CHIMNEY ROCK ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE

Another Stop on our RV trip in Colorado Last Fall

(Click on a picture to enlarge it)

In southwest CO east of Durango, near the junction of Hwys 160 and 150 is a rock formation generally known as "Chimney Rock." On 4,100 acres of San Juan National Forest land, which in turn is surrounded by the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, it is in southwestern Colorado near the junction of Hwys 160 & 151.

In order to better manage the architectural exploration of the remnants of early residents of this area, Chimney Rock was designated an Archaeological Area and National Historic Site in 1970.

The site was home to the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians ~1,000 years ago and is of great spiritual significance to these tribes. Their ancestors built over 200 homes and ceremonial buildings high above the valley floor, probably to be near the sacred twin rock pinnacles.

The Great House at Chimney Rock sits at the top of this thin, high mesa and is accessible only by a steep-walled narrow causeway of rock.

At the end of the first ridge, is a view of the formation from an unused Fire Tower built before satellite cameras and infra-red monitoring was possible.

As in my previous blog about connections, here is another one . . . this site is related to the community around Chaco Canyon, a New Mexico site that Karen, Matt, and I have previously explored.

This is a movie of the Great House, built on a wide spot at the top of the mesa, constructed directly upon bare sandstone bedrock, so the tons of rock and adobe had to be carried up to the site. The Great House dates from the 11th century and is linked architecturally to the Great Kiva, a Chacoan "community center" found below the mesa. (The background voice is the guide answering a question about the fire lookout tower.)

The population of Chimney Rock seems to have expanded during the time when the Ancestral Puebloans had moved to the high mesa top, following a decline in the resident farming community and probably is attributed to immigration of Chacoans.
It is believed that Chimney Rock became part of the larger Chacoan regional community during the time when Chaco Canyon became a ceremonial center to unify a dispersed population through pilgrimage festivals and ceremonial rituals. The festivals would have been related to the re-distribution of goods (corn, timber, pottery, meat, etc.) and the ceremonial rituals related to worship of the Sun and Moon. Chimney Rock itself could have been an occasional host to these festivals with its Chacoan Great House Pueblo serving as focus.

The Ancestral Puebloans moved away from the Chimney Rock villages and the valleys in the 1100's. No later buildings or artifacts have been found. Maybe the weather at this location became too cold and dry, enemies became too persistent, or resources and farming areas became depleted. For whatever reason or combination of reasons, the area was deserted by the prehistoric farming-based populations until the area's resettlement by colonists from Mexico in the 1700's.