nazSTUFF - Elden Pueblo Past

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Elden Pueblo - Yesterday

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Visiting Elden Pueblo - History

To experience Elden Pueblo for the first time is to experience mystery. Questions waiting to be answered. Stories ready to unfold. The pueblo's 70 rooms stand silent today. Some rooms have been excavated, some have not. A ponderosa pine forest surrounds the archaeological site that once housed the prehistoric Sinagua - a site the modern day Hopi consider a special ancestral plave, a place thay call PASIOVE or PAVASIOKI.

Later, researchers called the site Sheep Hill Pueblo for the volcanic hill across the road to the east. Elden Pueblo got its current name from Mount Elden, a dome-shaped mountain of dacite behind it. It stands as a silent, stone guardian of the pueblo as it has for hundreds of years. This silence is partially broken today by the sounds of questions explained, shovels and trowels and whisk brooms in action, artifact bags, notes being scribbled....

Elden Pueblo Timeline

1916

During a vacation to Flagstaff, Dr. and Mrs. Harold S. Colton come upon a ruin while horseback riding and name it Sheep Hill Ruin after a nearby cinder cone.

1926

J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian excavates the site for three months, digging through 35 rooms, uncovering some 165 burials, and recovering nearly 2,500 artifacts; he calls it Elden Pueblo after the name of the mountain on whose flank it is located

1928

Upset by removal of the Elden Publo artifacts to the Smithsonian, prominent Flagstaff citizens persuade the Coltons to help found the Museum of Northern Arizona to provide a future home for artifacts and other objects of scientific interest from the region

1930

Fewkes dies without completing his major study on Elden Pueblo; the following year, the artifacts are dispersed to institutions across the country (a human skull is even sent to the University of Moscow in what is then the USSR). Over the next 30 years, the site is forgotten by archaeologists, but targeted by local pothunters and outside collectors

1966

Roger Kelly conducts two seasons of excavations at Elden as a training course at Northern Arizona University, examining four rooms not dug by Fewkes and re-investigating part of a large community room, along with a curio shop built at the site in 1927 or 1928 and abandoned a few years later. The excavation recovers 550 artifacts and 50,000 sherds.

1971

An archaeological advisory committee recommends to Coconino National Forest that the Forest Service retain Elden Pueblo because of its importance to the development of archaeology in the region and as a site that, although largely excavated and poorly recorded, could serve as a testing ground for theories developed at more pristine sites.

1978

Testing by Forest Service Archaeologists, with members of the Youth Conservation Corps, reveals susbtantial deposits remain in areas where Fewkes dug. Enthusiasm and interest of YCC workers leads to concept of developing site as a public involvement project in which excavation and stabilization of the ruin would be done as a means of educating the public about archaeology, local prehistory, and cultural values of other groups.

1980

Summer camp in archaeology for school children instituted with Museum of Northern Arizona. Also, the Arizona Archaeological Society, an avocational group, begins its summer field school at Elden for their certification program.

About Elden Pueblo

First, the Logo.

This is an actual artifact discovered at Elden Pueblo. It is a decorated ceramic effigy representing a pronghorn antelope. Pronghorn antelope are seen today east of Flagstaff.

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"The Elden Pueblo Project is a cooperative endeavor between the Coconino National Forest, the Arizona Natural History Association, and the Arizona Archaeological Society to provide educational opportunities in archaeology. Elden Pueblo is a 60-80 room pueblo of the prehistoric Sinagua culture and a Hopi ancestral site. The site of Elden Pueblo is open to the public and is located one mile north of the Flagstaff Mall on U.S. Highway 89.

Elden Pueblo is the site of an ancient Sinagua (Sin ah’ wa) village, inhabited from about A.D. 1070 to 1275. The site is unique for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, it makes archaeology and the study of ancient peoples accessible to the public. Since 1978, professional archaeologists have supervised members of the public in excavations, archaeological research techniques and artifact analysis through a variety of public and school programs.

Conveniently located on U.S. Highway 89 north, Elden Pueblo is thought to have been part of a major trading system. This is evidenced by discoveries of trade items, such as macaw skeletons from as far south as Mexico, to shell jewelry from the California Coast. Important discoveries recently uncovered at Elden Pueblo suggest that the Sunset Crater volcano may have erupted over a much longer period of time than previously thought.

The Arizona Natural History Association sponsors the Elden Pueblo Archaeology Project with the Coconino National Forest to provide opportunities for people to learn about and become involved in the science of archaeology. Annual programs include several Public Archaeology Days, in which the public can participate in site tours, actual excavation, artifact washing and analysis, and try their hand at using ancient hunting weapons. The August Public Day features a Primitive Technology Expo and the last Public Day of the year takes place in the fall as part of the annual Flagstaff Festival of Science."

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