Pueblo Bonito

Plaque at Pueblo Bonito, the largest of the "great houses" at Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico. Chaco Canyon was the center of the Ancestral Puebloan culture, populated from about AD 850 to 1250.

Transcription:

You are approaching the great ruins of an ancient Indian fortified town.

PUEBLO BONITO

This huge structure was unearthed and preserved for posterity between 1920 and 1922 by seven expeditions of

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Gilbert Grosvenor, President

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Neil M. Judd, Expedition Leader

The expeditions removed a hundred thousand tons of rubble and windblown sand accumulated over the centuries. They accurately reconstructed parts of destroyed walls to match the ancient masonry.