Salmon Ruin

Tree rings put the building of this great house between 1088 and 1095, from timber cut over a decade, making it the earliest and largest outlier raised outside Chaco Canyon. Later research moves the panel's dates: the Chacoan occupation ended by about 1125, and the pueblo of some 275 rooms was lived in until about 1280, when much of it burned. Peter Milton Salmon's family homesteaded here in the late 1800s and, with a later owner, Charles Dustin, kept looters off. Cynthia Irwin-Williams's 1970s excavation recovered about 1.5 million artifacts and samples.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Salmon Ruin In the late 11th century, influence from Chaco Canyon, 45 miles south of here, began to be felt at this site and at nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument. The Chacoans abandoned this large and well-built masonry pueblo by 1150, and shortly thereafter, Mesa Verde people reoccupied it for approximately fifty years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Aztec Ruins National Monument — 9.3 mi
  A Chacoan great house on the Animas River, misnamed by settlers who thought the Aztecs built it, with original roofs nine centuries old and a great kiva rebuilt whole.

More markers nearby

• City of Bloomfield — 1.0 mi
• Aztec — 7.1 mi
• Harriet Belle Amsden Sammons (1876-1954) — 8.0 mi
• Aztec Ruins National Monument — 8.6 mi