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Bandelier NATIONAL MONUMENT NEW MEXICO
Bandelier NATIONAL MONUMENT NEW MEXICO
by Kittridge A. Wing NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES No. 23 Washington, D. C., 1955 Reprint 1961 The National Park System, of which Bandelier National Monument is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoyment of its people. Ceremonial Cave, reached by a series of ladders extending 150 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon. In the picturesque canyon and mesa country of the Pajarito Plateau, we
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The Ruins: Their Types and Extent
The Ruins: Their Types and Extent
The evidences of ancient human occupation in the Bandelier neighborhood are apparent even to the most casual observer. When driving over the approach road to the monument headquarters one cannot fail to observe cave rooms in the cliffs on every hand; the continuing spectacle of smoke-blackened chambers dug into the rock provides the stimulus of discovery en route. But the roadside introduction is an infinitesimal preview of the total scope of prehistoric man’s activity in the region. In actualit
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TYUONYI.
TYUONYI.
On the floor of Frijoles Canyon, a little upstream from the headquarters museum, is Tyuonyi, the chief building of the area, and one of the most impressive pueblo ruins in the Rio Grande drainage. Situated on a level bench of open ground, perhaps 100 feet from the Rito and 15 feet above the water, Tyuonyi at one time contained over 400 rooms, to a height of 3 stories in part. Its modern aspect is greatly reduced in height; although excavated, no walls have been restored, so that only the ground
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TALUS HOUSE.
TALUS HOUSE.
On the talus directly above Tyuonyi to the north, at the foot of the prominent cliff, there once stood a cluster of houses. The group here had as its nucleus 12 or 15 cave rooms which were supplemented by at least as many masonry rooms at the front. Excavation of these rooms was completed in 1909 and the name Sun House was given to the building, because of a prominent Sun-symbol petroglyph carved on the cliff above. A part of this house group has been restored on the old foundations, with its ne
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LONG HOUSE.
LONG HOUSE.
About one-fourth of a mile up the canyon from Tyuonyi, also against the northern and sun-warmed cliff, is the ruin of one of the largest combination cave-and-masonry dwellings to be found anywhere on the plateau. This great ruin is known as Long House for an obvious reason—it stretches almost 800 feet in a continuous block of rooms. For all of this distance, the masonry walls are backed by a sheer and largely smooth wall of tuff some 150 feet high. Into this cliff are dug many cave rooms, severa
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KIVAS.
KIVAS.
Associated with the numerous ruins in Frijoles Canyon are various kivas, both in the canyon floor and in the cliffs. The large kiva previously mentioned is a short distance east of Tyuonyi, very nearly in the center of the widest part of the canyon floor. The rock-walled circular pit is 42 feet across and 8 feet deep, with a ventilation shaft at the east side and a narrow entranceway opposite. When the roof was intact above the chamber, there must have been little evidence of the existence of th
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CEREMONIAL CAVE.
CEREMONIAL CAVE.
A restored kiva of very different type may be found up the canyon nearly a mile. By climbing a series of ladders to a ledge 150 feet above the stream, the great rock overhang known as Ceremonial Cave can be reached. Under the shelter of this arch a number of masonry dwellings and a kiva were once built; the subterranean kiva, excavated and reroofed, is very small but would have served the needs of the few families who lived on this impregnable balcony. Entrance to Cave Kiva....
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STONE LIONS.
STONE LIONS.
Other noteworthy remains of the monument area lie outside Frijoles Canyon, accessible only by foot or horse trail across the mesas to the south. Perhaps the most frequently visited of these antiquities is the shrine of the Stone Lions, 10 miles from monument headquarters. Here on the mesa-top near an extensive ruin are two life-size crouching mountain lion effigies carved side by side out of the soft bedrock. This work of sculpture must have been accomplished many centuries ago, for long weather
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PAINTED CAVE.
PAINTED CAVE.
A final feature of particular interest in the back country of the monument is the Painted Cave. This art gallery in the cliffs decorates a canyon wall some 12 miles from headquarters. Once a large population inhabited this canyon of Capulin Creek, but most of the evidences of habitation have vanished except for the extensive pictographs on the weatherproof back wall of the Painted Cave. The arch of the cave is shallow but wide, so that a smooth area over 50 feet long was available to the artists
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OTOWI.
OTOWI.
The smaller section of Bandelier National Monument, lying some 15 miles from the headquarters area, takes its name from the Otowi ruin, the largest pueblo on the monument. Although not so impressive as the Tyuonyi ruin at first glance, the great spread and complexity of the rubble mounds surely dwarf all other ruined dwellings of the vicinity. Probably 450 ground-floor rooms were here, with an indeterminate number of upper-floor rooms—perhaps 600 rooms altogether is a reasonable estimate. The Ot
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TSANKAWI.
TSANKAWI.
The Otowi house-group occupies a site atop a low ridge walled in by the cliffsides of steep Pueblo Canyon. Its nearest neighbor, Tsankawi, is sited on a very different terrain: Tsankawi is very near to being a “sky-city” in the style of the modern Acoma in western New Mexico. Not as large as Otowi, this ruin has equal majesty by reason of its commanding position on top of a cliff-ringed island mesa overlooking a vast north-south sweep of the Rio Grande and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains beyond.
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WORK OF THE ARCHEOLOGISTS.
WORK OF THE ARCHEOLOGISTS.
Before entering upon a description of the life and times of the early Bandelier dwellers, it may be well to discuss briefly the efforts of the archeologists and others who have built up the picture of this long-lost culture. The work of the archeologist is essentially historical detective work—in his digging and searching he must find, assemble, and interpret clues. Some of these clues will be tangible, like pottery fragments. Other clues will be intangible—the very absence of pottery fragments
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THE BASKETMAKERS AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL PUEBLO PERIOD.
THE BASKETMAKERS AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL PUEBLO PERIOD.
As a result of such concerted study and deduction, there exists today a fairly solid understanding of the general course of human events in the Southwest for the past 2,000 years. Many details are still missing, and some will always be, but the general outline of Indian life and customs is established back to the early centuries of the Christian era; beyond that, the picture becomes hazy. Those earlier years were seemingly times of a seminomadic, hunting-gathering existence for the early Southwe
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GREAT PUEBLO PERIOD.
GREAT PUEBLO PERIOD.
The stage was now set for the great flowering of the Pueblo people; the way of life which had taken rough shape from A. D. 450 to 1050 now reached culmination in the Great Pueblo period. For about 200 years, or until around A. D. 1250, fortune smiled on the farming towns of the Four Corners country. The population grew and spread, and the handicraft arts reached a stage of impressive proficiency. The centers of this classic period which are today best known lie in three different States: Mesa Ve
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DROUGHT AND MIGRATIONS.
DROUGHT AND MIGRATIONS.
It seems, however, that the gods were fickle. Some two centuries of growth and prosperity were all that were to be allowed the farmers of the Great Pueblo centers. In the last quarter of the 13th century, a period of drought came to the high plateaus of the Pueblo people. From the evidence of the tree rings of the time, the majority of the years between A. D. 1276 and 1299 were so deficient in rainfall that the Indian corn crops could not have matured. Although this drought was not actually cont
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LATE PUEBLO PERIOD.
LATE PUEBLO PERIOD.
The upsurge of population and the main construction activity in Bandelier began after A. D. 1300. Large towns grew up and down the Rio Grande drainage, and their people achieved in most respects as high a standard of living as their forebears had known in the Great Pueblo centers of 200 years earlier. Very possibly the Rio Grande pueblos might have gone ahead to a new peak of cultural development if they had not been interrupted and demoralized by the coming of the Spanish. In 1598, some 400 far
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FOOD.
FOOD.
As a practicing farmer, the man’s chief reliance for food had been the crops of corn, beans, and squash that he knew how to raise. Perhaps the family had managed to bring some remnants of their most recent harvests with them to Frijoles; but these remnants had to be saved for seed, to insure crops for the coming year. What did the family eat meanwhile? In the warm season, a diet of sorts could have been pieced together by gathering various plants and fruit and nut crops. Spring brought out of th
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SHELTER.
SHELTER.
With his food needs taken care of, the new Frijoles resident thought next of shelter from the weather. Either he organized with some of his neighbors to construct a masonry dwelling in the traditional style of the west country, or he took shelter in a natural cave of the tuff cliff. In the latter case, a few days of scraping and chipping at the soft rock would normally suffice to level off the floor and raise the ceiling; final trimmings, such as fireplace and rocked-up doorway, could be complet
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CLOTHING.
CLOTHING.
The third basic requirement of the Frijoles newcomer was clothing, particularly warm clothing to combat the winter. Traveling into this area in the warm months, presumably, he may or may not have been able to bring along a full cold-weather wardrobe. If he did not, the materials to contrive warm clothes were available here for the taking. Ingenuity and work would have produced the necessary garments. The obvious coverings were skins and hides of the game animals which the hunters collected. A be
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RELIGION.
RELIGION.
It has been said that “Man cannot live by bread alone.” Nowhere is the truth of this better illustrated than in the history of the Pueblo Indian who, in spite of appalling difficulties to achieve the physical sustenance of life, found much time to develop a spiritual life. The principal evidences of a widespread ancient religion are, of course, the remains of kivas, found in all the old communities. Although details of the use of prehistoric kivas cannot be established, some ideas of their use c
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A CAUTION.
A CAUTION.
In the foregoing attempt to portray the origins and modes of life of the Bandelier dwellers, it has been necessary to generalize and abbreviate to a degree which may occasionally lead a reader astray. Particularly in the matter of dating periods of habitation and migration, it has been impossible to detail the many exceptions to the general chronology. It is suggested that the reader who wishes to investigate further the history of the Pueblo people make reference to the publications included in
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CLIMATE.
CLIMATE.
Summer at Bandelier is the shower season. From the first of July until well into September, there is an impressive display of lofty cumulus clouds and thunderheads almost every afternoon. Fortunately for your comfort, these cloud displays do not always result in showers on the monument every day. As is the habit of southwestern thunderstorms, the rains usually cling to the higher peaks, leaving the midelevations cooled but not drenched. The spring and fall are relatively dry seasons, when the sk
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LIFE ZONES.
LIFE ZONES.
There is a great variety of herbs, shrubs, and trees within the monument, as a result of the varied terrain and the range of elevation from the bank of the Rio Grande up to the summit of the San Miguel Mountains on the west boundary. Three life zones, or climatic zones, are encountered in traveling the central part of the monument; the Upper Sonoran zone of pinyon and juniper by the river, the Transition Zone of ponderosa pines on the higher mesas, and, highest of all, the Canadian Zone of spruc
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WILDLIFE.
WILDLIFE.
Of the larger animals, the mule deer are most commonly seen, becoming quite bold in Frijoles Canyon, where humans are familiar to them. Black bears are encountered occasionally on the trails in the back country, but are too wary to invade much-traveled areas. The shyest of them all, the mountain lion, leaves his footprints here and there, but is rarely seen. Smaller predators such as coyotes and foxes are numerous, as is the bobcat. These small hunters get most of their living from a large popul
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GEOLOGY.
GEOLOGY.
The landscape of the Bandelier area is predominantly one of cliffs and canyons; as a visitor to the plateau you will be made conscious of the involved structure and contour of the region in the course of the auto trip over the approach highway. The impression you may get on arrival is of a vast confusion of canyons separated by equally confused mesas and ridges. The topography, however, is not so mixed as first appearance would indicate, for there is a regularity to the pattern of the drainage w
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FRIJOLES CANYON.
FRIJOLES CANYON.
Monument headquarters are at the terminus of the approach road, on the floor of Frijoles Canyon. This center of development is the focal point of activity throughout the year. Listed below are the features of interest to be found in and around the headquarters area; reference to the map on pages 20 -21 will help to locate the points mentioned. 1. Administration Building and Museum. This building contains a reception information desk manned by park rangers and a lobby from which visitors leave to
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OTOWI SECTION.
OTOWI SECTION.
Two large ruins, Tsankawi and Otowi, are the principal features to visit on this detached section of the monument. The main access road from Santa Fe to monument headquarters passes through this section and close to the Tsankawi Ruin. Distance from this ruin to headquarters is 16 miles. 5. Otowi Ruin lies between Pueblo and Bayo Canyons on a disused road. Inquire of a park ranger before attempting to make the trip. 6. Tsankawi Ruin is reached by a spur road and foot trail branching from State Ro
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THE BACK COUNTRY.
THE BACK COUNTRY.
A network of some 50 miles of foot and horseback trails reaches out from monument headquarters into the roadless southern areas of the monument. Hikers and horseback parties frequently make a loop trip of 2 days, visiting the Stone Lions and Yapashi Ruins, and spending the night at Base Camp in Capulin Canyon, where a National Park Service fire guard is on duty during the summer. The return trip may be made past Painted Cave to the Rio Grande, then up White Rock Canyon to Frijoles Canyon and poi
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ADJACENT POINTS OF INTEREST.
ADJACENT POINTS OF INTEREST.
The Valle Grande is 15 miles west from the Frijoles Canyon checking station, on State Route 4, toward Cuba, N. Mex. This drive across the Jemez ridge cannot be made in the winter, for the road is never cleared of snow. Los Alamos , the atomic city, borders the monument on the north. At the time of this writing (1955), visitors are not allowed to enter the gates of Los Alamos without special passes. San Ildefonso , the modern Indian Pueblo nearest to the monument, will make an interesting side tr
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How to Reach the Monument
How to Reach the Monument
Bandelier National Monument is 46 miles west of Santa Fe, N. Mex., by way of U. S. 285 to Pojoaque, then left onto State Route 4. Coming from Taos and the north, leave U. S. 285 at Espanola, turning right across the Rio Grande. During the summer, access is possible from the south via Jemez Springs and through the Valle Grande on unimproved gravel roads....
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About Your Visit
About Your Visit
The monument is open every day of the year. The administration building and museum are open daily from 8 a. m. to 5 p. m. (from 8 a. m. to 9 p. m. in summer). Monument literature is available at the reception desk. Interpretive services include self-guided tours to the principal ruins of Frijoles Canyon. Make application at the reception desk for the booklet and map which describe the walk. Two other interpretive trails are provided, one visiting the ruins of Rainbow House immediately down canyo
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Establishment and Administration
Establishment and Administration
Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-American historian and ethnologist, gave the first prominence to the Pajarito Plateau ruins as a result of his explorations and descriptions during the 1880’s. Around the turn of the century a bill was introduced in Congress to create here a Cliff Cities National Park, it being apparent that some protection of the area was necessary to reduce the vandalism of the ruins. The bill, however, failed to pass. Presently, attention was again drawn to the area by the archeologi
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Related Areas
Related Areas
A number of other southwestern areas in the National Park System have been established for the protection of prehistoric structures. These include Mesa Verde National Park, in southwestern Colorado, and the following national monuments: Aztec Ruins, Chaco Canyon, and Gila Cliff Dwellings, in New Mexico; Canyon de Chelly, Casa Grande, Montezuma Castle, Navajo, Tonto, Tuzigoot, Walnut Canyon, and Wupatki, in Arizona....
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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES
(Price lists of National Park Service publications may be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D.C.)...
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