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Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier National Monument is located in New Mexico, outside of Santa Fe. It comprises 33,677 acres (13,629 ha) preserving the homes of the Ancestral Pueblo People. It is named after Swiss anthropologist Adolph Bandelier, who researched the cultures of the area.

History

Bandelier was designated a National Monument on February 11, 1916, while most of its backcountry became a "designated wilderness" in October 1976, but the hisotry of the area has much deeper roots.

1. Human presence in the area has been dated to over 10,000 years before present.
2. Permanent settlements by ancestors of the Pueblo peoples have been dated to 1150 Common Era
   • These settlers had moved closer to the Rio Grande by 1550.
   • The distribution of basalt and obsidian artifacts from the area, along with other traded goods, rock markings, and construction techniques, indicate that its inhabitants were part of a regional trade network that included Mexico.
3. Spanish settlers arrived in the 1700s.
4. The Pueblo Jose Montoya brought Adolph Bandelier to visit the area in 1880; Bandelier, looking over the cliff dwellings, announced "It is the grandest thing I ever saw."
5. Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation creating the monument in 1916, and infrastructure, including a lodge, was built during the 1920s and 1930s. The monument was closed to the public for several years during World War II, since the lodge was being used to house personnel working on the Manhattan Project.

Dwellings

The main attraction of the monument for the casual visitor is Frijoles Canyon, containing a number of ancestral pueblo homes, kivas (ceremonial structures), rock paintings and petroglyphs. Some of the dwellings were rock structures built on the canyon floor.

Other houses were "cavates" produced by voids in the tuff of the canyon wall and carved out further by humans. A 1.2-mile (1.6 km), predominantly paved, "Main Loop Trail" from the visitor center affords access to these features. A trail extending beyond this loop leads to Alcove House (formerly called Ceremonial Cave, and still so identified on some maps), a shelter cave produced by erosion of the soft rock and containing a small, reconstructed kiva that hikers may enter via ladder.

Bandelier Museum

The visitor center at Bandelier National Monument features exhibits about the site's inhabitants, including Ancestral Pueblo pottery, tools and artifacts of daily life. There are two life-size dioramas that demonstrate Pueblo life in the past and today. Also featured are contemporary Pueblo pottery pieces, 14 pastel artworks by Works Progress Administration artist Helmut Naumer Sr, and wood furniture and tinwork pieces created by the Civilian Conservation Corps. There is a 10 minute introductory film about the monument.

Text adapted from Wikipedia's article on Bandelier National Monument;
Images Copyright John M. Garrison - 2010

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