Chaco National Historical Park

           
Chaco National Historical Park is a place filled with a rich history and a mysterious culture. The ancient sites once belong to the Pueblo Bonito and they mysteriously left the Chaco Canyon for unknown reasons. When the Pueblo Bonito left they boarded up windows and doors. They tried to burn up any evidence of there being to indicate to other Native Americans saying that no one will or should live here again. Century’s later archeologists excavated 5% of the Chaco Canyon and discovered a plaza that was once bustling with Pueblo Bonito.

What is left of the Plaza is broken down walls that are very well preserved and many kivas in various sizes. Archeologists have speculated that the kivas of different sizes are used for different uses ranging from family uses to ceremonial uses. The buildings were several feet high with two to four stories high. Some of the rooms were used as kitchens, homes and used for storage. The reasons archeologists know what the rooms were used for was from the artifacts unknowingly left behind which indicates what the majority of the rooms were used for. Their buildings did have wood but the civilization here was advanced enough to not need wood, it was like an obsession with them to get wood.  It seems it was an unnecessary risk to go out 80 miles to get wood and hand carry it by foot by to the Plaza to use.  They used the wood to build their ceilings and the type of wood is oak. Due to the dryness of the desert the wood would last a long time because it would not rot in the dryness.

Middle America has influence the Pueblo Bonito in some fascinating ways. Their doors were shaped in a way that has the almost the same as the doors in Middle America. It had a peculiar shape it would form a small rectangular shape then  at the top that would have a big square like shape to the door. They would also somehow get colorful rainforest birds. The birds had an important role in the ceremonies where the feathers would give the cloths a colorful hue. Archeologists found evidence of colorful feathers and linked them to birds in Middle America. That would indicate two things. Number one the Pueblo Bonito would either go to Middle America or someone from Middle America would come to them. Number two the evidence of the birds and doors shape indicated trade between Middle America and Chaco Canyon.

There is a possibility of many reasons why the Pueblo Bonito have left the plaza. When the Spanish came and tried to force their belief system on the Pueblo Bonito and in a few years the Pueblo Bonito revolted against the Spanish rule. About a decade later the Spanish came back and devastated the area with their brutal re-conquering ways seemingly forcing the Pueblo Bonito out. Another reason could be that the Spanish brought diseases to the Pueblo Bonito causing the population to dwindle to the point of the survivors abandoning the area. A major drought could have forced the Pueblo Bonito to find a new source of water supplies. It could be a combination of all three diseases, drought and the invading Spanish. In reality we shall never know the reason of their leaving.

There was a presentation of a mystifying mystery that has sparked a big and troublesome debate among archeologists, scientists and astronomers. It is the mystery of how the  Pueblo Bonito predicted the summer & winter solstice. The Pueblo Bonito had their buildings lined one hundred percent perfect from south and north. The building coincidently lined perfectly in the perimeter of where the Sun would rise and set at the time of the summer & winter solstice.  Where  Pueblo Bonito learn this knowledge is sadly lost in time.  There a humongous rock formation all by it self in the middle of the desert near the National Park visitor center. It had a man made ramp that would go all the way to the top of the buildings. The Pueblo Bonito also built buildings that used to be placed all along the edge of the remarkable rock formation. This was a big structure to build in the south west of America on a rock formation. The more remarkable object is on top of the rocky formation that is three simple rock plates that are aligned in a special  way to determine the summer & winter solstice. It had a spiral circle on another flat rock surface.  The Summer Solstice would be a straight sunlight line going perfectly straight down the middle of the spiral circle. The Winter Solstice would be two straight lines illustrated in a light perfectly lined on both sides of the spiral circle. Some say it was placed by the Pueblo Bonito to predict the summer & winter solstice.  Others say it was Mother Nature because the slabs of rock would have been falling on it sides at a leaning angle on another rocky surface. That mystery will never be solved because due to investigating this phenomenon man has somehow moved the slabs of stones centimeters apart. These are some of the few examples of the debate of the summer & winter solstice.

Chaco National Historical Park Has the Night Sky Program which is a program that utilizes their observatory. The observatory can see vast galaxies like The Whirlpool Galaxy which is a spiral galaxy that has a silver mix with a pinkish hue. Also it may be possible to see the Globular Cluster M80 on a clear night in Chaco Canyon. It a bunch of silver and gold stars that resembles a cluster of bees. There is a galaxy that is the Milky Way sister galaxy that is on a collision course with the Milky Way. It would be billions of years before that happens and before that the sun will destroy any living organism on earth and earth itself in a few billion years before the collision happens.  So you can also see our silver moon and the planets in our Solar System!

The Chaco Canyon is holding tight to it secrets of the Pueblo Bonito. The now empty ruins once filled the canyon with it bustling noise of life is now silenced by the sound of the wind. The observatory seeks out the mysteries of the universe to the people who visited the National Park and looked on in wide eyes to see beyond the stars. Chaco Canyon and its National Park is truly a magical place to visit and to the Pueblo Bonito, to live!