Walnut Canyon is located just East of Flagstaff, AZ. It was really interesting to learn some of the history behind the area. Apparently, they estimate that there were over 2000 people living in this canyon. About 300 households/rooms. 87 of them were the cliff type dwellings. They were pretty well off in their day.
In order to get to "the island", you have to go down over 240 stairs.
All of the walls that you see were reconstructed by Park employees.
Unfortunately the artifacts were totally pillaged and even the structure walls were dynamited. When the railroad came in, it was a tourist attraction to excavate pottery and other artifacts to take as souvenirs. When the artifacts were completely gone, dynamite was used to the walls to take pieces as a momento of the visit.
One thing that I found intriguing. The only pictographs that were found in the area are located on a wall located near the bottom of the canyon near the river. It is of 2 flute players. The park uses them as their logo. (see sign above) One speculation of why there aren't more pictures is that the area was not an area where people traveled through. The thought being that most pictographs and other writings are located in passageways to give information to the next traveler.
No comments:
Post a Comment