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Box Canyon Ruins
The Box Canyon ruins are typical of many pueblos found in this region. Early inhabitants constructed walls of nearby sandstone and limestone, and used local soils to cement the stones together. The flat roofs were built of timbers laid side-by-side, covered with smaller branches and finally plastered over with mud.
Smoke was vented from the rooms through a square hole in the ceiling, which frequently served as the only access to the room. Doorways were small and windows almost non-existent. As the rooms were abandoned, the timbers were often scavenged and used in other pueblos or burned as firewood, a precious commodity in this environment.
As you look at these ruins today, they appear just as they did when discovered in the late 1800s. The National Park Service has stabilized the walls to help preserve them. None are reconstructed. These 800-year-old walls are fragile and easily disturbed. Do not walk or climb on them. |