The View from a Drawbridge

On July 15^th, 2026, the Trump Administration began a 14-day public comment period on the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management website regarding their outrageous proposal to open public lands in the Greater Chaco Region to oil and gas drilling. This will include 336,400 acres of federal land surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

They also had a 7-day comment period in early April, in which 100,000 people opposed the idea, and yet they still pushed forward. And they are not holding any public meetings whatsoever. So this short comment period does not bode well for Chaco Canyon. Not at all.

I’m feeling sick to my stomach.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, Archeologists estimate that 12,000 unexcavated cultural sites lie within that zone. Further, “to allow new leasing on public lands in this area would completely disregard the calls from Tribes, including the 20 sovereign Pueblos that collectively participate in the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the National Congress of American Indians, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, elected officials, and other communities who share a deep connection to Chaco Canyon.”

Not only are environmental advocates up in arms, but a poll has determined that 71% of New Mexico voters oppose this measure. Five US Senators and Representatives from New Mexico proposed legislation to permanently protect the canyon. Chaco Canyon has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site precisely because so much of the culture and heritage of the Indigenous peoples of the American Southwest can be found there.

The irony is that 90 percent of the public lands beyond this area are already available for leasing. To insist that this area, which is so sacred to so many people, and which holds the remains of our country’s oldest civilization, is unconscionable. It’s also a blatant disregard  for what is truly great about America—its varied culture and rich history.

In 2005, during the Autumnal Equinox, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Chaco Canyon. It was the experience of a lifetime. I was humbled by the evidence of scientific genius of these people who lived more than 1000 years ago.

This was the Middle Ages for European scholars, and they were focused on looking backward, recovering the knowledge of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabs. Meanwhile, the Ancestral Puebloans were looking to the skies, and had an uncanny knowledge of the passage of the sun, moon, and stars, the equinoxes and the solstices, and the cycles that occur every 9.5 years. So it naturally follows that they understood mathematics. And it is obvious that they had mastered architecture. We know these three things because they oriented their buildings to the positions of the sun and moon at various times of year. We may never understand their motivations for doing so, but the fact that they could should be a point of pride for their descendants. Often these buildings were many miles apart and out of the line of sight of one another and yet surveys say they’re perfectly aligned. They also left a sophisticated seasonal calendar.

To learn more about all the building alignments and the calendar, check out this fascinating documentary entitled The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, narrated by Robert Redford and created by the Solstice Project. It’s gorgeously filmed, and has been aired by 90% of the PBS stations in the country. And now you can see it on Amazon Prime. It’s 56 minutes long, but it’s fascinating. And it’s what caused me to visit the canyon in the first place.

Chaco isn’t easy to get to. You need to have 4-wheel drive. Depending on which direction you come from, you’ll be driving either 13 or 21 miles on unpaved roads, through private tribal lands. The trip is a big part of the experience. It helps you understand how truly isolated these people were. It is miles and miles of miles and miles. I find it fascinating that they chose this harsh landscape to settle in. But they were amazing farmers. They survived and thrived for centuries, and the tribes in the area are their proud descendants.

I really should clarify something, though. When I say they lived “here”, I’m using the term loosely. Currently, the strong belief is that the sites within the National Park were not residential. They were most likely ceremonial, and/or a major trade hub. In fact, objects have been found on site that came from South America. No, the people would gather here. They lived in other places, often equally harsh.

We chose to camp in the canyon for two nights, and it was amazing. It is truly a dark sky area. No light pollution anywhere, so if it’s not overcast, you see a million stars. And you’ve never heard such a profound silence. There are very few places left on earth that are like this. Everyone should get to experience it at least once in their lives to understand how we were really meant to live. To corrupt that experience with smoke and spotlights and truck engines and the constant sound of pump jacks would be an abomination.

I’ve got to say, though, that Mother Nature doesn’t fool around in Chaco. We were tent camping, and one of the two nights, a storm came though with lightning and thunder so intense that I actually feared for my life for a bit there. It was that thick horizontal lightning that travels from one side of the sky to the other, and we were in a flimsy little tent with metal poles. If, up to that point, I had any doubt at all that these people had religion of some sort, I had no doubt after that. You’d have to, to weather storms like that on a regular basis.

I made a point of visiting right at the autumnal equinox because of the aforementioned documentary. That seasonal calendar, called the Sun Dagger, would be marking the equinox, and I couldn’t wait to see that! Sadly, by 2005, the park no longer allowed visitors to the site, because so many had visited it that they had eroded the sand, which had shifted the rocks, and because of that, a calendar that had been phenomenally accurate for centuries is now only kinda sorta accurate as of 1989. It breaks my heart, just thinking about it.

It’s probably for the best, though. Here’s my photo of of Fajada Butte. Needless to say, it’s a dangerous trek. If I had been paying closer attention to the documentary, it appears you have to don a harness and a hard hat to go. Had I done so, I might not be here to tell you this tale. If it were still accessible, given the increasing suckiness of humanity, the ledge would get vandalized and there would be beer bottles all over the place. So I gazed longingly at it from a great distance, but I understood the need to protect it.

Here’s a short YouTube video that shows you the seasonal phenomenon, though. Even if the Ancestral Puebloans had been smiling upon me, I wouldn’t have gotten to see all four of these phenomena on that visit, so I’m grateful that the video exists.

Oh, but there’s much more magic going on in Chaco at the autumnal equinox than the sun dagger! If you meet the rangers at sunrise at the Casa Rinconada site, you will see the sun come up directly through two windows that are perfectly aligned. (It works for spring equinox too, of course.)

Sunrise is at 6:44am. You have to know me to understand how much motivation I require to get up at that hour. It’s not natural. But this… This was motivation. Who gets to observe a light show hosted by people who left this place 1000 years before I was born?

Sadly, I did not anticipate how many people would be willing to do this, and the Casa Rinconada parking lot was full. We parked at the next closest site, but by the time we walked all the way back there, the event had mostly ended. Thank heavens we would be there for two nights.

The next morning I got up even earlier. My boyfriend at the time was over it, and slept in. I couldn’t believe it, but we had wildly different ideas about what matters in life (which is a big part of why he’s not a part of my present or my future). As I drove to Casa Rinconada, I enjoyed the solitude, because I got to commune with a herd of elk and was grateful to experience my awe in silence. They looked up at me in confusion, because I was the intruder here.  They belong. I most definitely did not, and was only tolerated because I came to this sacred place in awe and admiration. No business should be conducted in this paradise. Nothing should ever be extracted. It would be an unforgivable sin against nature.

This time I was one of the first people there. I’ll never forget the Ranger who met us. His name was GB Cornucopia. While doing research for the post, I discovered that he’s still there, at least as of 2025. That means he’s been a Chaco Ranger for about 37 years now.

Even in 2005, it was evident how much he loved the place. He found his calling. The talk he gave that morning was absolutely wonderful. All I can remember about it, unfortunately, was that I was extremely impressed, and I envied his life. When someone is content, you can feel it. And the spectacle did not disappoint.

Here’s a short video of Ranger Cornucopia talking about Summer Solstice at Chaco Canyon:

Here are some other photos I took during our visit. I wish they did this magical place justice. I hope you get to see it for yourself some day. If it doesn’t get permanently destroyed by having oil jacks on the horizon, that is.

Here are two halves of one ruin. I wish I still had a digital camera with a “stitch” feature that would combine them into one.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for a good petroglyph, and Chaco Canyon is chock full o’ them. (Sorry. Had to.) You see the spirals everywhere. It’s on the sun dagger, too. They believe it depicts the sun and/or the concept of time.

Please, please don’t let Donald Trump and his greedy minions destroy this national treasure! Act quickly. July 29 is nearly upon us. Spread the word. I expect our word may be ignored, and this will turn into a situation not unlike the water protectors and the pipeline. Really. It means that much. Let’s try to stop that from happening. Let’s try to make them do the right thing.

It didn’t feel like much, but I did leave a public comment on the page provided by the Bureau of Land Management. It didn’t feel like much, but I had to lend my voice, at least. Here’s what I said:

“Chaco Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is something Americans can be proud of. The Ancestral Puebloans built structures there as far back as the year 900. I had the privilege of visiting this place and camping there years ago, and it was a magical experience. One of the best things about it is that it’s not easy to get to. Its remoteness emphasizes how dedicated these people were, how much their spiritual traditions meant to them, and why they ultimately had to leave the area. If one had to drive through oil fields to get to the site, it would be an abomination. It would destroy the experience as well as destroying the land. You destroyed the east wing and the reflecting pool. Don’t touch this. What’s next? The Statue of Liberty? The Grand Canyon? Shame on you.”

To leave a Public Comment, go to this page before the July 29, 2026 deadline, and click on the Participate Now button up top. Thank you.

In fact, a thousand years’ worth of thank yous.

Additional Sources:

Trump Administration Moves Closer to Revoking Chaco Canyon Protections

New Mexico advocates, elected officials decry federal proposal to curtail Chaco Canyon protections

Visiting Chaco Canyon | 5 Strange Secrets That Still Baffle Us Today

Chaco Canyon: A Complete Guide to New Mexico’s Ancient Wonder

Wikipedia—European science in the Middle Ages

Chaco Canyon Ancient Observatiories: Biograpies: GB Cornucopia