The enigma of Chaco Canyon

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DGO Magazine is published by Ballantine Communications Inc., P.O. Drawer A, Durango, CO 81302 Volume 5 Number 47 September 2022

4 The enigma of Chaco Canyon

Chaco Canyon may not be the most widely revered of the Native ruins in our area, but this hidden gem lies just a couple of hours from Durango on the Colorado plateau in northwestern

New Mexico — and it’s an intriguing one indeed. 12 Stoned in Sin City

While Sin City has an abundance of indulgences to choose from, like gambling, shows, clubs, and other fun diversions, it also has a ton of weed — our favorite. We know you want to visit a few Vegas-y dispensaries, so we’re narrowing down the options for ya.

4-5 The enigma of

Chaco Canyon 6-7 Vegan stoner munchies to the rescue

8-9 An Arizona stoner road trip 10 Disaster rock docs

12-13 Stoned in Sin City 14-17 Cover story on the medical benefits of marijuana 18-20 Weed reviews

21-26 Ask a couple of potheads 26 Dispensary listings

6 Vegan stoner munchies!!! as we learned recently, vegan food doesn’t have to be inherently healthy — which means that we can start stashing some away for a stoned munchie day. All it takes to be vegan is to omit animal products. Everything else goes. Who knew?

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» A mystery that keeps getting rewritten, time and time again

Chaco Canyon may not be the most widely revered of the Native ruins in our area, but this hidden gem lies just a couple of hours from Durango on the Colorado plateau in northwestern New Mexico. One of several important Native American ruins in the region — which includes, of course, the famed Mesa Verde National Park — Chaco Canyon is a site stands out as a profound enigma.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the canyon, and perhaps its former inhabitants, is that the region supports few natural resources. It is built on a high desert plateau, with blazing hot summers and freezing cold winters, which makes it less than ideal for the extensive building project that the ruins indicate was once in this locale. Still, the Anasazi, Navajo for ancient ones, established a complex, sophisticated, and far-flung civilization in this area — but then abandoned it for reasons still unknown.

How and why they did this, why they built here, and why this civilization collapsed is still an inexplicable mystery. In fact, this area has remained such a mystery that textbooks were rewritten due to new evidence that arose about it in the 1990s.

While the Four Corners region has been inhabited for well over 10,000 years — and some evidence suggests human habitation dating back 13,000 years, or perhaps longer — a cultural and architectural explosion was ignited around 700 to 800 CE. It was a time of unprecedented transformation. Chaco people learned to farm the arid, inhospitable terrain with advanced irrigation and water control systems for agriculture. They established a vast trading network with the construction of roads extending hundreds of miles throughout 180,000 square miles of territory. As they erected some of the most magnificent architecture ever built by Native Americans, a revolution was underway that would drastically alter the fabric of life in the region. Suddenly, as quickly as it had began, the Anasazi civilization went into a swift decline and collapsed. People migrated away from the canyon and the culture soon vanished, transforming the region once again.

Chaco Canyon has not yet been fully excavated. However, this 10-mile stretch of canyon is home to the most perplexing ancient mysteries in North America. Over one million artifacts are on display in the visitor’s center, however, many others have yet to be unearthed. Visitors come to see not only the architecture, but also a vast collection of artifacts, and the many petroglyphs; they come to glimpse unsolved mysteries left by an ancient people who tamed a hostile land. Who were these people? What was the purpose of this site, and just what happened here? Today, these questions remain mostly unanswered.

The intriguing architecture of Chaco Canyon

Many of the buildings at Chaco Canyon have stood up to the ravages of time and erosion, while others have needed partial or complete restoration. Even so, they are a testament to the engineering skills and construction techniques of these hardy people. In this region, Chaco’s architecture is unprecedented in scale or sophistication.

The Great Houses of the canyon

There are twelve Great Houses in the canyon — and close to 200 exist in the region. These multi-story buildings may have been ancient apartment buildings. They average 200 rooms, but some held as many as seven or eight hundred. Although each Great House is unique, they are all distinctly Chacoan. They may have served as year round residences; however, there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Modern descendants of the Anasazi believe these structures were only occupied for ceremonial purposes,