Tags: sony western-landscapes sunsets utah historic-subject national-monuments hovenweep-nm
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A revisited image, with a little something extra.
While out west in 02, I became totally engulfed with wanting to see and learn more about "The Ancient Ones"...the Anasazi Indians. This Indian culture is thought to be the forefathers of many of the modern tribes of today. These people existed for about 1200 years and were thought to have suddenly picked up and moved away to unknown lands or just vanished.
There were many such ruins in this area, some within National Parks and Monuments, but many on public and private lands. Most of all of them have been looted but the latter were all but completely scavenged by looters with no respect with preserving these brick and stone dwellings of a lost civilization of people. Thankfully, many of the very large communities were incorporated into National Parks and therefore preserved much of what we see today, with many excavations still ongoing today unearthing many more clues about these people.
I have had many strange personal experiences while being up close to where these people once lived. If you care to ready about them, please go to JMWNaturesImages.com and look under the Adventure Stories tab.
To view more of Hovenweep NM., Utah ... go to the folder of that title.
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This image is only part of the Cajon Unit ruins of the early Puebloan Native American people was made back in 2002 when I was on a 3 month camping and photographing trip in the Four Corners Region.
Yesterday I sat down at my computer to work on some images…exactly which images was unclear at that time. I began to look through the thousands of folders and somehow found myself reviewing the southwestern series. Its kinda weird that I chose these folders but that was exactly how I became infatuated with the Anasazi (Ancient Ones) Native American Indians back in 2002 while camping and photographing at Natural Bridges NM in Utah. I was at an overlook that held many ruins across the canyon, all of which were tucked back up under massive rock overhangs.
I had asked the rangers if there were any ruins that I could possibly hike to and they indicated the area was covered with them, but most were nothing but rubble from past looting of artifacts. But they did mention the Mule Canyon Ruins not too far away. I have written the accounting of finding this ruin in the description under ruin image in the Flickr folder for Natural Bridges, but in essence, I found that ruin quite by mistake. I had hiked past it and then found it on the return back out of Mule Canyon when I saw a burned out log on the ground that was pointing in the direction of the ruin high above me. For whatever reason my eye just seemed to follow the lines of that log. It was a very eerie moment with the hair standing high on my arms and neck. I spent nearly 3 hours at that ruin just sitting and looking out to the canyon wall on the other side and imagining what it would have been like to have lived at that place and time.
Now back to this image. I had not worked up any images of this site before and found that I remembered making each and every image in that series of ruins within the Cajon Mesa and the Hovenweep NM. There are 5 well-known individual named sites in Hovenweep, with many ruins/structures at each site. There are perhaps dozens more that have been raped to find artifacts. These ruins are forever eroding away as Mother Nature takes her toll on the environment. The fact that these dwellings, and various other structures, were constructed on huge boulders right on the edge of canyons, which were very susceptible to sliding down into the canyon due to eminent erosion, didn’t ensure their longevity. You can see much more of this in my Flickr Folders.
After going through hundreds of images I came across the ruins of the Cajon Unit, a small hamlet that was inhabited during the Pueblo III period, A.D. 1100-1300. As in many of similar dwellings of these people, these dwellings were constructed at the head of Allen Canyon both on top of the Cajon Mesa and under the rocky outcroppings along both sides of the canyon.
And now for another very unique event that seems to happen to me with respect to these ancient people, I opened the drawer containing hundreds of pamphlets of the places that I travel to for future written reference, I thought that it would take some time finding the info on this ruin and to my amazement the very first sheet of paper on top was the very reference sheet I needed….whoooo there. The hair on my arms and back of my neck stood up once more. There were several hair raising events that happened to me while at Hovenweep NM. I wrote about them on my web site www.jmwnaturesimages.com under “Adventure Stories”. I believe that you will quite possibly have a hair or two rise up when you read these events.
Now I’m hooked again on these images, the assumed lifestyle of these people and the wonderful history of this Anasazi Puebloan Culture.
Tags: historic-subject utah national-monuments hovenweep-nm American-west anasazi/puebloan-indians audio/visual-photo-presentations jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops
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The Square Tower Community
This cluster of ruins sits atop the upper edges of Little Ruin Canyon. It is believed that most of the people live in smaller clusters of dwelling perched atop the large boulders rimming this canyon around A.D. 1270.
Since water is one of the most important items in sustaining life, most of the communities were located at the head of canyons. Water seeps and sometimes flowing water is generally directed into these areas. A unique feature of this community is that these people actually channel the overland water by making rock dams diverting the waster into the head of this canyon. To the left of this image is the water seep dripping down through the boulders above. There is actually an alcove that you can walk under and have the seep, as small as it is, drip on you.
What is interesting in this community is that the Tower Unit was constructed down at the bottom of the canyon. Most towers were considered to be some type of lookout or watchtower, but this one located at the bottom of the canyon seems out of place.
There were at one time many towers and living structures lining both side of this canyon supporting perhaps hundreds of people in this one community alone.
Hovenweep Castle, seen here in the background, was dated to be around A.D.1277. Perhaps at one time this castle was much larger given the fact of that very huge that broke off and has slid down partway into the canyon. From the rubber of bricks alone indicates to me that this structure and the adjacent structure were much larger. Unfortunately this is very typical of the construction of these people. They built walls up to meet the undersides of overhanging alcoves, dividing them into many multi-story rooms… which survived time much better than the structures, built along the edges of canyons.
This entire National Monument, which is approximately 10 miles or so wide and perhaps as much as 40 miles in length, ranging from an elevation of 4800 ft. to 6800 ft, is a photographers Mecca. There are at the time I was there back in 2002, only 5 named communities; Cajon Unit, Square Tower Unit, Holly Unit and the Cutthroat Unit ranging from generally south to north. There may have been more opened to the public by now as archeological work continues as funds dictate.
I was able to cover 4 of the 5 units while camping for a few days at Hovenweep NM and I had three distinct unworldly hair raising events happen to me while photographing this place involving a mountain lion, Indian chanting in the very early morning hours and a rainbow that suddenly appeared out of thin air. If you care to read about these events, please go to my web site: JMWNaturesImages.com and look under the Adventure Stories tab. There are a number of images contain in the folder of this title.
Tags: western-landscapes national-monuments landscapes hovenweep-nm historic-subject anasazi-puebloan-indians american-west jmwnaturesimages.com photo-tour-guide photo-tours professional-photographer photo-workshops nature-and-wildlife-photographer
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