Friday, July 16, 2010

Leaving Colorado and heading into New Mexico

The land in SW Colorado is rich with pueblos--land of the ancients it is called. Visiting the Anasazi Heritage Center outside of Delores, CO brings you close to these people who once roamed and lived on the sage plain. Most of these pueblo ruins have just recently been discovered. Everyone is familiar with Mesa Verde and if you love learning about the people of the plains, there is a vast region to explore. The Canyons of the Ancients, a national park is located a short drive from the heritage center, which is the museum for the 3,000,000 + artifacts that have been collected from these old towns.
These ruins are located outside the heritage center.

Leaving Colorado and heading into New Mexico one gets the sense that the ancients walked the same route to find a decent location for their homestead. One can wonder why they built on the flat plains where there is no visual sign of water. How did they live on this sparse land? The Heritage center contains many small pieces of pottery that were found--animal bones that were used as needles, awls, weapons. Rocks and stones that are shaped into arrow heads. The New Mexico land also offers up more of these pueblo ruins--just to think that if you walked through the sage you might stumble upon another pueblo or small town that was once occupied. And the biggest question--how did they build these massive impressive lodgings without major tools?

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