The harsh winter of 1609 in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony forced residents to do the unthinkable. A recent excavation at the historic site discovered the carcasses of dogs, cats and horses consumed during the season commonly called the “Starving Time.” But a few other newly discovered bones in particular, though, tell a far more gruesome story: the dismemberment and cannibalization of a 14-year-old English girl.

 

And yet, I knew it was coming. Weather forecasters had predicted an exceptionally violent tornado outbreak days ahead of time. Local weather forecasters said over and over and over: get ready. I got ready. Many in my community got ready. Although it is almost  impossible to hide from an F5 tornado, I wasn’t caught off guard.

The same wasn’t true for tornado outbreaks in the era before Doppler radar. In years past, tornadoes were mysterious and sudden events that appeared without warning, destroyed property, then mysteriously disappeared. That is especially true of the worst tornado disaster in US history, the tri-state tornado of 1925 that affected communities in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. This tornado stayed on the ground for a record 219 miles, crossed through three states, killed 675 people, injured over 2,000, destroyed 15,000 homes, and caused massive destruction for a continuous 3.5 hours. Modern-day forecasters believe that the storm moved between 62 and 73 miles per hour, and that the winds within the tornado itself occasionally topped 300 miles per hour.

But there was no hint of the terror to come on the morning of March 18, 1925. The day started off like a typical spring day. The U.S. Weather Bureau (the forerunner of the National Weather Service) forecast  called for “rains and strong shifting winds“. There was no mention of storms, of wind, or tornadoes. In those days, there were no tornado watches, and certainly no tornado warnings. In fact, the U.S. Weather Bureau was forbidden to even mention tornadoes!

In 1925, the word “tornado” wasn’t even in the vocabulary of the U.S. Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service). The word had been banned since 1887, when the U.S. Army Signal Corps managed the country’s weather forecasting. Tornadoes were utterly unpredictable, the logic went, and forecasting them, besides being a fruitless venture, would only spread panic among the public. Forecasters weren’t allowed to study tornadoes, or even acknowledge their existence in public.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the weather that day before the tornado: “All morning, before the tornado, it had rained. The day was dark and gloomy. The air was heavy. There was no wind. Then the drizzle increased. The heavens seemed to open, pouring down a flood. The day grew black.”

At 1:01 in the afternoon, the weather changed from drizzly to terrifying. A dark funnel cloud spun out of the sky, descended from the mist, and touched down near Ellington, Missouri. The storm quickly picked up speed and grew in size. One of the reasons this storm was so very destructive is that is grew to a mile wide and was wrapped in rain and dust. In this storm, 30 farmers were killed, which was really quite unusual during this time.

The above video describes why an unusual number of farmers were killed in this storm: “It’s very rare to have the farm owner killed by a tornado. They are extremely weather wise people, great observers. They had no idea what they were facing. This tornado was surrounded by  massive cloud and so shrouded in dust and debris and was unrecognizable to farmers.”  This storm was described as a massive, low rolling cloud, not what a typical tornado looks like. Many farmers probably thought the clouds were just a bad storm and didn’t take shelter.

The storm roared through small communities, destroying homes, killing residents, and flattening small towns. One survivor recalled in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that “the air was filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frame houses, in some cases the houses themselves, were picked up and smashed to earth. And living beings, too. A baby was blown from its mother’s arms. A cow, picked up by the wind, was hurled into the village restaurant.”

The tornado crossed the state line into Illinois and made its way to the town of Murphysboro, with a population of 12,000. Eugene Porter describes what the tornado looked like: “It was so wide … usually you think about a tornado, it has a funnel, and it may be a block or two or three blocks wide. But something about a mile wide, well it just—”  Words seem to have failed him to describe the storm.

The tornado hit homes, businesses, and the local school. Wallace Akin was 2 years old when the tornado crashed through his home. He recounts that day in his book The Forgotten Storm. “An invading army of debris swept over the western hill — trees, boards, fences, roofs. Day became night. The house began to levitate and, at the same time, the piano shot across the room, gouging the floor and carpet where I had played only moments before. The walls began to crack as the roof ripped free and disappeared, joining the swirling mass of debris. But the walls and the floor held as we and the house took flight.” His house flew off its foundation, and crashed onto the top of the garage. The garage flew off its foundation, too, and rested on top of yet another house. Akin and his mother went along for the ride. The local school collapsed, trapping half of the 400 students. 11 students were killed.

The destruction was hard to even comprehend.

Residents stumbled out of their destroyed buildings and started to look for survivors. “Scenes of suffering and horror marked the storm and fire. Throughout the night relief workers and ambulances endeavored to make their way through the streets strewn with wreckage, fallen telegraph poles and wires and burning embers. The only light afforded was that of the burning area.”

As the tornado hit West Frankfurt, Illinois, the power went out in the local coal mine and the miners ended their work day early.

When they climbed out of the 500-ft. mine shaft, they found their town destroyed. Most of the 127 victims were the wives and children of the miners. Perhaps the most heart-breaking loss is the school that was destroyed in De Soto, killing 33 children. By the time the storm crossed the Wabash River into Indiana, 613 people were dead in the state of Illinois.

The storm also hit the small town of Griffin, IN. The town was almost completely destroyed.  A Mr. Felknor describes the scene that survivors confronted in the Griffin: “When the cloud, bloated with debris and tons of river mud, had passed over a slight rise of land to the east of the village, it left behind a landscape that passed beyond the bounds of despair into unreality. The handful of unscathed citizens from Griffin and surrounding districts were confronted with destruction so complete that some could only guess where they had once lived. The search for family and friends had a special hellishness, as fires flickered over the ruins and the injured wandered about in a daze, mud so thoroughly embedded in their skin that identification was all but impossible.”

By the time it lost its power and dissipated back into the clouds, the tornado had caused an estimated at $16.5 million in damage. When adjusted to today’s dollar value, the toll is approximately $1.4 billion. Many of the towns affected by the tornado took decades to recover. The tornado destroyed essential infrastructure, and by the time towns were starting to bounce back, the Great Depression hit.

However, one good thing did come from this hugely destructive storm.

“The single biggest thing that happened as a result of the Tri-State was the increase in public awareness about tornadoes,” says Harold Brooks of NOAA’s Severe Storms Lab in Norman, Oklahoma. “Even though the National Severe Storms Laboratory had a ban on using the word ‘tornado,’ it was the beginning of local tornado-spotter networks. There were no official programs that we know of, but when you look at old newspapers you start to see mention of these spotters after 1925.” According to Brooks, the storm-spotter programs contributed to a steady decline in the number of tornado deaths in subsequent years. Today, 50 people are killed by tornadoes annually; at the 1925 rate, that number would be 500.

Many of the towns affected by this destructive storm feature historic markers to educate visitors about this important historic event. If you visit any of the small towns along the path of this tornado, keep a lookout for historic markers.

Resources:

Popular Mechanics, Tri-State Tornado: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, March 1925

The Forgotten Storm by Wallace E. Akin

NOAA: The 1925 Tri-State Tornado, A Look Back

The researchers have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.

The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington.

Portage isn’t a typical tourist destination. When you visit, you’ll find cozy B&Bs, a historic downtown area, and plenty of ways to explore the history of the region. There are seven fascinating historic buildings in the town, including the Indian Agency house. You’ll also find a whole lot of recreational opportunities in all seasons. Free tours of the downtown historic district are available all summer. Check out the video!

1718 map of Wisconsin showing the historic portage

199th Anniversary of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend

This annual event commemorates the battle fought on March 27, 1814 between Gen. Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee army and Chief Menawa’s Red Stick warriors and is the park’s largest living history demonstration of the year. The event recreates frontier life in the year 1814 and emphasizes the importance of the Creek war in United States history through a variety of special demonstrations and interpretive programs. Free. Call Horseshoe Bend National Military Park at 256-234-7111 or visit www.nps.gov/hobe for more information.

I Googled this event and found out a bit more about it. One good tip: take earplugs or earmuffs. The guns are evidently really loud! It looks like the event features musket firing demonstrations, Creek dances, and even a cannon firing demonstration! So go, unless the sequester closes all of our national parks.

 ”Let the white race perish! They seized your lands, they corrupt your women, they trample the ashes of your dead. They must be driven from where they came upon a trail of blood!  … War now! War forever! War upon the living! War upon the dead! Dig their very corpses from the grave. Our country must give no rest to a white man’s bones.”

Tecumseh, a leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy, delivered this fiery speech to the Creek Nation in Alabama in October 1811 on the banks of the Tallapoosa River as tensions were rising within the Creek nation between tribal members embracing American customs to become “civilized” and accepted by the United States, and traditionalists who wanted to bring back the old ways and throw off white control.

Tecumseh grew up during the American Revolution on the border of the frontier and had seen warfare his entire life. He also saw settlers encroach on tribal homelands and his people had to continue to migrate west. In the early part of the 1800s, he decided to try to create an alliance between various Native American tribes and the British. He felt that was the only way to protect the land his people still held. As part of his scheme, he visited the large and powerful Five Civilized Tribes in the southeast. Those tribes, made up of the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Chocktaw, and Seminole still held vast tracts of land in the southeast, land white settlers wanted.

Menawa, Red stick chief and military leader; his name meant “Great Warrior”.

Whites were already starting to migrate into Creek country, setting up homesteads and forts. One of those homesteads is now called Fort Mims. Today, the fort is nestled in the middle of a modern subdivision about 35 miles north of Mobile, AL, its boundaries marked with a reconstructed fence made of tall wooden spikes. Back then, it was on the edge of wilderness. Samuel Mims built a house in this remote wilderness of Baldwin County, Alabama then when tensions started to build, hastily erected a sturdy stockade around his home and outbuildings. He got along well with his Creek neighbors and often traded with local Creeks.

William Weatherford

Meanwhile, by 1812 war had broken out between the United States and the British Empire. The Creeks were paying attention. The factional differences between the tribal members seeking to become “civilized” (the White Sticks) started to come into conflict with the tribal members wanting to fight change (the Red Sticks, so named because of their red war clubs). The Red Sticks, made up mostly of younger men, were willing to do anything to return their nation to their traditional way of life, culture, and religion and overthrow white control. They were ready and willing to use violence to achieve their goals. Red Stick leaders included William Weatherford (Red Eagle), Peter McQueen, and Menawa. The Red Sticks started to negotiate with the British for supplies and support. The British were happy to obligate, especially since alliances with Indian tribes irritated the Americans. By 1813, the Creek nation had descended into civil war.

In July of 1813, Peter McQueen was leading a large group of Red sticks to Pensacola, FL to pick up guns and ammunition. McQueen had a letter from a British officer from Fort Malden (in Canada) and 400 British pounds he could use to buy what he needed from the Spanish governor in Florida.You can read an interesting account of the Red Sticks interactions with the Spanish and what they planned to do with that ammunition here:

He then told me they were going down to Pensacola to get ammunition, and they had got a letter from a British general, which would enable them to receive ammunition from the governor; that it had been given to the Little Warrior, and was saved by his nephew when he was killed, and by him sent to Francis. High Head told me that, when they went back with their supply, another body of men would go down for another supply of ammunition; and that ten men were to go out of town, and they calculated on five horseloads for every town. He said they were to make a general attack on the American settlements; that the Indians on the waters of the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Black Warrior were to attack the settlements on the Tombigby and Alabama, particularly the Tensas and Fork settlements; that the Creek Indians bordering on the Cherokees were to attack the people of Tennessee, and that the Seminoles and Lower Creeks were to attack the Georgians; that the Choctas also had joined them and were to attack the Mississippi settlements; that the attack was to be made at the same time in all places, when they had become furnished with ammunition.

On their way to Florida, the Red Sticks band attacked and burned the plantations of Sam Moniac and James Cornells, who were both of Creek heritage and White Stick supporters. The Red Sticks also kidnapped Cornells’ wife. McQueen’s band made to to Florida and started to negotiate with the Spanish governor. That took a while. Finally, McQueen headed home with 300 pounds of both gunpowder and lead shot. They left Cornells’ wife in Pensacola.

Soldiers near Fort Mims got wind of the attack on the Moniac and Cornells plantations and also heard rumors about reason for the trip to Florida. Militia leader Colonel James Caller raised a 180-man militia to intercept McQueen and his band as they headed back from Florida.  The Americans found the Red Sticks on the banks of Burnt Corn Creek in modern Escambia County, AL on July 27. The Americans attacked. The Red Sticks scattered. The Americans at first thought their attack had scared off the Red Sticks and they started looting the Creek camp. But the Creeks were not so easily deterred. They counter-attacked, driving off the Americans and essentially winning the engagement. The American militia did succeed, however, in taking most of the ammunition and powder the Creeks had bought in Florida.

The Red Sticks were infuriated by the American attack. Americans living in the area started to get nervous. Many white settlers and their Creek allies living in the area took refuge at Samuel Mims’ compound, which by now was Fort Mims. Joining them were a few hundred soldiers and about 100 slaves. All told, about 400 people sought refuge at Fort Mims. All of them had a feeling that the Red Sticks would seek revenge. They were right.

Map of Fort Mims, Alabama

The settlers weren’t nervous or diligent enough, though. Colonel Beasley, with the Missisippi Volunteers, arrived at the fort and took command. Warnings of an impending attack started to arrive from various regional military men. But Beasley had a lackadaisical attitude towards protecting the fort. He left the gate open. He allowed people to wander outside the gates. In addition, when two slaves reported seeing Indian warriors in warpaint creeping around in the woods on August 29, Beasley not only didn’t believe them, he had one of the slaves brutally whipped for stirring up anxiety in the fort.The owner of the other slave believed his slave’s story. Beasley was so angry that he ordered the slave owner and his large family to leave the fort by the next day.

In the meantime, 700 Red Stick warriors, led by William Weatherford, snuck up on Fort Mims and attacked around noon on August 30. Unfortunately, the attack was pretty easy because the gate to the fort was wide open. Pandemonium ensued. Men inside the fort rushed to find their weapons. Women and children ran indoors to hide. Beasley, ran to the gate to try to close it. He was one of the first people killed.

A brutal battle began, and lasted until 3:00 in the afternoon. The Creeks then stopped fighting and conferred about how to proceed. They eventually decided to destroy the fort. The settlers, although outnumbered, fought back hard. Women and children helped in the battle by loading guns and drawing water from the well. Although the militia and the settlers had managed to fight back the attack, late in the afternoon, the Red Sticks shot flaming arrows into the fort, setting all of the buildings on fire. In the end, everyone except a few lucky people who managed to sneak off and escape the carnage were dead or taken prisoner by the end of the afternoon.

Word of the massacre spread like wildlife. In Nashville, Andrew Jackson heard about it and published a blurb in the newspaper the Nashville Whig to stir up the public. He decried the “horrid butcheries perpetrated on our defenseless fellow citizens… which cannot fail to excite in every bosom a spirit of revenge.” The massacre did incite outrage and a desire for revenge, and so started the Creek War which the United States, led by Andrew Jackson, launched against the Creek Nation. Miltiamen from Tennessee, Georgia, and the Mississippi territory headed to the Creek nation to defeat the instigators of the massacre. “Remember Fort Mims!” because their battle cry. But Jackson also had something else in mind. He didn’t want to simply subdue the Red Sticks. He wanted to defeat the Creek Nation and force the tribe to cede their valuable land.

The two sides fought skirmishes until March 27, 1814 when Jackson’s forces cornered the Red Sticks. They fought the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and Jackson’s troops won. The story of that battle is long and will be the topic of a future post. The Treaty of Fort Jackson ended the conflict, and also resulted in the Creeks ceding 23 million acres of land. Jackson, in the end, not only won a war, he gained an awful lot of land.

Today, Fort Mims has been reconstructed. The stockade has been rebuilt, along with many of the buildings inside the fort. You can visit, wander the grounds, and follow the interpretive tour to learn more about the fort, its people, and its history. If you’re traveling near Mobile, it’s worth a stop.

How to Visit:

From I-65 north of Mobile, turn north onto highway 59. Continue for 16.5 mile then turn left onto Boatyard Road. Follow the signs to the park. Admission is free. There are no employees or a visitor’s center, you can just wander the grounds. Visit this page for more official information. You can find a map to Fort Mims here.

To Learn More:

Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812

The Creek War of 1813 and 1814 (digitized version of this book available here via Google)

Creek Paths and Federal Roads: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves and the Making of the American South

Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands: The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, 1812-1815

A Conquering Spirit: Fort Mims and the Redstick War of 1813-1814

The document that freed thousands of Southern slaves 150 years ago is at the Tennessee State Museum this week. The original Emancipation Proclamation is the centerpiece of an exhibit on Civil War history that opened Tuesday.

The document is evidently so fragile it must be covered up when nobody is viewing it. Any light at all damages the paper and the ink, causing the writing to fade even more.

The Tennessee State Museum has essentially been granted the entire year’s allotment of display time spread out in small chunks over the next week. An original signed copy of the thirteenth amendment, which ended slavery for good, is also in the exhibit. Luckily, that document is strong enough to stay on display here through the end of the summer.

• Solo travel
• Driving to Chaco Canyon
• Visiting Pueblo Bonito
• Exploring Chetro Ketl
• Hiking to Pueblo Alto
• Penasco Blanco and the Supernova Pictograph
• Archaeoastronomy

First, you need to know that Chaco is in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t see any hotels or any grocery stores within two hours of driving there from Santa Fe. If you’re coming in from the northwest, Bloomfield is probably the last town with any real supplies. Take what you need with you, especially if you’re planning to camp. Cell phone service is somewhat spotty in the area (and forget about cell service if you have AT&T). The last unpaved portion of the road is really awful. It took me about an hour to drive that little section of road. I ran into a couple who drove in from the south route–they got a flat tire. The southern road is evidently a lot worse than the northern route. Don’t take the southern route if you’re driving an RV or towing anything. I wouldn’t even try it in a car, only a truck. Also be sure to call the park before you head out to check on road conditions.

Beware of taking a cooler or food that needs to stay cold. I thought it would be pretty mild weather while I was there so I took a cooler full of food. I had milk, cheese, lettuce, and a few other perishables. The ice melted in a day. My lettuce wilted and turned into a bag of green mush. The cheese started to smell really, really bad. Luckily, I also had a good supply of dry foods and canned food so I didn’t starve.

Things to bring with you:

Must-haves:

• Large water container: Individual campsites don’t have water. You can find a water pump near the visitor’s center
• Small water containers: If you plan to hike or even spend lots of time exploring the ruins, take a small water bottle with you and fill it up before leaving the visitor’s center. No water is available at individual ruins or along trails.
• Plenty of cooking fuel: If you run out of fuel you’re out of luck. There isn’t a camp store.
• Food: No food is available at the park, either. Take everything you need.
• Sunscreen: Even the in cooler times of the year, you’ll get a sunburn!

Nice to have:

• Binoculars: There are lots of things I wish I could have looked at through binoculars. Staircases on distant cliffs, the ramp up onto Fajada Butte, and distant views while hiking. Next time I’m definitely taking binoculars.
• Firewood: If you visit in the cooler months, you can bring firewood with you and build a campfire at your campsite. You can’t buy or collect firewood in the park.
• Telescope: If you have a telescope, this is one of the best places to use it. It’s very, very dark at Chaco and many of the park rangers and campground hosts are astronomy enthusiasts.
• Tarp for shade: There are no trees or anything to provide shade at the campground. I didn’t have  a tarp and one hot afternoon ended up sitting on the ground in the little piece of shade my car offered. A tarp/shade tent would have been better.

General tips:

• Try to plan your visit during the week in the spring and fall if you’re planning to camp. The park is most popular when the weather is mild and the campground can actually fill up. If you can arrive during the middle of the week the campground will likely be pretty empty. If you must arrive on a Friday, try to get there pretty early in the day so you can grab a campsite. The campground filled up while I was visiting. If you don’t mind really hot weather or really cold weather, you can probably find a campsite anytime in the summer or winter.
• When you first arrive at the park, stop by the visitor’s center and watch the introductory video. It’s really helpful. You can also pick up guides to the various great houses and a wide variety of books.
• The campground bathrooms don’t have hot water. The bathrooms at the visitor’s center do. I would wash my face in the mornings at the visitor’s center.
• There are no showers. If you can’t stand going without a shower for a few days, don’t camp. I took a baseball cap to hide my hair.
• If you’re going hiking on any of the backcountry trails (Penasco Blanco, Pueblo Alto, South Mesa Trail, or the Wijiji Trail) buy the Backcountry Trail Guide from the Visitor’s Center. It’s only $2 and provides an awful lot of information about things you’ll see on the hike. It’s totally worth it.
• Either borrow or buy the guides to each pueblo. They contain really interesting and useful information.

Helpful books:

The reason I visited this park was because I read Craig Child’s book House of Rain. There are other fabulous books about Chaco, the Anasazi, and modern pueblo cultures. Reading about the area before visiting will help you better understand the culture and get more out of your visit. Some of my favorites are:

• The People of Chaco
• Living the Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian
• In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma

Museums:

If you have a chance, visit some pueblo museums in Santa Fe or Albuquerque before heading to Chaco. That way, you can see some of the artifacts recovered from the area before you visit. Ireally enjoyed the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. There’s also a good museum at Mesa Verde National Park.

When I drove down the road to Chaco, I landed right in the middle of one of the largest and most precise archaeoastronomy destinations in North America. But I didn’t really know that until I attended a fabulous lecture on a Saturday evening during my visit to the park. That evening, after dark, I headed to the Chaco planetarium to join one of the most seasoned park rangers, and an astronomy nut, to learn all about astronomical clues scattered throughout Chaco Canyon.

As I walked to the planetarium, the night sky spread out a blanket of stars across the horizon. I leaned my head back as far as it would go and took in the view. No street lights blazed down the streets here, or anywhere for miles around. It was very, very dark, making it possible to clearly see the brilliant rope of our Milky Way galaxy stretching all the way across the sky.

I sat down next to many of the other campers and ranger GB Cornucopia stepped up to the front. He flipped on a projector that showed a time lapse movie of stars racing across Fajada Butte.

I’d spent the past two days constantly driving past Fajada Butte. I’d spent a few hours photographing it under different lighting conditions. But I totally missed one of the coolest things about it: the ramp leading up from the canyon floor to the top of the butte. Look at the photo above. Do you see the ramp?

What about now?

The ramp, on the lower right part of this view of the butte, was over 750 feet long an rose over 300 feet over the valley floor, leading almost to the top of this massive geologic structure. It was a huge feat of engineering according to the High Altitude Observatory webpage:

The ramp, 230 meters long and rising almost 100 meters above the valley floor, was apparently constructed in three sections. The first followed an erosional ridge to the first prominent cliff band on the butte. The second was a heavy masonry structure that extended from the top of the first cliff band to the second cliff band, along which ruins of numerous small cliff dwellings are to be found. The final part of the ramp was likely a combination of carved steps and scaffolding structures. Even by Chacoan standards, this represents a construction project of a significant magnitude, and suggests that the butte might have played an important ceremonial role at Chaco.

Wow! Why would the people of Chaco do that? Well, there’s something very interesting at the top of the butte. Three flat, skinny rocks are perched on the side of a flat rock. On the flat rock, hidden from the sky by the three rocks, is a spiral petroglyph. Well, so what? It turns out that this petroglyph is an extremely accurate calendar that marks high noon of the summer and winter solstices (or it was until lots of hikers wore down the dirt on the butte, caused the rocks to shift, and messed up the calendar). What happens is light filters through the slabs of rock, slowly creating a sword of light that on the summer solstice bisects the center of the spiral pictograph. On the winter solstice, two slim daggers of light appear appear on either side of the pictograph like tiny bright bookends.

Here’s a neat little illustration I found on Ms. Lopez’s webpage that shows how the fabulous calendar works.

Evidently, the ramp on the side of the butte was built so that it would be easy for the people of Chaco to climb up the butte and watch the calendar. I wonder if ceremonials paraded up the ramp on the solstices. I can imagine long lines of people, decked out in features, traveling this narrow path to witness the longest day of the year, or to ensure that the shortest day of the year would morph into longer days and the season of rebirth.

This is only one of the huge number of astronomical alignments all over the park. Casa Rinconada, the largest kiva in the park, has some very intriguing directional alignments:

Casa Rinconada has a main axis which is aligned to true cardinality along a north south line passing through the centres of the north and south doorways. This north south axis has an azimuth of 359°56′. If you connect each wall regular wall niche to the one opposite it, you will find that all but one of them pass within 10 cm of the kiva centre, meaning that the kiva is a model of a perfect circle. One of these lines has an azimuth of 89°52′ and establishes an east west line. According to archaeoastronomer E. C Krupp, these features are tied to the order of space and the direction of time.

In addition, on the summer solstice, a beam of light passes through the only window on the east wall and nicely illuminates two niches on the far wall. Perhaps that didn’t happen long ago when the Chaco people had built a ceiling on the giant kiva, but I like to think that this structure did also serve as a calendar for those who couldn’t make the trip all the way up Fajada Butte. Here’s a video with the awesome Chaco park ranger G.B. Cornucopia explaining the astronomical alignments at Case Rinconada.

There are so many more things all around Chaco that are tied to the movement of the sun, the appearance of the stars, the movement of the moon, and the cardinal directions. The Chacoans built great roads throughout the region running due north, or in perfectly straight lines radiating out from great houses. When the roads encountered an obstacle, like a cliff, the road builders didn’t deviate from their course, they simply carved steps up cliffs. I’m still learning about all of the ways these people constructed their world to be in alignment with the cosmos. They were so much more skilled at understanding astronomy that most people in today’s world, and that in itself was a huge accomplishment.

Here’s a final video of the awesome Carl Sagan talking about astronomy at Chaco.

I again parked at Pueblo del Arroyo and started down the dusty brown trail. I soon reached Kin Kletso, noted some people scrambling up the cliff wall to see Pueblo Alto, and continued straight down the canyon into the bleak landscape ahead. The canyon floor was flat, brown, and rather uninteresting. No trees, no animals, and few birds. Just rock, spindly shrubs, blue sky, and wind.

Not too far down the trail I ran into another trail marker showing the distance ahead. I could see one more great house on the hill to the right, Casa Chiquita (seriously, who named these ruins?). This great house is rather small compared to many of the others scattered throughout the area. Casa Chiquita was built around 1060 AD, and is built in a square shape. The rooms are tiny, only about 2×4.5 feet. As I looked straight ahead, high on the mesa directly in front of me, I could see a teeny, tiny bump on the hill. That’s the great house of Penasco Blanco.

This trail features some of the most interesting petroglyphs and pictographs in the park. I would never have found most of them without the park’s handy little backcountry trail guide. The little book tells you exactly where to look on various cliffs to find the artwork, and also includes little cheat sheets for the drawings. The one below is a closeup of my favorite. I learned later that the square petroglyph may represent today’s Hopi butterfly clan. The Anasazi didn’t disappear, they just moved on.

Here’s a view of the same petroglyph panel from the trail. Do you see them?

It took me a long time to traverse this part of the trail because I was constantly stopping to gawk at and photograph rock art. When I finally passed the towering sandstone cliffs and got to the boring, flat plain, my pace picked back up. The trail wound around across the plain and I finally reached Chaco Wash. I visited during the dry season, but I was still surprised at how anemic this stream is. How in the world did anyone live in this valley with such a poor water supply (well, the answer is irrigation and inventive engineering, but that’s a topic for another post).

I crossed the wash, which was so low I didn’t even get my boots wet. I did have to battle my way through some large branches of the horribly invasive tamarisk, or salt cedar, shrub. This shrub, which is actually sort of pretty, was first introduced to the west back in the 19th century as an ornamental shrub and to help control erosion. Unfortunately, it got out of hand and has taken over many streams throughout the west, and has choked out many native species. I got a good look at how much it had taken over Chaco Wash. After battling my way through the tamarisk, I crept up on another towering tan sandstone cliff on the other side of the valley.I headed down the trail and stopped when I saw a small sign that said “Supernova Pictograph” with an arrow pointing straight up. I looked up. There it was. Without the sign, I would have totally missed it.

The images are gorgeous, but in a really strange place, on a flat panel about 20 feet directly overhead. I craned my head up and gawked. The previous evening at the archaeoastromony lecture, the very knowledgeable park ranger GB Cornucopia talked about this intriguing panel. Many now assume the image at the top represents the supernova of 1054 that created the Crab Nebula. The timing is right. 1054 was during the height of Chaco. In addition, the moon image is in the same phase as when the supernova lit up the sky, and the middle finger of the hand image points to the place in the sky where the supernova would have first appeared. Pretty cool. However, GB also pointed out that similar star and moon images are also common motifs in current Pueblo cultures to represent Venus. Who knows what it is? I like to think it does represent the supernova. The image below the star, moon, and hand is one image I had never heard about. The round drawing is often used to represent the sun. However, if you look closely at the drawing, you can see a very, very faint red “tail.” GB said that some people believe the drawing represents Halley’s Comet, which also would have made an appearance in 1066 AD, again, while people in Chaco were busy studying the heavens and building their structures around the movement of the heavens. Was this panel intended to record bizarre heavenly events? Really cool to contemplate what the images mean.

I ran into another hiker on my way back to my car; here’s a photo of him directly below the pictographs so you can get a better idea of where they are. They’re tucked under the first ledge above the guy’s head. I figure that whoever drew the images must have used a ladder.

After finishing up taking a ridiculous number of pictures of the pictographs, I continued on. The trail wound up the side of the mesa, finally emerging on the top. I could almost immediately see the ruined walls of Penasco Blanco sticking up out of the desert. This great house is unique in that it is oval-shaped. Chacoans built this one fairly early, starting around 850 AD and archaeologists have not yet excavated this giant ruin.

From the top of the mesa, I had a great view of the valley (and found another giant midden full of pottery). I kicked myself for not bringing binoculars, because far below, the great houses of Pueblo Bonito and Una Vida are both laid out in the straight line extending out from this location. Pueblo Bonito is the center, the convergence of roads far below. It amazes me how accurately the people of Chaco designed their ceremonial lives.

This really is one of the best trails I explored while in Chaco. The rock art alone is well worth the hike, but the view from the mesa really conveys the huge scale of the Chaco world. If you visit Chaco, go on this hike. And be sure to take your backcountry guide with you!