CHACO CANYON EMPIRE

CHACO CANYON EMPIRE - An ancient civilization once flourished in a remote area of northwestern New Mexico, from approximately 800 AD to 1300 AD. These people possessed advancements on par with the greatest “lost” civilizations: Romans, Druids, Aztecs, Egyptians, and the Mayans. But at the time, did all roads lead to Chaco Canyon? Yes, they did. And here’s why. Chacoans built multi-story “great houses” 40 feet tall, round partially-buried rooms known as kivas, water management features, and a vast system of roads, some headed to nowhere. But that’s not even the most impressive point. As verified by NASA’s multispectral scanning, these roads and buildings were based on sophisticated understanding of astronomy, such as cycles of the sun, moon and stars. The complex is impressive all on its own. What’s not readily apparent in the ruins is its position as a network of societies. Archaeology has unearthed evidence of: cylindrical pots and cacao beans from the Yucatan Peninsula, copper bells from northern Mexico, abalone from the Pacific Ocean, turquoise from Arizona and California, macaw feathers from Mexico, chert and obsidian from everywhere in New Mexico and pottery designs from every Puebloan society across the Four Corners. Based on DNA excavated from a crypt, researchers discovered family lines were passed down from women, probably elite status in leadership roles. So surprisingly, this wasn’t a kingdom passed down from father to son, it was a matriarchy inherited through female lineage. Columbus never discovered America, and Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock much later than this. Coronado walked this way first, riding horseback on dirt footpaths broken in by Native Americans. Later, a covered wagon train crossed the Continental Divide via El Camino Real, and then first cars sped down Route 66 and now, electric cars glide in silence, down the I-40 freeway. Every young man looks down the long road and wonders, could I make it there? I’m sure the first Puebloans, conquistadores, colonists and homesteaders had the same feeling. 

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2019/07/chaco-canyon-empire.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2018/09/route-66.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2018/08/boca-negra-canyon-most-people-dont-know.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2018/04/death-comes-for-archbishop.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2015/04/acoma-pueblo-by-chad-schimke.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2014/10/santa-fe-plaza.html

  

  

ROUTE 66

ROUTE 66 - Travel through the desert, from the gulf of Texas to the mighty Pacific. Route 66 isn’t a place, it’s a mindset. Few seem to grasp the real America began before the settlement of Acoma pueblo or Chaco Canyon. Far before any Pilgrims. The road used for commerce currently was once a footpath, and later a horsepath. In my own journey, travel east and south came first, seeming contradictory, but that’s how it unfolded. Close my eyes and drive by Grants down 66 and meander down Central Avenue. The murky version of the past stored in my mind, frozen in time from the day I left, doesn’t reconcile with the 2018 version. It’s how I remembered what happened. That version, the one I’m used to, not how things are right now. Past Central Avenue. No more Wagon Wheel hotel or Weinerschnitzel next to The Pussycat. From the heights with Foxes on one end, almost to Nine Mile Hill,  the women’s social club.  I got in with my work friend, she drove me there in her 280z. The day in high school when I drove the open road and listened to the space shuttle explode live on the radio. I found signposts along the way. The club in Nob Hill where I could never quite make it. Stop trying to run away, everyone said. Many many times. Go west, young man, the road said. Every young man looks down a long road and wonders, could I make it there? I did that and the road is a place that lives inside my mind. Ocean Beach, no it’s not Lands’ End. But I see the ocean every day in San Francisco. Sometimes I imagine taking the 580 to the 5 to I40 back. But the old 66 of my mind isn't there. I long for a full gas tank and the open road since Route 66 never leaves my mind.

BOCA NEGRA CANYON

BOCA NEGRA CANYON – A little known fact is the route between current day Mexico City and Santa Fe has been a crossroads for trade spanning centuries, and possibly thousands of years. Ever since reading Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, I developed a passion for Southwestern Literature. Stories such as those told by author Eugene Manlove Rhodes, of Pasó Por Aquí. He takes the title for his classic western novella from those same words, the words Don Juan de Oñate carved on the sandstone wall of El Morro, otherwise known as Inscription Rock. Or another tale, The Little Lion of the Southwest, whereby author Marc Simmons depicts the life of Manuel Antonio Chaves, also appearing in Cather’s book as a minor character. A descendent of one Oñate’s conquistadores, Chaves participated in a raid on the Navajo, and in retaliation, was severely wounded. At the age of 16, as the only survivor, he walked home 200 miles without provisions. Long before any European set foot on the path, the Anasazi settled Canyon de Chelly and dispersed the Hopi, Navajo and Acoma people into the surrounding areas. From the Acoma Pueblo to the green pond of El Morro, the landscape is as stark and emblematic as those that passed this way, down the lonesome trail. Photographs of these stone etchings, taken at Boca Negra Canyon historical site, reflect the hand of an ancient ancestor that scratched symbols in the black rocks. Were these people the first to walk the trail? Yes, that's what I imagine. 

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP

DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP - Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy envisions a yellow stone church on the Santa Fe plaza. The book follows his life and the construction of the Cathedral Basilica. In Willa Cather’s ‘Death Comes for the Archbishop’, she gracefully describes the haunted beauty of New Mexico. The landscape is desolate and rich in culture, including gluttonous priests, along with sympathetic descriptions of the Hopi and Navajo. The book (which appears on several best-of lists) is episodic in scope. The author successfully describes grand visual details of the region that are like nowhere else. Such that New Mexico culture becomes a character in its own right. 

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM

Georgia O'Keeffe Museum - The name is synonymous with American Modernism and New Mexico. The collection spans the artist’s entire life. From her education, to her New York years with Alfred Stieglitz, to her final days in Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. The museum is located off the historic Santa Fe plaza.  

https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/