Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is a national monument protecting an archaeologically-significant landscape located in the southwestern region of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. The monument's are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, as directed in the Presidential proclamation which created the site on June 9, 2000. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is part of the

National Landscape Conservation System National Conservation Lands, formally known as the National Landscape Conservation System, is a collection of lands in 873 federally recognized areas considered to be the crown jewels of the American West.Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into t ...

, which is administered by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

. The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, an ...

ruins. As of 2022, over 8,500 individual archeological sites had been documented within the monument.

Geography

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is located 9 miles west of Pleasant View, Colorado in southwestern Colorado.Gregory, Lee. ''Colorado Scenic Guide: Southern Region.'' Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado, 1996 (1st edition 1984). pp. 17-18. . The monument's northern and eastern boundaries are canyons. Its western boundary is the Colorado-Utah state border and the reservation of the Navajo Nation. Lands south are bordered by the Ute Mountain Reservation and McElmo Creek.

History

Canyons of the Ancients residents

Developmental Pueblo: AD 500 to 1100

Ancient Pueblo people lived in the Canyons of the Ancients in the 10th century; Lowry Pueblo, built during the Great Pueblo period, was built atop pit-house built in the 10th century.Gregory, Lee. ''Colorado Scenic Guide: Southern Region.'' Johnson Books, Boulder, Colorado, 1996 (1st edition 1984). p. 80. For a fuller understanding of the architecture and life style during this period, pueblo buildings in the

Mesa Verde region The Mesa Verde Region is a portion of the Colorado Plateau in the United States that extends through parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. It is bounded by the San Juan River to the south, the Piedra River to the east, the San Juan Mountain ...

were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E and L shapes. The buildings were located more closely together and reflected deepening religious celebration. Towers were built near kivas and likely used for look-outs. Pottery became more versatile, including pitchers, ladles, bowls, jars and tableware for food and drink. White pottery with black designs emerged, the pigments coming from plants. Water management and conservation techniques, including the use of reservoirs and silt-retaining dams also emerged during this period.

Great Pueblo period: AD 1100 to 1300

As refinements in construction techniques increased, the Puebloans built larger pueblos, or villages, on top of the

pit-houses A pit-house (or ''pit house'', ''pithouse'') is a house built in the ground and used for shelter. Besides providing shelter from the most extreme of weather conditions, these structures may also be used to store food (just like a pantry, a lard ...

starting about AD 1090. Lowry Pueblo had just a few rooms and 2 kivas in 1090 and the village was expanded two times about 1103 and 1120 until it had 40 rooms, 8 kivas and one great kiva. Like their ancient neighbors at

Hovenweep National Monument Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon Mesa of the Great Sage Plain. Shallow tributaries run through the wide and deep canyons into t ...

and

Mesa Verde National Park Mesa Verde National Park is an American national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States. Established ...

, the Lowry Pueblo dwellers were farmers and hunters. They grew beans, corn and squash and raised turkeys. They also made and decorated pottery.

Notable sites

At least 8,500 distinct structures have been identified in the monument, and the density of archeological remains is the highest of any region in the United States. The vast majority of stone structures in the national monument are from the Ancient Puebloans era. More than 30,000 sites likely exist in the Monument, in some places more than 200 sites per square mile. After building basic pit style structures at first, the Puebloans later built villages with cliff dwellings. Archaeological ruins also include Sweat lodges, kivas, shrines and petroglyphs. Reservoirs with stone and earthen dams, including spillways and also numerous check dams,Woodall, Kristina L
''History and Intent of the Proclamation for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.''
Bureau of Land Management. p. 34. Retrieved 9-24-2011.
Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 9-24-2011. built in case of flash floods. Stone towers which may have been lookout or sentry posts, are found scattered throughout the monument.

Migration

Unlike other Ancient Pueblo site abandonment, it appears that the people of the Canyons of the Ancients left the sites much earlier than their neighbors, some time in the mid-12th century. Some of the artifacts found from the site show a connection to the Chacoan culture, while others are similar to those of the Mesa Verde dwellers. Other Ancient Pueblo people from the area migrated south to Arizona and New Mexico, ancestors to modern pueblo people such as the Hopi and Zuni. Modern Pueblo people are located on reservations primarily in New Mexico, but some in Arizona. The 60,000 people's pueblos and reservations reside in three geographic areas: * along the upper Rio Grande in New Mexico, such as

Taos Pueblo Taos Pueblo (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos-speaking (Tiwa) Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico. The pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest ...

* southern New Mexican Zuni, Acoma, Laguna and Isleta pueblos and reservations * Arizona Hopi.

Post-Pueblo Native American tribes: 14th to 18th century

After 1300, hunter-gatherers, ancestors of the Ute and Navajo, moved into the southwestern

and southeastern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and came to inhabit the region.''The Post-Pueblo Period: A.D. 1300 to Late 1700s.''
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011. * The ancestors to the Navajo were one of the tribes of the southern division of the Athabaskan language family that migrated south from Alaska and northwestern Canada, most likely traveling through the Great Basin. The Navajo ancestors were in the area after AD 1300, but at least by the early 16th century. * The people from who the Ute descended arrived in the area from the west in this period from 1300 to the 18th century. The Ute's ancestors are hunter-gatherers who, in the 12th century, began migrating east from the present southern California area into a large hunter-gathering territory as far east as the Great Plains and in the canyons and mountains of eastern Utah and Colorado. During this period, the Spanish colonial reach extended to northern New Mexico, where they settled in the 16th century. They introduced items for trade, such as guns and horses, new and deadly diseases, and cultural influence in the forms of religion, language, and forms of government. In the 18th century, Spanish missionaries visited the area looking for a route to Spanish missions in California. One of the expeditions was that of Spanish friars Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez who traveled from New Mexico, through western Colorado to Utah.

European and American settlement: 19th century to present

The first

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to peopl ...

American people arrived in the early 19th century, starting with trappers. With the discovery of precious ores in the last decades of the 19th Century, miners and other settlers moved into the region. By the mid-19th century, the United States government and Native American tribes were at war over land ownership. People were forced to leave their homelands. The Navajo had moved south and the Ute territory was significantly reduced.

Excavation and restoration

Lowry Pueblo was excavated between 1930-1934 by Paul S. Martin of the Field Museum of Natural History and went through a restoration process in 1965. Two years later, it was named a National Historic Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic places.Wilson, D. Ray (1990) ''Colorado Historical Tour Guide.'' Carpentersville, IL: Crossroads Communications. p. 374. .

National monument

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management administers the monument and enforces regulations balancing resource protection with land conservation. It was created by executive proclamation in 2000 with the intention of protecting the archaeological, natural and geological resources.Skopec, Eric. (2007)
''The Anasazi Guide.''
Self-published at www.lulu.com. p. 143. . Facilities at the Lowry Pueblo include parking, a picnic area, toilet and trail. Sand Canyon Pueblo also has a trail, which leads to McElmo Canyon. While other national monuments in the Southwest, including Hovenweep, were limited to the area around major ruins, "Canyons of the Ancients was perhaps the first to explicitly recognize that ruins do not tell the entire story—that ancients lived in, hunted, gathered and raised crops, and developed water and religious sites throughout the larger landscape,” according to Secretary of the Interior

Bruce Babbitt The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has be ...

Wilderness study areas

There are three Wilderness study areas in the monument: * Cahone Canyon, located about 4 miles southwest of the town of

Cahone, Colorado Cahone is an unincorporated village in western Dolores County, Colorado, United States, about 9 miles southeast of Dove Creek straddling U.S. Highway 491. There is a post office there, and a large bean farm with storage and processing facility, ...

, is about 9,156 acres. The wilderness area, varying from in elevation, consists of three canyons with piñon-juniper woodlands and riparian and sagebrush ecosystems. * Cross Canyon, located south of Cahone Canyon, about 14 miles southwest of the town of

, is about 12,721 acres, 1,008 acres cross into Utah. The wilderness area, varying from in elevation, consists of three canyons (Cross, Ruin, and Cow), with piñon-juniper woodlands and riparian and sagebrush ecosystems. * Squaw/Papoose Canyon is located about 12 miles south of Dove Creek and is about 11,357 acres, 6,676 acres cross into Utah. The wilderness area, varying from in elevation, consists of two canyons (Squaw and Papoose).

Anasazi Heritage Center and Canyons of the Ancients visitor center

The

Anasazi Heritage Center The Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum (formerly the Anasazi Heritage Center) located in Dolores, Colorado, is an archaeological museum of Native American pueblo and hunter-gatherer cultures. Two 12th-century archaeological sites, ...

is also the visitor center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and includes artifacts from the monument, a museum with interactive exhibits, a library and a theatre. Information is available there regarding the Ancient Puebloan culture, Trail of the Ancients Byway and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

Vandalism

Vandalism and treasure hunting are difficult to minimize due to an inadequate number of federal employees and law enforcement personnel to monitor and prosecute those who deface ruins or steal archeological remains. Thousands of undocumented artifacts have been removed from the monument and now reside in private collections. A news article in July 2006 reported that funding for the monument had decreased by almost 40% since 2004, and that a particularly severe looting episode occurred in January 2006.

Natural resources

Geology and topography

The northern part of the Monument in part has gently sloping, relatively even surfaces ranging in elevation from about in the east to about in the west. These surfaces are upheld by sedimentary rocks of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

age that are mostly covered by much younger gravel and sand layers deposited in the last several million years. The region is incised by canyons that drain south and west to McElmo Creek; the creek falls from the east at about west at the

border. The oldest rocks are exposed in McElmo Canyon and are sedimentary layers of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

age. In and near the Monument, these sedimentary rocks have been bent upwards to form a dome, the McElmo Dome: most of the Jurassic rocks are below the surface in the regions immediately bordering the area. The southern boundary of much of the Monument lies just north of McElmo Creek. The Ute Mountains to the south are cored by

igneous Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...

intrusions and rise to .

Formations from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods

The following description of the geology of the Monument is derived mostly from contributions to Anderson et al. (1997), unless otherwise referenced. The nomenclature of the rock units here may not represent the present consensus. The sedimentary sequence is over thick and is represented by the stratigraphic units listed below.

Carboniferous Period

Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

is produced from rocks of Mississippian age (Carboniferous Period 359.2–299 million years ago) in the McElmo Dome, from wells drilled to a depth of about . The dome contains one of the largest deposits of carbon dioxide in the United States, and the extracted gas is used for enhanced oil recovery. This carbon dioxide reservoir has been studied to learn about possible underground storage (

carbon sequestration Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in lan ...

) of carbon dioxide.

Oil and gas exploration

In 1986, the area was designated as the Anasazi Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management to ensure there are no new leases for oil and gas industry; Leases will only be given to promote the conservation of oil and gas resources. 85% of the monument was under lease by ranchers and oil and gas exploration entities in 2000. With only 2,000 acres of monument land that is not leased, and that land home to ancient archaeological sites and wildlife habitat, four environmental groups have been active to ensure there is no further oil and gas exploration and extraction. However, off-road vehicles and an increase in road construction for oil and gas exploration, allow greater access to archeological areas. Large trucks known as " thumpers" were found searching for oil and gas pockets by pounding the earth and recording the

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

data, having received a green light from the Bureau of Land Management. Executive Director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Mark Pearson stated:

The decision showed a blatant disregard for the proclamation hat states that leases should only be made to protect and preserve oil and gas resources That does not bode well for the future management for the rest of this monument or any monument in the country.Binkly, Gail
''Thumpers hit a speedbump.''
High Country News. 9-30-2002. Retrieved 9-24-2011.

In 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation reported that the nation's push for energy resources on federal land is occurring at a cost of archaeological and cultural resources at Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Utah's

Nine Mile Canyon Ninemile Canyon (also Nine Mile Canyon) is a canyon, approximately long, located in Carbon and Duchesne counties in eastern Utah, United States. Promoted as "the world's longest art gallery", the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, most ...

. The National Trust further asserted that the Bureau of Land Management has only documented 17 million acres of the 262 under its stewardship. Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior, said in 2009:

With an emphasis on conservation, protection and restoration, the National Landscape Conservation System and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument represent a new era of management for the BLM. After 130 years of exploration and research identifying tens of thousands of irreplaceable and fragile archaeological sites, we know that Canyons of the Ancients represents the best of our cultural heritage. Using an army of volunteers who contribute on the ground services and applying the principles of balanced management and science-based decision-making, this crown jewel preserves ancestral homes and landscapes for Native American citizens and for children and communities throughout the United States.

Wildlife

The Monument is home to a wide variety of desert wildlife, some of which are the

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius''), also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of ...

Gambel's quail Gambel's quail (''Callipepla gambelii'') is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It inhabits the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Sonora; also New Mexico-border Chihuahu ...

Golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

Long-Nosed Leopard lizard The long-nosed leopard lizard (''Gambelia wislizenii'') is a species of relatively large North American lizard in the family Crotaphytidae. ''Gambelia wislizenii'' ranges in snout-to-vent length (SVL) from . It has a large head, a long nose, ...

, Mesa Verde nightsnake, mourning dove, Peregrine falcons,

Red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members wit ...

s the Twin-spotted Spiny Lizard. Mammals that pass through the

riparian A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

and piñon-juniper woodland are

jackrabbits Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...

Mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whi ...

, ringtail, fox, muskrat, beaver and bobcat.Kruger, Fraces Alley; Meaney, Carron A. (1995). ''Explore Colorado: A Naturalist's Notebok.'' Photography by John Fielder. Englewood, Colorado: Westcliff Publishers and Denver Museum of Natural History. pp. 42-61. . Wildlife and plant habitat are threatened by increased road and building construction by oil and gas interests.

Gallery

File:Kiva ruins at Canyons of the Ancients.jpg,

Kiva A kiva is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circular and underground ...

ruins File:Lowry Pueblo.jpg,

Lowry Pueblo The Lowry Pueblo is an Ancestral Puebloan archaeological site located in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument near Pleasant View, Colorado, United States. The pueblo was constructed around 1060 AD atop abandoned pithouses from an earlier ...

File:Lowry Pueblo ruins.jpg,

File:Stone towers at Canyons of the Ancients.jpg, Stone towers are numerous in the monument

Notes

References

External links

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
(Bureau of Land Management)
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Recreational MapCrow Canyon Archaeological Center, Describes sites in the Monument
{{authority control National Monuments in Colorado Bureau of Land Management National Monuments Bureau of Land Management areas in Colorado Ancient Puebloan archaeological sites in Colorado Native American history of Colorado Protected areas of Dolores County, Colorado Protected areas of Montezuma County, Colorado Oasisamerica cultures Puebloan buildings and structures Ruins in the United States Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Montezuma County, Colorado 2000 establishments in Colorado Protected areas established in 2000 Units of the National Landscape Conservation System