Our National Parks: The Anasazi of Chimney Rock (Poem)

High up on Chimney Rock

in southern Colorado there

is a piece of Chaco Canyon

culture far removed from

northern New Mexico built

by Chacoans 800 years ago

where only 90 days of growing

season is to be had for

corn and squash and beans.

And yet here at Chimney Rock

lived the very northern-most

Chacoans in beautifully built

walls of stone, leveled with chips

high above mountains and mesas

to the south with views northward

to the snowy San Juan Mountains.

Why did they come so far north

except to establish an outpost

for trading materials needed in

the south such as medicine from

mountain herbs or elk hide and

dried bighorn sheep meat so rare

in distant deserts seen from above,

and seen with eyes of falcons,

fellow dwellers of Chimney Rock.

*Chimney Rock site is between Durango and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, 90 miles north of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. It is now a national historic site.

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