[conservativeharleyguy]

I love it.

My father was a UNM Anthropology student in the 1930's. He was the expedition Photographer and Civil Engineer for several "digs" at Chaco, Sandia Cave, and many other sites in the 1930's with Frank Hibben and his UNM crew. My mother went on several digs as a Botanist.

I still have a can full of the negatives of what are probably the first color photographs ever taken of Chaco Canyon sitting on my dresser at home. Maybe someday, I'll get prints made.

I also have negatives of pictures of Hibben (with his pipe) and some others sitting in the entrance to Sandia Cave that are artistic in quality. I suppose I should donate them all to UNM.

I wish my father was still alive to talk about all of the different Chacoan Culture theories that have cropped up in the last couple of decades.

Funny thing though. After he left that world, and after the War, he become a Civil Engineer, but he never returned to any of the sites where he dug as a student in the thirties.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***My father was a UNM Anthropology student in the 1930's.***

Do you know anything about a group known as the "Gallina" people? I read about them about 30 years ago and saw a story in a major magazine about them.
When I asked the rangers at AZTEC ruins about them they told me that this group was only a writer's imagination and did not exist.

[blam]

"I also have negatives of pictures of Hibben (with his pipe) and some others sitting in the entrance to Sandia Cave that are artistic in quality. I suppose I should donate them all to UNM."

Thats great. Keep a copy for yourself. See if you can trade them for the remains of 'Spirit Cave man.' (Ahem)

[stands2reason]

Satellite imaging helps uncover many of these road systems that can't readily be seen otherwise.

[Wiseghy]

You may want to get those developed and digitized soon, by an expert. Negatives go bad over time, even when you can still "see" the image on the film.

[La Enchiladita]

So glad I found this thread. I LOVE Chaco more than anyone here, I swear it!

Pueblo Bonito! You can walk all through the dwellings and must stoop to walk through the doorways. Were the Anasazi little people or just had the habit of stooping? (Stoopid question, I know.)

I travelled there with a group. Oh yes, the road in is memorable. I recall we encountered a Navajo woman whose land we passed through. We had to stop and talk with her. We were also chasing storms. Anyway, we arrived and then found the campground and chose our places to sleep at night. It was near the full moon, so didn't sleep much, just listened to coyotes. In the morning, I went with one of the guys from our group and a park ranger to walk the canyon and look at petroglyphs.

I enjoyed that so much that when I got home to California, I wrote a letter to the regional supervisor complimenting our ranger on his knowledge and presentation.

After walking around Pueblo Bonito in the afternoon, we all hiked up a gradual slope to a mesa east of Pueblo Bonito, and sat there to watch the sunset. In the meantime, we gazed in the four directions toward other sites that were interconnected to Chaco by roads and visible to one another from a distance. Someone here mentioned that already.

I hesitate to say what I experienced walking down from the mesa, but it was one of the most special moments of my life. Cosmic, I guess, and I wanted to stay that way. It was great.

Also visited the kiva and sat in it for awhile while one of our guys recited some Shakespeare. Normally, I would say Shut up, but it was cool, kind of funny. I loved that kiva and I love the legends of kivas. I remember there was a park attendant who came around to service the bathrooms at the campground and I heard him sort of humming/singing to himself while he worked. So, one day I chanced to speak with him and asked about the singing. He was very nice and said they were Navajo songs.

We were on geography/biology/botany field studies from Santa Monica College. We also camped at Canyon de Chelly, Hovenweep, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley and a couple of other places while travelling the Colorado Plateau. Experienced some great storms as well.

[tangerine]

You should scan those negatives, either yourself or have it done, and put the images on a CD. It's very easy to reverse them to positives digitally.