The news from Washington isn’t all bad. Occasionally there’s a hopeful glimmer. Last Thursday it came with the announcement that legislation was being introduced in Congress to give National Monument status to the Chimney Rock Archaeological Area, the awesome 1,000-year-old cultural landscape built by ancient Pueblans on a high mesa with a view that extends forever.
Chimney Rock, named after two soaring sandstone pillars, was a sacred site with cultural significance for both its builders and their descendants, today’s southwest Native American tribes.
The site is in the San Juan National Forest between Pagosa Springs and Durango.
The Forest Service has only six sites designated as national monuments in the entire nation; this would be the first in Colorado.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton is sponsoring the bill, and Sen. Michael Bennet is the lead sponsor in the Senate.
Such a remarkable site deserves the prestige and protection that come with designation. And Congress has a rare opportunity to do something positive in the midst of aggravating, non-stop budget battles.
A national treasure, these ancient ruins are an outlying settlement of the fabled Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, as is the better-known Mesa Verde. It’s an intrinsic piece in the Four Corners tourism puzzle that lures visitors from around the world, and archaeologists and other scientists striving to learn more about the first Americans and the earth on which we live. It was first excavated in the 1920s, and continued in the 1970s.
Torrential downpours in 2006 brought water and mud to the ruins and damaged stone walls. Archaeologists came to clear out the rooms and make repairs in 2009, the first such scientific dig in more than 40 years. A $240,000 grant from the Save America’s Treasures program helped pay for work by University of Colorado archaeologists and students.
There’s even a mystical note to the site. In an extraordinary 1988 discovery, University of Colorado astrophysicist J. McKim Malville was at the ruins tracking the moon across the night skies. He realized that as the full moon cycled across the skies through the years, it might occasionally rise between the stone chimneys — and that was the year it did. The lunar standstill cycle is 18 1/2 years, and in 2024 the moon will again rise between the chimneys.
Named a National Historic Landmark in 1970, the site is also notable for the dedication and devotion that local preservationists have shown for years. Partnering with the Forest Service, Chimney Rock Interpretive Association volunteers give four site tours daily, including special programs for full moons.
That’s the way Colorado achieves some of its most important accomplishments, by citizens volunteering and coming together to achieve a notable goal. They recognize that you can’t always depend on government, at any level, to understand and take action on issues that are important to a community.
Congress should respond with a much-deserved National Monument designation for this unique legacy.
Freelance columnist Joanne Ditmer has been writing on environmental and urban issues for The Post since 1962.
