Chaco Canyon!!! Part 1

As a "preview", we spent 3 days in Chaco Canyon!  Many memories and many adventures returned from the past!  So, with this and the next few posts, the past and present will be the topics!

Some 41 years ago, come this June, I dragged my wife and 2 year old daughter out to a remote area of New Mexico called "Chaco Canyon National Monument".  There were two roads into Chaco Canyon - one from the south from Thoreau (pronounced "throw" in New Mexico) and Crownpoint, only some 38 miles of washboard dirt road, and one from the north, some 43 miles of rough, washboard dirt road from north of Nageezi at Blanco Trading Post.

The preparations for that 1974 trip were thought out and planned.  We would have to camp. So, we bought a very used, basic pop-up tent trailer that was light enough to pull behind an Opel Station Wagon.  I had found a 1960 Cushman Super Eagle scooter which we rebuilt at the Archaeomagnetic Lab that could be disassembled and put inside the pop-up trailer.  We also purchased poor, used, propane refrigerator that fit inside the pop-up.  This plus a 9'x12' tent, card table, 10'x10' awning, and 10 square yards of used carpeting (25 cents a yard) for under the awning completed our "haul".  We packed all this up, plus clothes, Coleman stove and lantern, etc., Crystal's car seat and headed out for the unknown.

We arrived at Chaco Canyon after two days of driving. Then we found out that "the telephone calls" that were supposed to be made . . . had not been made. Superintendent Harriman was quick to respond - "No problem".  The year 1974 was well into the "big dig" at Chaco Canyon.

So, we set up camp.

And some 41 years later.

My first collection site was the Garden Fields at Chetro Ketl. These samples yielded "OK" results.  But the second site was very interesting and yielded excellent results!  The second site was an abandoned oxbow of the ancient Chaco River near the garden fields and out from Chetro Ketl almost to the modern day erosional Chaco Wash.  I dug two 6' shafts into this abandoned oxbow, sampling every 12 inch interval, and dated the sedimentation of this oxbow related to the occupation of Chaco Canyon.  The first and shallowest sample set dated around AD 1680, while the deepest sample sets dated from around AD 500.

Now, the collection process utilized Plaster of Paris to encase the samples.

So, some 41 years later, and with Ranger Don Whyte as an escort, we walked out to the abandoned oxbow for that nostalgia trip.

Under our feet is the first collection pit.  The white disks and chips in front of us is Plaster of Paris left over some 41 years ago from my collection!  From the weathering of the plaster, I wouldn't doubt if that Plaster of Paris won't still be there in another 41+ years!