They left 750 years ago
The remnants of the dwelling/fortress are in good condition, but very quiet now. Residents of this site and many nearby sites headed south between 1250 and 1280, escaping unsustainable conditions brought on by a 25 year drought.
Residents left many things--they dipped their hands in dye and pressed them on the wall, leaving signatures still distinct. Women ground corn and acorns on bedrock surfaces, gouging and polishing them into metates; they remain unchanged, still littered with corn cobs. Pictographs decorate the walls.
After a thunderstorm, water would spill from above, tumbling into the splash pool far below. That would be worth seeing and hearing.
This site on Comb Ridge is protected in the Bears Ears National Monument, established a year ago.
Secretary of the Interior Zinke and President Trump are considering reducing the size of the National Monument by 90%, to allow drilling for gas and oil, mining, and logging. For those who enjoy natural history and the history of our continent, this is a sacrilegious rape of natural resources and historical sites that deprives the public of their heritage and land just to make some rich people much richer.
They left 750 years ago
The remnants of the dwelling/fortress are in good condition, but very quiet now. Residents of this site and many nearby sites headed south between 1250 and 1280, escaping unsustainable conditions brought on by a 25 year drought.
Residents left many things--they dipped their hands in dye and pressed them on the wall, leaving signatures still distinct. Women ground corn and acorns on bedrock surfaces, gouging and polishing them into metates; they remain unchanged, still littered with corn cobs. Pictographs decorate the walls.
After a thunderstorm, water would spill from above, tumbling into the splash pool far below. That would be worth seeing and hearing.
This site on Comb Ridge is protected in the Bears Ears National Monument, established a year ago.
Secretary of the Interior Zinke and President Trump are considering reducing the size of the National Monument by 90%, to allow drilling for gas and oil, mining, and logging. For those who enjoy natural history and the history of our continent, this is a sacrilegious rape of natural resources and historical sites that deprives the public of their heritage and land just to make some rich people much richer.