Thenaturalmedic Adventures
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Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Chaco Canyon: Ancient Engineering and Sacred Alignments
Attn: Audio Only Please see the other post on Youtube for the Video Version, Thanks.
Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico preserves remarkable structures built by Ancestral Puebloan people over a thousand years ago, showcasing their sophisticated understanding of astronomy, engineering, and community design.
• Exploration of Una Vida, an unexcavated "great house" featuring walls and structures in the same state they were discovered almost 200 years ago
• Examination of petroglyphs depicting human figures, animals, and abstract designs throughout the park
• Visit to Hungo Pavi, a Chacoan great house occupied from 1000-1250 CE with impressive architectural details
• Tour of Chitro Kelt, featuring massive walls, small doorways, and a large kiva structure used for ceremonies
• Exploration of Pueblo Bonito, "Beautiful House," the heart of Chaco Canyon built between 830-1250 CE
• Discussion of the Weatherill cemetery and early archaeological efforts that led to antiquities protection laws
• Observation of Fajada Butte's "sun dagger" site that aligns with solstices and equinoxes
• Contemplation of why the Ancestral Puebloans abandoned the site after centuries of development
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Hey, good morning. This is Craig the Natural Medic. I'm at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park here in northwestern New Mexico, up in the San Juan Basin. I'm looking directly across at Fajada Butte, famous for the sun dagger. There are several large rocks on top With petroglyphs. You can't really see it from here, but perhaps there's a better location further down that you can see it. Chaco Canyon is a very special place. It was a civilization hub for many of the ancient Obloan people. Right here you're seeing some petroglyphs that were left here, just a short walk from the visitor center. Looks like some human figures, maybe some plants. Looks like, up in this area, cocopelli figure.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna take a little walk up to una vida, which is an unexcavated great house uphill from the visitor center. Okay, this is the first part of the Una Vida. It's not a very far walk from the parking lot at the visitor center. I believe it was Lieutenant James Simpson that found this in 18. Pretty much it's in the same state that he found it almost 200 years ago. You've got some walls. You've got some walls. You've got some structures that are still here, but it's been unexcavated. I think pretty amazing what they were able to do with primitive technology A thousand years ago or more when this site was built, no modern engineering tools or anything of that nature. Yet they were able to build these things that have stood up, and we have buildings that we build in modern times that don't last as long. One thing I definitely emphasized here was to stay on the trail and not go past closed signs because of damage to the resources. So so please do that.
Speaker 1:On this trail there are some more petroglyphs. You can definitely see the detail they put into these things. Let me zoom in a little bit. Up at the top you have some type of four-legged creature with ears Might have been a rabbit, not sure and then right below it you have a number of four-legged no-transcript I'm not really sure what those are and then over to the left of that, you have a figure with a sun or a shield. You have birds of different signs, some type of square those are lions and then up above that you have a couple of figures. They're faint and hard to see, but they have a handprint. I've got some very faint ones right here. One looks like a humanoid type figure. There's another humanoid looking figure, maybe right there straight ahead, and then there's more right over here on this rock face up there. Let's get a little closer, very far up there, but let's try to zoom in a little bit. The one down here at the bottom looks like there's some lizards up top here. Some more humanoid figures Very cool. Coming back down from where the petroglyphs are, you can see the walls, fajada Butte, the visitor center, in the distance. Very cool.
Speaker 1:One of the things that Chaco is known for is the buildings that were built by the native people are aligned with the moon and the sun. It is an international dark sky park. There actually is a domed observatory that was donated out here when they do star programs. Let me check that out sometime. The first stop here is Hungo Pavi, which was a Chacoan great house occupied 1000 to 1250. They want you to stay on the trails, don't get on the walls, don't collect and no pets. Let's check it out Now.
Speaker 1:You can see the walls and the structures here, very cool. Interesting that this structure recessed somewhat into the hillside over here. If you look at that, there's several vent holes, looks like down here at the bottom there's some stick structures for support and there's a little hole right there Interesting, like a little window. I wonder what they thought about when they looked out the window, interesting the contrast between the made structures and the rocks that are here. And it does say you can't climb on the rocks, but it doesn't say you can't touch the rocks so I'm going to touch. There's some nice views to be had through these portals. I'd call them more like a portal. It's fascinating. This is still here after all those years. One thing you definitely notice is the intricate details. You can see the patterns there's the rock repeating over and over the same layers. To an extent it does vary, but you've got some timbers that were in there for support. That's probably what some of those holes actually were. They just have rotted out over time.
Speaker 1:This is like the highlight of the park. There's two spots you could turn off to chitro kelt and pueblo bonito. Beyond pueblo bonito probably gonna try to push past that a little bit. I mean all the way to the end. Just have to see what time permits, depending on how the trail is down to some petroglyphs and some other sites.
Speaker 1:First we're going to go to Chitro Kelt. This one is much more extensive, it is huge. You can see some details where this is broken down. See the timbers on the top supporting the rock structure and then further on that far wall, see the small doorways. People are not that tall in this area.
Speaker 1:Looks like there's a big kiva structure over here. Let's go check it out. Very interesting. Oh wow, that's huge. So you have your ventilation area. You have several fire pits in there. As I've said before before, kiva's were the early Native people's church. It's where they did many ceremonies for religious purposes. You can see the structure of it really well. This Kiva probably is as big as the one that's reconstructed at Aztec ruins. But what gets me out here is just the silence. I'm gonna give you a few seconds to hear the silence and enjoy it. More. Of those holes where the timbers were, you can see the details.
Speaker 1:Look at this rock. It fascinates me how it was stacked and there appears to be some mortar, but not a lot. So pretty amazing. I'm sitting right in front of this big wall, but if you look over here, there's some kind of holes in the rock and they look to be in a uniform manner. I don't know what that is. There's some more of them over there.
Speaker 1:Some glyphs on the rock right here looks like some more humanoid figures, maybe some lizards toward the upper part of the panel can't really make out a whole lot of other ones. Without crossing the rope, this man has jazz hands. Looks like there's a little lot of other ones in this without crossing the rope. This man has jazz hands. Looks like there's a little figure of some sort right there by his left foot, but I'm not really sure what that is. Cannot make it out. I don't see any other glyphs close by right here. Hopefully he can make that out. To me it looks there's a couple different ones. There is a caterpillar or maybe a centipede or millipede and it looks like some bird feet. There's a wavy line, oh, and over here to the side, look at this. There are some figures right there, interesting.
Speaker 1:Now we're closer to Pueblo Bonito, which I guess the actual Spanish translation would be Beautiful House, very interesting. There's a ton of rock fall here. I want to get over here where I can show you better. It's definitely prominent in this location, these huge cliffs over here. That's interesting. We're looking at Pueblo Bonito from the top view. They call this the heart of the park. You can see from the illustrations here.
Speaker 1:The structures increased over time. It took hundreds of years between the end of the 19th. The different construction periods, ad 830. They started in AD 830, and they ended up finishing around 1250 AD. Much like the great cathedrals and palaces of Europe and the pyramids of Egypt and Mesoamerica, pueblo Bonito was planned, designed, constructed by a succession of people over centuries to maintain the unique form and structure that continues to inspire us thousands of years later. The fact that we are able to enjoy it today is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:I'd probably compare this to a shopping mall-sized building, but it was built completely by years of hard labor and primitive construction no modern tools, no modern design elements. I think that's pretty amazing. No modern design elements. I think that's pretty amazing. They started an accommodation for these doorways. They're very short. People were very short back then. They were average 5 foot, 5 foot 2, somewhere around there, I believe, and ducking through that as about a 6 foot person hard. You can see where I came through. Just a very small opening.
Speaker 1:What I'm turning attention to is up here A while ago was that panel with the heart of Chaco. That's an old rock fall that fell in the 1940s Off of this face here. It fell and demolished some structures and created a pretty big mess. As you can imagine, those temperature extremes are pretty wide ranging here. It's the end of January and it's cold. It's been down at night in the single digits and even a couple days it was below zero, over time with the dust of the rocks, and then in the summertime you have heat. It's still pretty amazing how all this stuff is still standing. Of course it looked much grander in its other days. It's just like multi-level apartments built with primitive technology. It's mind-blowing.
Speaker 1:There's a cemetery with a couple of graves here. With a couple of graves here it says Richard G Weatherill died June 22, 1910. And then there's Richard and Marietta right next to that. So maybe his wife is in there with him. Perhaps they were landowners prior to this being a national park or national monument Interesting. Now here's another view of the cemetery. There's actually three graves or three markers. Interesting spot they chose Right below these cliffs. Herein lies our answer.
Speaker 1:Richard Weatherhill he was a controversial figure. He started excavating here, came from Mesa Verde area in 1896, working with the American Museum of Natural History. His excavating practices, equal to many practices of the day, were soon criticized. Complaints from archaeologists and universities halted his activities, the creation of our nation's first law protecting antiquities. He turned to ranching, operated a trading post, had a mixed relationship with the Navajo people In the cemetery Marietta Weatherhill, grace Etisee CA and Ramona Griffin. Several local Navajo people identified, as was the custom Further down the trail past Pueblo Bonito.
Speaker 1:It's called Ken Cletso and it's more of a compact site. It's not as big as Pueblo Bonito. The other changes the size of the stones. The ones over there, pueblo Bonito, which happened earlier, were smaller stones overall with smaller stones in between. These are pretty much consistent-sized stones if you look at the area here. Pretty neat. They definitely learned some of this from their northern neighbors in the Mesa Verde area.
Speaker 1:We're going past Pueblo Bonita and there are petroglyphs on the side of the trail. Lots of interesting designs. There's some animals, some different shapes Very cool. There's some more petroglyphs along this trail past Pueblo Bonito but they might be hard to see. Hopefully you can see those. There's some on the edge of the cliff face. Maybe in the past that was easier to get up to. I don't see how you get up to that now. Looks like a little warrior or deity, bigh, bighorn, sheep and a person with rabbit ears. Okay, looks like I got some surveyors in this. Looks like they came out in 1911, november 2nd 1911, us Survey. Wb Grigsby, washington DC. Jp Pohl in Moriarty, New Mexico, us Survey.
Speaker 1:Got some more glyphs here, some of those wavy lines which I think indicated a direction of travel, according to my little book. Got some more humanoid-type figures here. We have near-historic subscriptions over the top of some of these native ones KE, wingfield, lolo I'm not sure who else is up there A couple messages and then at the bottom you have all these different native petroglyphs. It's ironic that he was here to survey the park and yet he walked on the rock. Some more petroglyphs here, a lot of humanoid figures, some animals for good measure, and mixed in with some more modern graffiti. Interesting one right there, that big one with the cross on the top of its head, and you got Jose Lolo up there. Thanks, jose. Interesting one right there, that big one with the cross on the top of its head, and you got Jose Lolo up there. Thanks, jose, we appreciate your contribution. Yeah, I was more interested in seeing the glyphs here.
Speaker 1:You can keep going to Supernova at 1.2 miles, penasco Blanco, 2 miles, just finished the petroglyph trail, actually gonna head back to the parking lot. It's getting dark and you got to be off the trail and out of the park by five. I know it's hard to see, but way out there in the distance there is a herd of elk. These elk are descendants from individuals that wandered in about 2000 into the park. About 20 individual animals here. They are cool, didn't think we'd see them, and they're pretty far out there so it's hard to make out details. But what a special treat.
Speaker 1:Walking the road back to the vehicle, this is Pueblo Arroyo, which is by Pueblo Bonita. See you there Behind me is Fajada Butte. It's a well-known and sacred site to the native peoples. It's several bands of different layers of rock on the very top. The Chacoans commemorated this movement of Sun and seasons. The moon up there on the very top you can maybe see it. Let me zoom in a little bit. There is what they call the sun dagger site. It's difficult to see from here and I really couldn't see it through the, through the scope this, but it's supposed to be aligned with the sun during the summer solstice, the winter solstice and the equinox.
Speaker 1:It's interesting how much time they spent. They spent hundreds of years here developing this site into the great houses, doing all the things that they did to align it, and then they abandoned it. Why did they abandon it? Why did they leave it? What do you think about that? If you have an answer to that, leave it in the comments below. Make sure to like this video, giving it a thumbs up if you want to see more videos like this. That helps me out in getting my information out more people on YouTube. I thank you for traveling along with me to Chaco Canyon. I hope to see you on the trail. Thanks so much.
