A NEW NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



EXPEDITION 



Ruins of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Nature-Made 



Treasure-Chest of Aboriginal American History, 



to be Excavated and Studied; Work 



Begins This Month 



{With illustrations from photographs by Charles Martin, of the National 

 Geographic Society Reconnaissance Party of 1920) 



THE National Geographic Society 

 announces the sending out this 

 summer of an expedition to un- 

 dertake extensive excavations and studies 

 in the Chaco Canyon of northwestern 

 New Mexico. This expedition hopes 

 to discover the historic secrets of a re- 

 gion which was one of the most densely 

 populated areas in North America 

 before Columbus came, a region where 

 prehistoric peoples lived in vast com- 

 munal dwellings whose ruins are ranked 

 second to none of ancient times in point 

 of architecture, and whose customs, cere- 

 monies, and name have been engulfed in 

 an oblivion more complete than any other 

 people who left traces comparable to 

 theirs. 



Through the findings of this expedi- 

 tion, which begins its work this month 

 (June ), the National Geographic Society 

 expects to reveal to its members a shrine 

 of hidden history of their own country. 



Both in scientific value of its findings 

 and by adding a new chapter to the prog- 

 ress story of the human race, this proj- 

 ect promises to rival such expeditions 

 of The Society as that which dug out the 

 marvelous city of the Andean ancients, 

 Machu Picchu, or that which added to 

 North America's known spots of majesty 

 and seeming magic, the now famous Val- 

 ley of Ten Thousand Smokes, in the 

 vicinity of Titan Katmai. 



A POPULOUS ISLAND IN SEA OF SAND 



Chaco Canyon is that segment of the 

 Chaco River which is cut out near the 

 borderland of San Juan and McKinley 

 counties. New Mexico. Its sheer, but 

 sometimes crumbling, walls of sandstone 



rise from its floor anywhere from 100 

 feet to a height nearly equal to the United 

 States Capitol dome. From their upper 

 ledge stretch semi-desert wastes, making 

 for an isolation which adds another mys- 

 tery to the bygone metropolis of the can- 

 yon's maw : Whence came the lumber to 

 build and whence the water to cultivate 

 the corn, beans, and squash of these 

 aboriginal farms? 



To answer questions like these, the 

 expedition not only will include arche- 

 ologists. who will study periods of habi- 

 tation and the origin of the tribes, but 

 also will have agriculturists and geolo- 

 gists, who hope to patch from a crazy- 

 quilt of half -submerged ruins a complete 

 picture of the lives, customs, and culture 

 of these early Americans. 



A GIANT CANAL CARVED BY NATURE 



From an airplane this gash in the 

 desert surface might resemble a magni- 

 fied sector of the Panama Canal. Closer 

 inspection would disclose, however, not an 

 expanse of water, but an unwatered can- 

 yon, in or bordering which are a dozen 

 huge ruins that look to the casual ob- 

 server like remains of giant apartment- 

 houses, containing hundreds of rooms, 

 with associated temples or sanctuaries, 

 known as kivas, and lesser dwellings, the 

 true significance of which is not yet 

 known. 



More astounding still, some of these 

 larger structures, such as the Pueblo del 

 Arroyo (arroyo — wash), one of the two 

 ruins upon which The Society's expedi- 

 tion is to concentrate its investigations, 

 are built after the familiar E-shaped 

 ground plan of the modern office building, 



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