Hello, there! I’m checking in from the ancient Rome of the Southwest.
The faint roads leading here still hint at the vanished footprints of ancient Chacoan culture. South of Durango off of U.S. Highway 550 in New Mexico, Chaco Canyon served as a center for trading turquoise and obsidian for sea shells and jars of chocolate. These ancient people of the Southwest may have even collected mythical stories about far-away places by trading across a vast expanse – from today’s Arizona to Chichen Itza, Mexico.
While jostling down a washboard road toward the center of Chaco Canyon, an expansive blue sky contours with sandstone cliffs that line the desert floor. Right smack in the center of the valley’s floor a stone spire towers over even the highest of the Chacoan walls.
The summer weather has begun to push record highs, and the barren landscape’s only shade lies in the alcoves of the cliffs. I find it bitter sweet to leave my air conditioning but can hardly wait to get out and explore the ruins. After battling warm summer winds to put up my tent, I set out for the nearest ruin from camp, Wijiji.
In fact, I ran the whole trail to Wijiji – just for fun. What I found foreshadowed my arrival at Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketyl. The ruins are neatly stacked stone bricks formed into massive walls that rise up out of the ground as much as four stories. While contemplating the jagged corner of a great house and its precise astral alignments, I pictured it as it must have been when Richard Wetherill was first seeing it: crumbled walls and sherds of pottery scattered about as well as the days in brutal desert sun spent putting together pieces of the past.
As a treasure hunter, I’m seeking out a literal treasure, but I’m also using the term more loosely. For example, gold coins can be a treasure because of the gold, but also because of the people who minted it. I believe Chacoan culture to be a treasure of the latter sort. And so in order to preserve and protect the history and cultural treasures, the park has collected most of the ancient artifacts.
Using those collections, descendants of the ancient peoples have helped us interpret their lives and to explain the hundreds of great houses that extend north into the San Juan Basin as far as Chimney Rock. We’ve found that Chaco was an economic, spiritual and ceremonial center from the ninth to the 12th century. Some visitors still feel the magic and power of those people through moonlit tours offered by the park.
The hot, dry air parches my throat as I climb onto the mesa top toward the Pueblo Alto ruin. I can’t help but wonder at the toughness of the people who lived here and what their lives were like. What a struggle it must have been just to stay alive. I filled my Nalgene back at camp – and a good thing, too! The only water I found came from a spigot at the visitors center.
From the view at Pueblo Alto, I can see the monsoon clouds moving in on the horizon. Sprinkling cold rain is a reprieve and welcome blessing for me, but I can’t shake the feeling that life here is like trying to capture smoke: equal parts material and ethereal. No fine line can be found and as soon as you reach for it – it vanishes.
Next time, I’ll check into the global phenomena of geocaching and how millions of people are treasure hunting real treasures near their homes.
Till then, happy hunting!
David Strawn is a Fort Lewis College student from Creede. This is the fifth in a series about the travels of a treasure hunter searching for the riches of humans, nature and human nature.
