{"id":38191,"date":"2022-09-24T17:51:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T23:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chimney-rock-celebrates-10th-anniversary-as-national-monument\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:42:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:42:50","slug":"chimney-rock-celebrates-10th-anniversary-as-national-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chimney-rock-celebrates-10th-anniversary-as-national-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimney Rock celebrates 10th anniversary as national monument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Chimney
Chimney Rock National Monument plans a day of free, interactive and educational public events from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in recognition of its 10th anniversary as a designated national monument. The monument is located at 3179 Colorado Highway 151. (Courtesy)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chimney Rock, located in the San Juan National Forest in Southwest Colorado and encompassing 4,726 acres, has long been viewed as a place of intrigue and wonder, where the Chacoan people lived 1,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of Chimney Rock as a national monument, officially declared as such in 2012 by then President Barack Obama, using the Antiquities Act established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect lands of cultural, historical or scientific importance. Chimney Rock is the 12th national monument managed by the U.S. Forest Service, according to its website, in collaboration with tribal, community, state and federal partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many advantages that came with Chimney Rock being made into a national monument,\u201d said Scott Owen, public affairs officer for San Juan National Forest. \u201cWe got funding for our capital improvement plan. We got funding for our new visitors center and amphitheater. Before we built all this, we just had a little cabin up the hill where we did everything. That was it. Chimney Rock Interpretive Association, our partners, has been instrumental in all this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chimney Rock Interpretive Association, a volunteer-based organization, works with a special-use permit through the National Forest Service. The group conducts guided tours, monitors and maintains sites and educates the public about the importance of protecting the sites, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey helped make this all possible,\u201d Owen said. \u201cWe now have the resources and the seasonal employees to better protect the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 400 visitors had shown up to Chimney Rock by noon Saturday, and Owen said he and his staff members had to scramble to find parking spaces for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were breaking down molehills in the fields, trying to clear them for parking spaces,\u201d he said. \u201cBut everything has gone smoothly so far. The only thing that\u2019s gone wrong is that our falcon handler didn\u2019t show. She\u2019s sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"More
More than 400 people attended Chimney Rock National Monument\u2019s 10th anniversary celebration on Saturday. Many joined in dancing with local tribal members. (Megan K. Olsen\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Those who did show up were the musicians and dancers from various southwestern tribes, including members of the Acoma, Dine, Jemez and Southern Ute nations, who dazzled audiences with their music, elaborate and intricate costumes, and celebratory dancing.<\/p>\n

Heritage Program Manager Michelle Stevens was excited about the high turnout for the celebration. She hoped visitors would learn many things about Chimney Rock\u2019s rich history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t help but be moved,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a special place. The way they built those ruins, that ancient Puebloan architecture. The fact that they built those dwellings way up there, where there\u2019s no water. Imagine having to hike up and down all the time just to get water from the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Chimney Rock can follow that same path the Chacoans took to get to their various destinations at an altitude of 7,000 feet: the Great Kiva, four partially restored pithouses, a Great-House Chacoan pueblo and a multifamily dwelling. Chimney Rock covers 7 square miles and preserves 200 ancient homes and ceremonial buildings.<\/p>\n

The Chacoan people\u2019s abandonment of Chimney Rock is believed to have occurred around 1130 A.D., though the reasons as to why have long been debated.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they just moved on,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cMaybe there were environmental or societal changes. Maybe they depleted the resources around here. Who knows? The tribes around here have their own stories. They don\u2019t think of the site in terms of abandonment. The spirit of their people is still here. Part of their culture is still here. It\u2019s considered a Chacoan outlier that fits into a bigger network. They see Chimney Rock as being part of a much larger landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, the day before the anniversary celebration, the people of the Puebloan tribes came to Chimney Rock to celebrate their cultural affiliation and connection to the site away from the attention of outsiders. Even Southern Ute royalty were in attendance.<\/p>\n

\"Chimney
Chimney Rock National Monument\u2019s team completed its new visitors center and amphitheater in April. (Megan K. Olsen\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThat\u2019s what I love about this place,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cThe land and everything it means to them. It\u2019s multilayered connection to today\u2019s Puebloans. And also, it\u2019s ecology. It\u2019s just so beautiful, and it will be enjoyed by future generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen agrees with Stevens\u2019 sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing the joy on people\u2019s faces when they first see Chimney Rock,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cThat sense of awe. That sense of wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

molsen@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

An earlier version of this story misstated the Chaco people as having lived at Chimney Rock for 1,000 years, instead of 1,000 years ago. It also misstated certain Arizonan and New Mexican tribes as being from Colorado.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

includes tours of the archaeological sites and dancing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1571,28,199],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chimney-rock-archeological-area","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-national-forest"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83944,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38191\/revisions\/83944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38191"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}