Chimney Rock Archaeological Area

View Chimney Rock Archaeological Area in a larger map

Visit our Tour Destination: Colorado page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The Great House Pueblo at Chimney Rock Archaeological Area.
Photo by John Richardson, courtesy of Chimney Rock
Interpretive Association.

Chimney Rock Archaeological Area

3 miles south of Highway 160 on Highway 151
Between Durango and Pagosa Springs, Archuleta County, CO

Website:  Chimney Rock Archaeological Area

The Treasure:  On a high mesa, capped by two monumental rocky spires, scientists and volunteers work to preserve and interpret a magnificent complex of ruins that promise to offer key insights into the culture of the Ancestral Puebloan people.

Accessibility:  Chimney Rock Archaeological Area is accessible by guided tour only. These tours are offered on a daily basis from May 15 to September 30 and start at the Chimney Rock Visitor’s Center.

Background:  Nature created the first treasures here. The two rock spires that give Chimney Rock its name were carved out by retreating glaciers that left these vertical remnants of ancient sedimentary rocks. The tallest is designated Chimney Rock; the other spire (wider but a bit shorter) is known as Companion Rock.

Companion Rock and Chimney Rock.
Photo by John Richardson, courtesy of
Chimney Rock Interpretive Association.

The sublime appearance of these geological formations may have been a factor in attracting people to settle in this area over 1,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of settlement suggests Ancestral Puebloan farmers may have arrived between 850 and 900 A.D. They appear to have grown corn and beans, supplemented by hunting and gathering practices, in the North Piedra River valley. Over the decades, their small villages moved upslope, nearer to the Chimney Rock spires.

These original settlements in the Chimney Rock area were small, based on subsistence living. However, during this same time period, 93 miles to the south in New Mexico, a great Puebloan civilization was forming.  At the remote Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, the Pueblo people created a major regional culture center characterized by huge stone “Great Houses,” with an average of 200 rooms apiece, and distinctive circular ceremonial structures known as kivas.

The High Mesa ruins at Chimney Rock indicate that at some point the Chaco Canyon culture infiltrated this southern Colorado area, probably between 1000 and 1100 A.D. The extremely impressive ruins at Chimney Rock include a Great House, known as the Chimney Rock Pueblo, which contained at least 36 rooms and two ceremonial kivas. Many scholars believe that these late-period Chimney Rock structures were built to serve as an outlying ceremonial and festival center for the Chaco Canyon culture, perhaps inspiring pilgrimages to the sacred Chimney Rock location for special rituals. A professor of astrophysics at the University of Colorado has proposed a popular theory that the Great House’s location would have aligned with the two rock spires to commemorate lunar events important to the Pueblo religion.

This period of High Mesa settlement and ambitious architecture at Chimney Rock was short-lived. By the first quarter of the 1100s, the Ancestral Pubeloans began a still-unexplained migration southward, abandoning their great ceremonial centers. The stories told by their ancestors—today’s Hopi, Zuni, Jemez, Acoma, Taos, Picuris, and other Rio Grande Pueblo tribes—may contain allusions to the ancient grandeur of life in Chaco Canyon and ceremonial worship at Chimney Rock. All agree that Chimney Rock is sacred land.

Historic image of the Great House Pueblo at Chimney Rock in 1941.
Photo courtesy US Forest Service, Pagosa District.

The Great House tour at Chimney Rock.  Photo by John Richardson,
courtesy of Chimney Rock Interpretive Association.

A Major Lunar Standstill moonrise as observed from the Great House ruins
at Chimney Rock.  Photo by Helen Richardson, courtesy of Chimney Rock
Interpretive Association.

Notes from the Editor:  Chimney Rock Archaeological Area is within the San Juan National Forest, where the work of preservation is overseen by the volunteer Chimney Rock Interpretive Association and the Pagosa Ranger District of the USDA Forest Service. The popularity of the site presents numerous preservation challenges, particularly the ongoing need for site stabilization. Erosion, foot traffic, animal activity, wind and rain, and (most regrettable of all) looting can result in irreplaceable losses.

Archaeological dig at Chimney Rock
in 2008.  Photo by John Richardson,
courtesy of Chimney Rock
Interpretive Association.

The Chimney Rock Archaeological Area website posts the following list of public awareness guidelines. While these guidelines were written specifically for Chimney Rock, they are applicable to hundreds of other archaeological sites as well. I’m reposting them in full because of their extreme importance. Please take them to heart!

• Stay on existing roads and trails. Scars on the landscape heal slowly and increase soil erosion.
• Walk carefully in archaeological sites to avoid stepping on walls and trash mounds. Do not stand or sit on walls, move rocks, or climb through doorways. All cause damage to archaeological structures.
• Never touch painted or plastered walls, petroglyphs, or pictographs. Skin oils damage them.
• Avoid picnicking in archaeological sites. Crumbs attract rodents that tunnel and nest in the site. Make sure that you pick up and carry out all of your trash.
• Do not camp in archaeological sites. It’s easy to accidentally destroy walls and artifacts in the dark. Campfire smoke stains walls and cliffs, and charcoal leaves a mess. Leaving human waste in archaeological sites is unsightly and unsanitary. Never burn wood from archaeological sites.
• Never dig in archaeological sites. If you pick up a piece of pottery, put it back where you found it. Leave all artifacts exactly where found for others to enjoy. Artifacts in their original context tell stories about the past. Out of context, artifacts mean little to an archaeologist.
• Treat sites with respect as they are spiritually significant for Native Americans. Do not leave “offerings” as they only confuse the site’s original story.
• Do not disturb archaeological sites or remove artifacts on federal public lands without written permission from the Department of the Interior. The sites are protected by Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 and the Antiquities Act of 1906.
• Do your part to preserve this rich heritage.

A tour of the Great Kiva at Chimney Rock.  Photo by Helen Richardson,
courtesy of Chimney Rock Interpretive Association.

Other Recommended Sites:  Because their archives are currently closed in preparation for the opening of their new Visitor and Research Center in 2013, Mesa Verde National Park was not included as an entry in our current Colorado tour. Located approximately one hundred miles due west of Chimney Rock, Mesa Verde National Park is probably the country’s most iconic site for exploring the culture of the Ancestral Pueblo people, particularly their distinctive cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde received two Save America’s Treasures grants, one for stabilization of the cliff dwellings and the other for preserving artifacts in their collections.

Sunset at Chimney Rock Archaeological Area.  Photo by Helen Richardson,
courtesy of Chimney Rock Interpretive Association.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Next stop:  Connecticut!
Wednesday’s destination:  Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

© 2012 Lee Price