An exploration into the past

From the Coastal Plain to the High Desert

July 19-20, 2014

Anazasi Heritage Center and Escalante Ruins

Fig. 1 - La Plata Mountains, from Durango to Dolores, Colorado
     

Fig. 2 - Entrance to the Anazasi Center and ruins

      
       Much like the XVIII century missionaries and explorers, Fathers Dominguez and Escalante, I crossed the high desert plains of the San Juan river basin and began to climb the mountains of the Animas and La Plata rivers. From the old mining town of Durango I traveled west towards the four corners area. As I went down towards the Pacific side of the continent I journeyed along the north side of the Mesa Verde.  The Mancos valley, home of the famous Wetherill family, the original explorers of the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde canyons, is truly a cowboy range. The next towns of Cortez and Dolores are the home of the Anazasi Heritage Center. This is the largest and most significant modern facility dedicated to the Ancestral Puebloan culture.  Its collections includes 3.5 million artifacts that are available for research.

Fig. 3 - Entrance to the Museum

      The museum is 7000 feet (2150 m) above sea level at the foot of the San Juan Mountains in Southwest Colorado, and about 17 miles by road from Mesa Verde National Park. The grounds overlook McPhee Reservoir and the Montezuma Valley.

Fig. 4 - Main exhibition hall

Fig. 5 - Jewelry with shells from the Sea of Cortez

Fig. 6 - Main exhibit hall

Fig. 7 - Exotic tropical bird feathers from southern Mexico

Fig. 9 - Sample of axes and hammers

Fig. 8 - Sample of sharp points and tools

Fig. 10 - Jars, mugs and ladles

     The Anazasi Heritage Center is also the gateway to a new area of ancient major sites that is gradually opening to the public.  The 170,000 acres of high desert that reaches the Utah border is called Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.  Thousands of archaeological sites have been recorded.  This area will provide visitors to the area an alternative to Mesa Verde which is overcrowded.  The area includes sites such as Lowry Pueblo, Hovenweep, Painted Hand Pueblo, Yellow Jacket Pueblo and Sand Canyon.  These sites will be better known in the future.

ESCALANTE PUEBLO

Fig. 11 - View of Ute Mountain, the sleeping chief.

     

      On the museum grounds are two 12th century settlements, the Dominguez and Escalante Pueblos, named after the Spanish friars who explored this area in 1776 and became the first to record archaeological sites in Colorado. These sites were excavated and stabilized 200 years later.  

Fig. 12 - McPhee Reservoir from Escalante Ruins

Fig. 13 - Kiva at the center of main building

         The Dolores Archaeological Program (DAP), the largest single archaeological project in the history of the United States, took place between 1978 and 1984.  Researchers mapped about 1600 archaeological sites - including hunting camps, shrines, granaries, households and villages - along the Dolores River in the reservoir area, and excavated about 120 sites to preserve their information value and research data before the water was impounded to create McPhee Lake.

Fig. 14 - View of the ruins and the Mancos River

        The AHC was originally built to house the artifacts and associated records recovered from the Dolores Archaeological Program (DAP) , a massive project to salvage the research value of a large archaeological area in southwest Colorado, once densely settled with thousands of ancient home sites, before construction of McPhee Dam and Reservoir. The plains in view are still planted with beans, just as they did thousands of years ago.

Key words: Texas 4th-7th grade Social Studies, Native American tribes, habitat and lifezones, cultural adaptation, Anazasi, Ancestral Pueblo, Rio Grande cultures, New Mexico and Colorado tribes, Paleo-Indians, Archaic and Classic Indians of the Southwest, Geography of the Rio Grande, Mesa Verde, Chaco, Taos, Acoma, Indian ruins, archaeological artifacts, teacher resources, Fund for Teachers, Texas.