesas surrounding the area and a mile and a half wide. The Chaco Wash runs the length of the canyon and is usually dry except during the spring melting of the snow and the summer thunderstorms. As is the case throughout the high deserts of the southwest, winter temperatures rapidly disappear below freezing and the winds can blow away the snow before it has time to stick. In summer, extreme temperatures are normal and the sun turns the soil into hard baked clay. One would think that man would not be able to adapt to this harsh climate let alone farm in it. However, these people understood water preservation and established irrigation systems that significantly assisted in adaptation to this climate.

The brightest day can suddenly change from blue skies to black clouds of rain that may not even touch the earth but evaporate before hitting the earth, or so local that rain falling on the north end of the canyon may not reach the southern end.

Long before the more massive structures were built in the 12^th and 13^th Centuries, hundreds of smaller pueblos were built throughout the ten mile area of the central canyon.

Evidence exists that Paleo-Indians roamed this area three or four thousand years ago. They were primarily hunters and only foraged for wild plants. A thousand years later these groups had started with rudimentary farming growing squash and corn but still not totally sufficient.

Sometime later, 400 AD or so the climate improved and the canyon experienced a population boom. The Indians started improving their pit houses and in groups of twenty or so started small villages. This further improved to multifamily pueblos living in single story dwellings arrange around a central pit house.

Beginning about the middle of the Ninth Century the Anasazi started to create the great houses for which the area is so well known. The motivation for these undertakings is still not understood and perhaps never will, and as discussed earlier, where the expertise came from is still not determined. While ,modifications and revisions did take place continually as found in the excavations, they would parallel modern city planning.

Unlike many areas where cliffs are so domineering, the houses were not built under the shelter of overhangs or on rocky ledges, these were built in the open with clearance on all sides.

Hungo Pavi was a three story building with some 150 rooms with some rising to 3 floors. Still intact as late as 1900, in twenty years after discovery the site had deteriorated to its current condition. Most of the damage seems to have been done by people rummaging for building materials or just malicious behavior. While I admit that conservation during that time frame did not exist such as it does today; Indian ruins were prime pickings due in large to the hostilities that existed I fear. When one recognizes that mass genocide took place as government policy and the mass media extolled the virtues of Kit Carson and General Crook who enforced that policies I guess it is understandable.

Chetro Keti started appears to have started as a single story room block about AD 1010. By 1100 there were over 500 rooms with only 225 on the ground. The general design is that of a D with the straight part to the rear of the complex. Some of the complex is not excavated as a preservation tool.

There are suggestions that there is considerable influence from the Mexican Toltec architecture in building the using colonnades to create additional rooms facing the plaza. Careful planning was required to build walls that both supported additional stories but that were tapered so the wall was lighter. The style of construction was most frequently "core and veneer" where roughly hewn stones were laid in a conventional manner with mud plaster for adhesion and then carefully selected shaped stones were placed on the exterior as both decorative veneer and additional structural support.

The "great kiva" in the center of the plaza was built on an earlier structure of similar size. This structure at one time was covered with a large and heavy roof supported by poles with elaborate substructure to keep them from sinking. The conceptions of building a strong foundation was a new concept and required the use of very heavy circular stones that were "cushioned" by the use of juniper bark and mud to preclude the fracturing and shift of the foundation under stress.

The Hopi Indians have oral histories and many clans can trace their ancestry back to the Chaco Culture and the migration of various clans from Chaco. The Navajos are not Puebloan, they didn't arrive in the area until the 15^th Century along with other Athabascon people such as the Apache. However, they have ceremonies and stories relating to Chaco.

I have not seen much research in this area, it probably exists but search of the Internet doesn't reveal very much. Oral histories leave much to imagination and combined with the very human tendency to want to please the interviewer also leaves much to question. I would hope that anthropologists of the area in addition to the culturally aware would seriously start more investigation to this area. I think the results would be most interesting. I plan to continue my research - particularly in the relationship with activities in Asia, to see if there is a correlation.

There is an elevated kiva as part of the complex that was built, razed, remodeled and replaced during the life of Chetro Ketl, these were built into an above ground rectangular room, giving an appearance of being more than one story. The numerous rocks extending from the wall of the kiva may have been used as steps or supports for scaffolding but ultimately used to tie the kiva to the other wall once the space was filled with construction material and dirt.

Kiva towers were also built but most have fallen into disrepair. Irrigation ditches and dams were constructed all around the complex and in the small box canyon; these reflect that the Chacoans were seriously involved in managing the meager rainfall they received annually. There are indications that a serious climate change took place making the surrounding areas virtually impossible to continue farming and the people had to migrate to less arid surroundings that were suitable for habitation..

Chetro Ketl did have structures that were built against the walls of the canyon. Holes were dug into the sandstone to support the rafters. Similarly, balconies were built in front of many of the 2^nd and 3^rd story room of the great house and were intact as late as the turn of the century. However, twenty years later they were all gone, victim of scavenging for firewood and building materials.

"Roads" connected Chetro Ketl and the other great houses of Chaco Canyon. While some of these could have been used as footpaths, others have religious significance as did those roads associated with Aztec. These roads were sometimes stairways cut into the side of mountains, most of the time they were as straight as possible and other times they simply stopped for no apparent reason. There are other cultures to the south that did things similarly and I will try to find something on them.

Pueblo Bonito was another of the Great Houses found in the valley and may have been connected with Chetro Ketl at one time. It is the largest of the great houses and the most complex with kiva towers dominating the scene .I would think that given the number of times this was modified and rebuilt that is took several decades to complete if it was ever completed. It appears that much of the main structure was torn down and rebuilt. The kivas have been redone several times. According to one source there are at least five remnants at individual levels that have been unearthed. I can only assume that clan kivas were the most susceptibility to being torn up and redone.

Recent philosophy - I just found out about it since I returned - is that perhaps these buildings were never really lived in and other than a caretaker force, were never lived in and only used for ceremonial purposes. That is sure significant effort but probably not more than was exerted on the cathedral building in Europe.

2001-05-07 - Petrified Forest - I knew I should not have returned early, I will be working tomorrow for somebody who is sick. I guess I really do not mind as there is little else to do and that is what I came here for.

El Malpais was interesting but not what I thought it would be. I was expecting a single cave or mountain but it was a combination of so many things I didn't know which one to pursue first. I walked over the lava flows.

El Morro National Monument was very close by and this case there is a single item to contemplate, the massive butte dominates the entire valley. I spent the night in a valley below the butte and when the sun came up the entire butte was bathed in gold. The chap running the park and the café was quite interesting. He is threatening to join of the militias as the government has filed suit against him for violating the water rights of the Zuni Indian Nation. He has lived there for thirty years so this could be interesting.

The hike up the butte is interesting and not that strenuous. The area around "Inspiration Rock" is interesting due to the inscriptions from the 17th Century and later. The pool of water at the base supported both animals and humans of the area. I was especially cautious about the grass around the pool as that would be a great place for predators to hide waiting for "food" to come for a drink.

The top of the butte reveals a box canyon that could hide a thousand people without difficulty. There must be a water source as it was very green. This would be a wonderful place to film a shoot-em-up western with the bad guys hiding in the canyon and the posse or cavalry charging in to do them up proper. Louis d'Amour could let his imagination run wild. Or maybe a sequel to the Lonesome Dove would be appropriate with the Indians scalping and skinning all the white people they can find.

There is a Anasazi ruin, Atsinna, on the top of the mesa. Excavation has led experts to believe this was a community of some five hundred rooms, making it one of the largest found in the Southwest. Dating back to the 12^th Century, the people were probably linked to the Chaco Culture of the north. A map shows the range of the Chaco Culture covering a thousand square miles and touches on perhaps three states, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. This could explain how material for the construction at Chaco Canyon came from these locations; the material might have been some form of tribute required by the authorities that dominated the Chaco Culture.

The Spanish were in the area as early as the 16^th Century, settlers moved in not that much later but continually had problems with the Indians, mostly Zuni. The situation did not change drastically until the middle of the 18^th Century. The Spanish made several exploratory and punitive expeditions in the area. The Spanish must have been the marvel to the Indians, the Spanish introduced horses which eventually changed the entire Indian culture throughout western America. The Spanish also introduced metal weapons, never before seen by the Indians.

In 1598 close to a thousand settlers and seven thousand head of livestock planted the first Spanish settlement in what is now southwestern United States near what is now Santa Fe. This changed the lives of the Indians forever. Franciscan monks attempted to convert Indians and that effort cost the lives of several monks. There was friction between the secular and religious authorities, the Indians, caught in the middle, revolted and killed over 400 Spaniards and New Mexico remained in the hands of the Indians for another twelve years.

The drive back to the park took only a little over an hour, the traffic was light and the wind behind me so I made good time. I even had time to do laundry when I returned and got it hung up to dry. Naturally the wind blew everything off the line later and I had to pick it up before the creepy crawlers got to them. I have enough trouble with a raven attempting to steal my wool socks. There is just no honor among thieves.

2001-05-08 - Petrified Forest - The day turned out differently, I was busier than blue blazes just filling in for people. I probably put two hundred miles on the park jeep just keeping up with the schedule. The day went fast for sure and I was not able to do much computer work other than upload last weeks travel report. There was mandatory EEO training being conducted, not only for this park but several other parks in the district Based on conversation I overheard it was essentially the same training conducted by the Department of Defense several years back. It is scary to believe that DOD was the cutting edge on this.

2001-05-09 - Petrified Forest - The green suiters had another day of mandatory EEO training so it was up to the rest of us to cover the schedule. It does make the day pass fast so I am not complaining that much. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow. Extending the operating hours of the park has made drastic changes even though the change was only an hour.

We did have a going away party for one of the gals that worked for the company that operated the book stores. She was quite helpful when I first came on board and her departure will be felt.

2001-05-10 - Petrified Forest - A memorable day - I think everybody is aware that one should not feed wild animals for any number of reasons. Usually what is quoted is the fear of dependency on humans for food or sometimes just plain aggression.

I found another reason - Some clown had enticed a large raven to sit on the window ledge of his pickup truck so he could be feed bread. All was wonderful, raven was happy, driver was happy, and wife was happy as she got out and took pictures. Regrettably the bread ran out and raven was unhappy. Driver attempted to shoo raven away, raven became more unhappy. Raven changed from tail feathers out to tail feathers in, made a deposit and hopped away. Raven had a smug look, driver had a spot starting at shirt pocket and extending to knee. Ravens have gigantic throughput.

I finally finished the Russian slides, it took far longer than I thought. They look better than before but there isn't much I could do with the slides from Saint Petersburg that were so badly x-rayed when I left.

2001-05-11 - Petrified Forest - Another peaceful day at the park, nothing much going on but did the roving routine and did a number of informal talks at various points. I enjoy these the most of all as I never know they will lead to. Some of the questions I cannot answer and much either hit the library or sometimes I can ask a green suiter and get an answer. The Internet is a great help as well of course. There is little doubt the green suiters are quite with it regarding natural science. I hear conflicts once in a while on in other areas but then again even the professionals - professors - are at odds on these points and this is healthy. If there were not conflicts then it would be obvious that no one cared enough to dissent against the majority.

There was a pot luck lunch for the other volunteer who is leaving this weekend and for me leaving the end of the month. I appreciate the recognition.

2001-05-12 - Near East Grand Canyon

Things at the park were relatively quiet, most of the green suiters are out of the park except for the fun ones anyway. The working group is a riot when they get together and when they have the opportunity to do what they like best which of course is to be with people.

I spent several hours roving and filling for others in addition to opening the visitors center for somebody who couldn't make it on time. The forecast was for thunderstorms at higher elevations but I didn't know if this included Petrified Forest or not but I did run into a real gully washer near Flagstaff. I was tempted to stay back this weekend but since I had to go shopping anyway I decided to go all the way to Utah and the national parks there. I did stop at Safeway in Holbrook for next week's food but I was on I40 headed west.

The wind picked up and the rain started big time. It is the first time in a while the windshield has been clean. It started getting dark and I do not like driving at night while it is raining so pulled into a cheap RV park - $8.00. For some reason I think there are some strange things going on in the area, there are many cars that just stop for a few minutes and take off again.

I still have about two hundred miles to reach the first park in the morning - Bryce Canyon. This was a good jump start today.