Puerco Pueblo

Overlooking the Puerco River, the pueblo was occupied 600 to 800 years ago by Ancestral Puebloan People. Features include partially stabilized walls of several room types and a number of petroglyph panels. One of the latter appears to have been a solar calendar. The sun follows different paths throughout the year. This petroglyph marks the summer solstice. During the morning, a shaft of sunlight travels down the side to penetrate the centre of a small spiral.

The pueblo has been only partially excavated. In the late 1800s, Jesse Walter Fewkes, an archaeologist, was the first scient to visit Puerco Pueblo. In 1905 and 1906, John Muir, a conservationist did some excavating here. In the 1930s, Harry Percival Mera and C. Burton Cosgrove, anthropologists, also worked here. The site was further explored by archaeologists in the 1980s.

Return to Petrified Forest National Park, in the Parks section of this website.