As examples of primitive architectural skill the 18 major ruins
of Chaco Canyon National Monument, N. Mex., are without equal in
the United States. Together with the cultural material recovered
from their abandoned rooms, these ruins represent the very
zenith of pueblo civilization in prehistoric times. No other
archeological area in the entire Southwest exhibits so high a
development. The ancient inhabitants of Chaco Canyon left no
written record; no interpretable hieroglyphic system. The first
published description of the Chaco Canyon ruins is that of
Lieut. J. H. Simpson, in 1850; the second, that of W. H.
Jackson, in 1879. Mexican and Indian guides accompanying Simpson
gave the ruins the names by which they are now known. Pueblo
Bonito (beautiful village), the largest of the ruins, is an
immense semicircular structure 520 feet long by 310 feet in its
greatest north and south depth. Portions of fourth-story masonry
are still standing. The older section of Pueblo Bonito appears
to be the first terraced comm