Chaco Culture National Historical Park
New Mexico

Visitor Center

About Chaco Canyon:

Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserves one of America's most significant and intriguing cultural and historic areas.

Chaco Canyon was a major center of Anasazi (now often called Ancestral Puebloan) culture between AD 850 and 1250.   It was the major hub for trade in the Southwest.  The Chacoan people traded with people all over the North, Central, and even South America.  It was also the major center for ceremonies and administration of society for the prehistoric Four Corners area.

Chaco is significant for its monumental public and ceremonial buildings and distinctive architecture. The construction these buildings, along with related ramps, stairs, roads, dams, and mounds, required a lot of organization and skillful planning. The Chacoan people combined pre-planned architectural designs, astronomical alignments, geometry, landscaping, and engineering to create an ancient urban center with magnificent public architecture.

   Agate Fossil Beds NM|Agua Fria NM|Arches NP|Badlands NP|Bandelier NM|Big Bend NP|Big Cypress NP
Big Hole NB|Big Thicket NP|Biscayne NP|Black Canyon of Gunnison NP|Bryce Canyon NP|Cabrillo NM|Canyon de Chelly NM|Canyonlands NP|Canyon of the Ancients NM|Capitol Reef NP|Capulin Volcano NM|Carlsbad Caverns NP|Carrizo Plain NM|Casa Grande NM |Cascade-Siskiyou NM|Cedar Breaks NM|Chaco Canyon NHP|Chamizal NM|Channel Islands NP|Chickamauga & Chattanooga NMP|Chimney Rock NHS|Chiricahua NM||City of Rocks NP|Colorado NM|Congaree NP|Coronado NM|Crater Lake NP|Craters of the Moon NM|Death Valley NP|Devil's Post Pile NM|Devil's Tower NM|Ebey's Landing NHR|Dinosaur NM|El Malpais NM|El Morro NM|Eugene O'Neill NHS|Everglades NP|Flaming Gorge NRA|Florissant Fossil Beds NM|Fort Bowie NM|Fort Laramie NHS|Fort Larnard NHS|Fort Pulaski|Fort Union NM|Fort Vancouver NHS|Fossil Butte NM|Glacier NP|Glen Canyon NRA|Golden Gate NRA|Golden Spike NHS|Grand Canyon NP|Grand Canyon/Parashant NM|Grand Teton NP|Giant Sequoia NM|Gila Cliff Dwellings NM|Glacier NP|Grand Staircase/Escalante NM|Great Basin N P|Grand Portage NM|Great Sand Dunes NP|Great Smokey Mountains NP|Guadalupe Mountains NP|Hagerman Fossil Bed NM|Hanford Reach NM|Hells Canyon NRA|Hohokam-Pima NM|Hot Springs NP|Hovenweep NM|Hubble Trading Post NHS|Ironwood NM|John Day Fossil Bed NM|John Muir NHS|Joshua Tree NP|Kings Canyon NP|Klondike Gold Rush NHP|Lake Mead NRA|Lake Roosevelt NRA|Lassen NP|Lava Beds NM|Lewis and Clark NHP|Lincoln Home NHS|Lyndon B Johnson NHP|Little Big Horn NM|Mojave NP|Mammoth Cave NP|Manzanar NM|Martin Luther King NHS|Mesa Verde NP|Minidoka Internment NM|Montezuma Castle NM|Mount Rainier NP|Mount Rushmore NM|Mount St. Helens NM|Muir Woods NM|Natural Bridges NM|Navajo NM|Newberry Volcanic NM|Nez Perce NHP|North Cascades NP|Ocmulgee NM|Olympic NP|Oregon Caves NM|Organ Pipe Cactus NM|Padre Island NS|Palo Alto Battlefield NHS|Pecos NHP|Petrified Forest NP|Pinnacles NM|Pipe Spring NM|Pipestone NM|Point Reyes NS|Port of Chicago NM|Redwood NP|Rocky Mountain NP|Rosie the Riveter NHP|Saguaro NP|Salinas Pueblo Missions NM|San Antonio Missions NHP|San Francisco Maritime NHP| San Juan Island NHP|San Juan NHP|Santa Monica Mountains NRA|Santa Rosa - San Jacinto Mountains NM|Scott's Bluff NM|Sequoia NP|Sonora Desert NM|Sunset Crater NM|Theodore Roosevelt NP|Timpanogos Cave NM|Tonto NM|Tuzigoot NM|Valles Caldera NP|Vermillion Cliffs NM|Voyageurs NP|Walnut Canyon NM|White Sands NM|Whitman Mission NM|Wind Cave NP|Wupatki NM|Yellowstone NP|Yosemite NP|Yucca House NM|Zion NP

More Photographs by Steve: Antelope Canyon|Monument Valley

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Copyright © 1995 - 2007 Steve Schmorleitz. All rights reserved.
Revised: March 23, 2008.
Contact Steve Schmorleitz for approval of photo usage.