CHAPTER II. 



EUINS OF THE CHACO GAXON, EXAMINED II^T 1877. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The great riiius iu Uie Ghaco Caiiou, in Northern New Mexico, are pre- 

 eminently the finest examples of the numerous and extensive remains 

 of the works of unknown builders to be found north of the seat of the 

 ancient Aztec Empire iu Mexico, and of which there is comparatively 

 but little known even to this day. The first published account which 

 ever appeared in regard to them is a short reference to the Pueblo Bonito 

 by Gregg in 1844* His observations covered a period of eight years 

 previous to 1840. In 1849 a military expedition under the command of 

 Golonel Washington, then military governor of New Mexico, was sent 

 against the Navajos, who were troublesome at that time, and their line 

 of march traversed a portion of the caiion. The report of Lieutenant 

 Simpson, t of the United States Topographical Engineers, who accompa- 

 nied the expedition, contained the first detailed and authentic account 

 ever published of these wonderful ruins, and it has been up to this time 

 the only source of information. 



Prof. O. Loew visited the Pueblo Pintado iu 1874, and a short descrip- 

 tion of it by him appears in the annual report of the Chief of Engineers 

 for 1875 : | 



My visit to the caiion of the Ghaco in the spring of 1877 (May 7-15) 

 was made with no idea of discovering anything new, but to see for my- 

 self and thus be able to compare more satisfactorily the highest develop- 

 ment of ancient architectural skill as exhibited in these ruins with the 

 extensive remains in the San Juan basin, and also with the pueblos of 

 New Mexico and Arizona which are still occupied. The results of the 

 labor of four or five days spent in the examination of the eleven ruined 

 pueblos that I saw are mainly condensed in the accompanying plates, 

 and they will need but little explanatory text. 



It was my intention to have reached the ruins from old Fort Defiance 

 via the Gaiion de Chelly and Washington Pass over the Tunecha Mount- 

 ains, but I experienced so much trouble in securing the animals and 



* Commerce of the Prairies. J. Gregg. New York, 1844 ■: 



" Of such character are the ruins of the Puello Bonito, in the direction of Navajo, 

 on the borders of the Cordilleras, the houses being generally built of slabs of fine-grit 

 sandstone, a material utterly unlinown iu the present architecture of the north. 



Although some of these structures are very massive and spacious, they are generally 

 cut up into small, irregular rooms, many of which yet remain entire, being still covered 

 with the vigas, or joists, remaining nearly sound under the asoteas of earth ; and yet 

 their age ia such that there is no tradition which gives any account of their origin." 

 (Vol. 1, p. 284.) 



t Report Secretary of War, 31st Congress, 1st session, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 64. 



X Report on the Ruins of New Mexico. By Dr. Oscar Loew, p. 184. 



Professor Loew calls this the Pueblo Bonito. The account by Gregg, just quoted, 

 evidently refers to the same ruin, as it is the first one approached from the east, and ia 

 «ome distance from the others, of which he probably knew nothing. 



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