Hohokam Puzzle Exhibit at the Anasazi Heritage Center

Beginning in the winter season of 2011 to October 2012 the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores, Colorado is hosting the Pieces of the Puzzle – Hohokam Exhibit displaying new ideas on the Hohokam Culture.

The Hohokam culture is known for the extensive irrigation works on the Salt River in the Phoenix, Arizona area. An easy to visit Hohokam site is the Pueblo Grande site located at 4619 East Washington Street, near the northeast side of the Sky Harbor Airport. One of the large pictures of the exhibit is an artist rendition of the Pueblo Grande site.

The format of the exhibit emphasizes the concept of a puzzle, the interpretive signs in the form of jig saw puzzle pieces. There are four puzzle pieces: Who are the Hohokam, How do we know how old things are, How do we know if people migrated, and How do we count ancient people?

The Hohokam name refers to a specific culture that is part of a larger group referred to as the Huhugam. The Huhugam are the ancestors of the current tribal group known as the O’Odham. Recent analysis of pottery pieces has allowed researchers to break the period from 1300 to 1450 AD into small time segments. This allows the dating of the occupation of different sites. One of the newly identified styles is called Phoenix Polychrome and is dated from 1375 to 1450 AD.

A clue to whether the population was influenced by immigrants is found in the way pottery was manufactured. The Ancestral Pueblo people of the Mesa Verde area used a coil and scrape method, while the Hohokam used the paddle and anvil method. One of the displays shows this technique along with the associated tools.

It is assumed that potters will change their style of decoration more readily than their traditional method of manufacture. In 1275 AD, new styles of pottery began to appear in the Hohokam region. Were these traded in, were the ideas transferred from the Ancestral Pueblo area, or were Ancestral Pueblo people moving into the area? Although these pieces looked and were manufactured like Ancestral Pueblo pieces, the sand used as temper was from the Hohokam region, so immigrants to the area were responsible.

The 1275 AD date is also the time that the Four Corners area was beginning to lose population. The main gallery of the Anasazi Heritage Center has dissecting microscope displays on how pottery is analyzed. There are also many examples of the Black on White and Corrugated styles that can be compared with the Hohokam styles.

There are two computer displays with different video programs that describe the population changes that occurred in detail. Using the analyzed pottery pieces as clues, it is thought that there were movements from the core communities close to the Salt River to the peripheral sites at the ends of the irrigation canals.

As immigrants arrived in the Hohokam region, the existing communities experienced ecological and social stress. Communities coalesced into larger and more defensive sites and there was more emphasis on crops rather than wild foods. These stresses led to gradual reduction of the population over several generations from 1300 to 1450 AD. Eventually the Hohokam disappeared as a separate culture, but remain as ancestors.

Datura Pottery

The Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Colorado has an unusual spiky ancient pottery piece that resembles the seed pod of the toxic Datura plant.

The Datura plant, or Jimson Weed, grows in sandy washes and along roadsides in the Four Corners area. It features a long white tubular flower and every part of the plant is toxic. The flower relies on Sphinx Moths (or Hawkmoths) for pollination. Most parts of the plant contain alkaloid poisons that inhibit the neurotransmitter used by the parasympathetic nervous system.

These drugs relax the muscles and glands controlled by the nervous system and find use as anesthetics and anti spasmodics, but if overdosed can cause delusions and paralysis. The http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com web site has several good pictures of this plant that were taken in McElmo Canyon west of Cortez.

The Aztec Ruins Museum in Aztec, New Mexico also has a spiky pottery piece. I hadn’t noticed these pieces in my previous visits to these museums, but then noticed them both in the same week.

Many North American groups steeped the leaves to make a tea or chewed the seeds presumably for the hallucinogenic effects. A pottery image has been found showing a human figure with a Datura seed pod body and Sphinx Moth images have been found. Researcher Paul T. Kay has a web site that explores Datura related images in depth and has examples of Datura related images from across the southwest.

The Chuska Puma and Pumas on Parade

The "Chuska Puma" is a life size mountain lion sculpture in a life like pose painted with Four Corners black on white pottery and rock art designs.

The Puma was on display in the meeting room of the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores, CO. In spring 2011 it was moved outdoors to the wildflower bed area. It is part of Pumas On Parade, a public art for public land awareness project by the San Juan Mountains Association. The designs seem to be based on a particular large pot and three petroglyphs. Mountain sheep designs on the lion’s side are relatively common.

The humanoid figure on the back of the neck appears to be the one at the Moab Golf Course panel that is known as ”Moab Man”. The lion figure on the chest seems like a rare one to find. The place to look for it is at Petrified Forest National Park. Ask the ranger at the Painted Desert Inn at the north end of the park. The sculpture was donated to the Heritage Center by the Kinder Morgan CO2 gas company. Hikers in the Canyons of the Ancients area will recognize their contributions to road maintenance in the wilder areas.

There was a Mountain Lion exhibit showing at the Center for Southwest Studies on the campus of Ft. Lewis College from fall 2009 to fall 2010. One of the Pumas on Parade is on display near the exhibit. It appears that there are about 17 Pumas as part of the project.

The next closest to the Chuska Puma is the brilliant blue “Sky Prowler”. I saw it at the Colorado Welcome Center in Cortez, CO. In 2011 this puma might have changed location to the Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez.

There are three Pumas in Mancos, CO. Start at the Mancos Town Hall 117 North Main and find “Leave No Footprints”. This puma is positioned to be best viewed through the large picture window from the sidewalk. On each side the Mesa Verde Cliff Palace is depicted and Lookout Point is on the chest. The painting features a sandy texture.

A short walk to the Mancos Community Center at 130 Grand Avenue finds the puma named “Paradise Found”. This puma is also positioned to be best viewed from the sidewalk through a large window. The theme is the plight of modern wildlife, with a pristine Ute Mountain Park on the sidewalk side and an industrial and traffic scene on the other side.

“La Diosa de las Flores” is decorated with Colorado wildflowers and was displayed at the Valley Inn Nursing Home at 211 3rd Avenue on the north side of Highway 160.  In 2011 it might be re-located to the Mancos Welcome Center that is visible on Highway 160.

One of the Pumas is in Moab, Utah. “Puma Ranch Estates” is located at 217 East Center in an outdoors setting that makes viewing all sides easy. This location is across the street from the Moab Museum which features displays on the natural and human history of the Moab area. The Puma design appears to show a land subdivision plan surrounded by some artistic designs.

The “Radiant Cat” is one of the most colorful of the Pumas on Parade. It is outside of the Durango Herald Building at 1275 Main Avenue in Durango, CO. This site is a short walk from the Animas River Trail near the Durango Discovery Museum. In 2011, the puma that was nearby at the Alpine Bank on Main has been relocated.

“Soaring Raven Cat” sits outside the For the Birds store at 2560 East 2nd Avenue in Durango, CO. Keeping with the For the Birds location; two Ravens are positioned on or flying near the blue cat. This puma is across the street from the Animas River Trail as it passes through Rotary Park.

“San Puma de Las Animas y La Plata” is in the small lobby of the Tech Center Plaza building. The turn off from Highway 160 onto Tech Center Drive is a short distance west of the junction of Highways 160 and 550 in the Durango, CO. area. The address of the Tech Center Plaza is 10 Burnett Court. There is a right turn then a left turn from Tech Center Drive.

Escalante Pueblo Trail in Winter

The Escalante Ruins Trail is the paved Interpretive Trail at the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores in southwest Colorado. In winter the1.0 mile round trip trail has been cleared of the heavy snow that makes most of the area trails difficult for normal hiking.

The Escalante Ruins site sits up on a hill overlooking the Big Bend of the Dolores River and the McPhee Reservoir. The Escalante Pueblo is thought to have been built in 1129 and is thought to reflect the building style of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, even though Mesa Verde is clearly in view.

The Far View Sites Trail in Mesa Verde has pueblo sites that are similar in appearance to Escalante. The T shaped doorways in the surface rooms are found in both sites. The Escalante site is thought to have been remodeled three times, based on the ages of the wood used in the construction.

In winter conditions, the circular Kiva is of interest as this room would have offered the best shelter from the weeks of below freezing temperatures and several feet of snow such as we observe in mid winter now. At Escalante, the Kiva is surrounded by rectangular room blocks, similar to the arrangement at Far View.

In this region, water pipes are buried about 3.5 feet to prevent freezing, so the depth of the Kiva would offer similar protection. The ventilation system and arrangement for smoke to escape make it appear that warmth could be maintained. The interpretive information here indicates that the pottery found here was of the local Northern San Juan style rather than Chaco Canyon style and there are quite a few examples in the museum at the base of the hill. The smaller Dominguez Ruin near the museum entrance was completely covered with snow following a snowy December.

Anasazi Hertage Center Interpretive Trail-Escalante Ruins

The big bend of the Dolores River in southwest Colorado is now flooded under McPhee Reservoir, the second largest lake in the state. On the south bank, on the site of the Anasazi Heritage Center, there is a 1 mile round trip interpretive Lookout Trail that describes some of the plants and natural history of the area.

In the 1920's the town of McPhee, CO, on the big bend of the Dolores River, was a busy timber town. They suffered some setbacks, such as devastating fires, and the site is now submerged, along with many Ancestral Pueblo ruins sites. In the 1980's a large dam a few miles downstream created McPHee Reservoir.

Besides being scenic and providing fishing and boating opportunities, the reservoir stores irrigation water that flows around the area in canals and feeds the hay and bean fields making the area greener than it would be otherwise. The small Dominguez Ruins site is near the museum near the beginning of the trail.
 

 The trail up to the lookout point and Escalante Ruins site is paved and climbs with switchbacks. There are interpretive signs and benches along the way. This is a good botany trail with many of the key trees and shrubs identified with comments on their possible uses.

The small museum and visitors center on the site provides displays on the vanished pueblo people and information on the numerous archaeology sites in the area. The Heritage Center also acts as a visitors center for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.

In 1776 the first European Explorers, led by two Spanish friars, Escalante and Dominguez, came through this area, searching for a new route to California. They stopped on this hill overlooking the River of Our Lady of Sorrows, the name they just gave it, and examined the ruins, reporting that they looked like the ones they had seen over closer to Sante Fe, NM.

They wandered a little further north and west, but eventually wandered back without success. The expedition established part of the main branch of the Old Spanish Trail, a trade route that allowed goods to pass between California and the central part of North America.
 

There are two excavated ruins sites here named for the two Spanish Explorers. The larger site on the hill top is named for Escalante. This site is thought to date from 1129 and to show Chaco Canyon influence, though Chaco was in decline at this time and its influence was declining.

The thick walls surrounding a central kiva and T shaped doors are among the Chaco characteristics There are remains of 18 other small ruins sites on this same hill.