Pot shards. Lots of shards were found in the nearby creek, which the Spanish then named Rito de Ollas. And it is still named that. But the forest service, always eager to remove all traces of any Hispanic heritage, calls the area Pot Creek. And the forest service calls the original inhabitants Anasazi, which was acceptable 50 years ago but not today.
Today they are called Ancestral Puebloans. I think. Could be wrong. About a thousand years ago there were quite a few of them in this little nook in the mountains, but then they left the area and apparently some of them went a few miles south to join what is now the Picurus people and the others went north a few miles to join the Taos pueblo.
Today their descendants return to the area from time to time to show a little love and, perhaps, wish they could remember their original names. Which was probably something like Us.
The little cultural site is easy to miss. So I won't tell you where it is. And it's closed anyway, so don't bother looking for it. And if you do find it, keep it to yourself.
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| These 4 inch high art pieces at the entrance are pretty much the only things that indicate this is a cultural site. |
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| We love to show off the New Mexico blue skies and junipers |
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| A ladder emerging from a kiva. This and the next two pictures show some reconstruction using original materials and techniques and was done by the local pueblos |
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| A mound like this is all that remains of a family unit constructed of mud brick |
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| Some of the new mud brick made in the original manner. There are a lot of rocks around here but the rocks are mostly granite and hard to shape. Much easier to use mud bricks. I've always seen ruins around here made from rocks, so this was a surprise. When you get old, it is always enjoyable to be surprised. |
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| And I'll wrap up with another blue sky, this one with Spanish Moss on a pinon. And Spanish Moss is a suspect name, since it is neither Spanish nor moss but the correct name, Tillandsia usneoides, is too hard to spell. |