Salmon Ruins, NM

MORE RUINS?!!
Yeah, we figured while we were so close, we should check out some of the other ruins in the area. These ruins, the Salmon Ruins, are just a couple of miles out of Bloomfield where we are staying.


This museum/gift shop complex is run by San Juan County Museum Association. Today was their Open House, so admission to the complex was free.

These ruins were not excavated until the 1970s. It is considered an "outlier" of the Chaco Canyon communities that we visited yesterday.

This picture shows one of the still intact vertical timber supports of a round room. Because it was excavated more recently, the wood hasn't yet disintegrated like the ones at Bonito Pueblo.

This shows the rock supports that buttressed the wooden roof supports in this kiva. We heard a different story today, suggesting that the forms at the bottom of the kiva had hides stretched over them to form foot drums...?

These ruins are named after the Salmon family who homesteaded here in the late 1890s and are responsible for protecting them from vandalism until the archaeological investigations of the 1970s. This is what remains of their pioneer home (a larger two-story house built later was destroyed by fire...).

The house was built using some of the same techniques used by the builders of the ruins. Note the vigas (timbers) that support the roof.

The "plaster" that covers the walls is made of mud and straw --

Since these ruins are quite a bit smaller than those at Chaco, we were back at Auntie Violet by a little after four. I had pulled some steaks out of the freezer. I fixed some corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes and sweet potato fries to go with them for dinner as we had guests! My Executive Board friend Tina, her daughter Delcherie and grand-daughter Kaili joined us for the evening. It was fun to have them here and to get to know Tina's family a little bit!