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 of Colorado. 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, better known as the National Conservation Lands. This system comprises managed by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes recognized for their outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values."National Conservation Lands" Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 5-2-2016. Canyons of the Ancients encompasses and surrounds three of the four separate sections of Hovenweep National Monument, which is administered by the National Park Service. The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily Ancestral Puebloan 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 west of Pleasant View, Colorado in southwestern Colorado.Woodall, Kristina L. History and Intent of the Proclamation for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Bureau of Land Management. pp. 1, 34. Retrieved 9-24-2011.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.Woodall, Kristina L. History and Intent of the Proclamation for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Bureau of Land Management. pp. 33-34. Retrieved 9-24-2011.
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 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.Wenger, Gilbert R. (1991) . The Story of Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde Museum Park, Colorado: Mesa Verde Museum Association. . pp. 39-45.
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 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 and Mesa Verde National Park, 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.Canyons of the Ancients: Background. 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.
PuebloPhotoComments Lowry Pueblo The Lowry Pueblo National Historic Landmark consists of 8 kivas, a great (community) kiva and 40 rooms built as high as three stories. The underground great kiva was built about 1090 AD and had murals painted over about 5 layers of plaster. About 1110 AD, another kiva was built on top of the original kiva. Based upon the size of the kiva it's thought that the Lowry Pueblo may have been a local center for religious gatherings and celebration.Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Information. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved 9-24-2011.Casey, Robert. L. (1993) . High Journey to the Southwest. The Globe Pequot Press. p. 229. . Painted Hand Pueblo The Painted Hand Pueblo is a backcountry site that consists of non-excavated ruins built upon boulders along a cliff-face and a standing tower. The pueblo received its name from a boulder with pictographs of hands. Sand Canyon Pueblo One of the largest pueblos of the 13th century, Sand Canyon Pueblo, built between 1250 and 1280, contains at least 20 multi-family room blocks with 420 rooms, 90 kivas, and 14 towers. A spring runs through the center of the walled site that held up to 725 people. Construction was exacting, with care taken to shape stone, and some double and triple walls for stability. Families lived in clusters of rooms that included living, storage and work rooms and had their own family kivas. The community shared roofed plazas and great kivas, and towers often connected to kivas. By 1280, new construction had stopped and people began migrating out of the pueblo.Plog, Stephen. (1997). Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest. London: Thames and Hudson. .
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 southern New Mexican Zuni, Acoma, Laguna and Isleta pueblos and reservations Arizona Hopi.Pueblo People Today. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011.
Post-Pueblo Native American tribes: 14th to 18th century After 1300, hunter-gatherers, ancestors of the Ute and Navajo, moved into the southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah 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."Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations east of the Rio Grande", Jeffrey D. Carlisle, B.S., M.A., University of North Texas. May 2001. pp. 3, 47. 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.What Other Indian Tribe is Related to the Navajo? Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011. 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.The Ute–Southern Paiute Connection. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011.
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 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.The Historic Period: Late A.D. 1700s to Mid-1900s. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 2011. Retrieved 9-26-2011.
Excavation and restoration Lowry Pueblo was excavated between 1930 and 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. .Woodall, Kristina L. History and Intent of the Proclamation for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Bureau of Land Management. p. 1. Retrieved 9-24-2011. 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.
Wilderness study areas
There are three Wilderness study areas in the monument:Woodall, Kristina L. History and Intent of the Proclamation for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Bureau of Land Management. p. 37. Retrieved 9-24-2011. Cahone Canyon, located about southwest of the town of Cahone, Colorado, is about . The wilderness area, varying from in elevation, consists of three canyons with piñon-juniper woodlands and riparian and sagebrush ecosystems.