Story and photographs by Dan Leeth


A


The Great Kiva at Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, Pagosa Springs, Colo.


sk any realtor. It’s


always been about “location, location, location.” So why, a thousand years ago, did Ancestral Puebloans choose the inhospitable ridge below Chimney Rock as a site to locate a village? After all, cultivatable land


was marginal on the plunging hillsides, and at an elevation of around 7,000 feet, the grow- ing season remained short. The nearest year-round water fl owed a mile away. Even liq- uid to make mud mortar and adobe stucco needed to be lugged a thousand vertical feet uphill. Of course, high ground provides defensive advantages, but no evidence of warfare exists here. That leaves one explanation


for the location: The view. But it probably wasn’t the spread- ing panorama of peaks and pines that lured Chimney Rock’s ancient residents.


EnCompass July/August 2012 29


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