Exploring Ancient Civilizations

Melting Pot of Civilizations

I love exploring the ruins of Route 66. However, my beloved wife, Carol, does not find Route 66 history as interesting as I. Not to worry. Northern Arizona is overflows with great points of interest beyond Rt 66. Carol is particularly interested in exploring ancient civilizations and their associated ruins. So, to keep Carol happy, we occasionally left Route 66 to explore 1000 years of “ancient” USA civilization.

About 1000 Years Ago

Somewhere around 1,000 years ago, the Puerco Pueblo native Americans lived along the Puerco river of what is now northeast Arizona. These Native America communities lived in pueblos constructed by materials found in the desert and along the river. If you visit the Petrified Forest National Park, you can see the ruins of the Puerco Pueblo culture from a millennium ago.

Carol really enjoyed wandering around the ruins and imagining life in their villages. In the same area, there were petroglyphs depicting various aspects of their culture. To be honest, Carol found this ancient graffiti to be way more interesting than me. But, as long as you are visiting the National Park anyway, you might as well check it out.

About 800 Years Ago

My forced march through ancient civilians got a bit better with our next stop. Just a bit east of Flagstaff, AZ, there is the Walnut Canyon National Monument. Walnut Canyon…or whatever it was called in A.D. 1150-1250…was home to the Sinagua people. The Sinagua people constructed their entire villages within the shear wall of the canyon.

I will admit the Sinagua ruins were a bit more interesting than the first ruins. There was just more to see. Furthermore, its pretty amazing that the Sinagua people managed to live within the shear face of the canyon.

After dedicating significant vacation time to the Native American culture and ruins, Carol was gracious enough to visit some ruins that are more of my style. My preferred ruins are not completely “ruinous” and ideally include a functioning pub. So…

About 100 Years Ago

Its the usual ghost town story. Some precious metal is found. Busy boom towns spring up to mine the gold, silver, copper, etc. The town reaches a peak population as everyone exploits the temporary wealth. Eventually, the mine dries up…the town folk go away…and a ghost town is born. The best kind of ghost town is one that is not completely “ghost.” The town needs to have some minimum population to maintain the tourist trap element of the ghost town. To understand this better, I give you Chloride, Arizona…

Chloride, Arizona, is what remains of an old silver mining camp from the late 1800s. Around the turn of the century, the population peaked at around 5,000 people. For some reason, about 200 people still remain. In fact, Chloride is Arizona’s oldest, continuously inhabited mining town. I really do not know why 200 live in Chloride. The locals still maintain a general store, post office, and a saloon only open on the weekend. As for why anyone else lives here, I have no idea.

Thankfully, the General Store was open during our weekday visit. The owner was a very nice lady who was extremely happy to talk to her only visitors that day. There was also a saloon, Yesterdays. But, they are only open on weekends when tourism is a bit better. Supposedly, there are remnants of the mining operations that you can hike to. But, the line between public area and private property gets a little vague outside of the town. I did not want to get either one of us shot for trespassing.

With the saloon closed, Chloride had limited public restrooms. Carol decided she could wait until we got back to our hotel. The General Store even had a pay phone that the owner said actually worked until a year ago. She used to like to call the pay phone number to surprise tourists hanging on her porch.

Wrap It Up

There you have it..a meaningful and educational post on ancient civilizations. Now, you understand Carol’s version of this exploration…and mine. My exploration of Chloride would have been much better if the saloon was actually open. So, whether you prefer the Puerco Pueblo culture…the Sinagua canyon dwellers…or the humble folks of Arizona’s oldest continuously inhabited mining town…PugsleyTonks offers a glimpse into all these ancient civilizations. Have a wonderful day. PT

I hope you have enjoyed reading “Exploring Ancient Civilizations” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks.

Here’s another post on an ancient civilization https://travelingwithpt.com/celebrating-a-massacre/

If you can not get enough of Chloride, AZ, here you go… https://www.chlorideaz.com/history

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