Back in 2017, a columnist for the Taos News wrote about Pot Creek, the area's "best-kept secret archaeological site." It was not until earlier this summer, a mere seven years later, that I thought to check that out.
I had seen the entrance signage many times, but I did not know that "For 25 years or so this little gem has been closed to visitors. But
while still officially closed, the Forest Service turns a blind eye to
eager curiosity seekers." (Yes, grammarians, that is a "dangling modifier." Evidently no one edited "Backpackerbill.")
This is a site that was
re-discovered by Luria Vickery in the early 1970s while doing work on an
advanced degree in archaeology. In 1992 a Forest Service team, under
the cultural guidance of a Picuris Pueblo representative Richard
Mermejo, and a representative of Taos Pueblo, spent a considerable sum
shoring up the remains of an ancient Pot Creek pueblo dwelling and kiva,
making it available to the public.
It
included a dozen interpretive signs spaced out along a hardened pathway
with benches for contemplation at rest stops. The signs and benches are
still there in surprisingly good condition after 25 years of neglect.
Back
then, the Forest Service also developed a paved parking area with rest
rooms, which sadly deteriorated beyond repair. A docent lived on the
site at the time, providing information and guided tours. Of course,
there is none today. Since then, the site has gone into serious neglect
and has been closed for the past few decades.
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| Aggressive signage that the locals ignore. |
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Part of the problem may be a joint ownership of the site between the US Forest Service and Southern Methodist University, whose
Fort Burgwin satellite site is nearby.
I pulled in there, seeing one other vehicle (never met its occupant) and a barbed wire fence. It was easy to find the path along the fence that led to a break and to step through.
There was a map of the interpretive trail. It felt like something left by the Ancient Ones, although I could read it.
Marco the dog and I followed the trail. We walked through today's piñon-juniper forest through land that at one time was cornfield and dwellings and kivas. Few if any trees, most likely.
There are other Ancestral Puebloan sites like that in the hills south of Taos along NM 518. I was once walking one of the many "social trails" and came across a
complete kiva, boarded over, with a very rickety modern ladder leading down into it.
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A similar boarded-up kiva at Pot Creek itself.
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I thought for a moment about exploring that other kiva, but then considered that if the ladder broke, I would be down there alone, and expecting a Chesapeake Bay retriever to punch 911 into a cell phone is expecting a bit too much.
But all was not static at Pot Creek. Forestry crews had been on-site quite recently, thinning the timber. Piles of juniper logs were everywhere — great firewood for somebody. Here they are paired with signage. Yeah, the "magic of juniper" would be in my wood-burner. Unfortunately, it is more than a hundred miles away
So clearly there is no money in the public-education archaeology budget, but there is money in the wildland fire-mitigation budget, and someone decided to spend some of that at Pot Creek, perhaps as a gesture toward preserving the site.
Finally the trail led to this parking lot, with vegetation slowly cracking the asphalt. Room for fifty or more vehicles, but none on that day. And the handrails were overdue to be repainted.
The Ancestral Pueblo people who lived at Pot Creek abandoned it centuries ago. Maybe they were too vulnerable to incursions by mounted Comanche raiders and moved to either Taos or Picuris pueblos.
Perhaps someday, someone will re-interpret the interpretive site: "This flat area, now thickly covered with pine duff, was once a gathering place for pilgrims who came to visit these more ancient sites. Excavations have revealed a layer of pebbles mixed with bitumen, possibly a ceremonial site or a site of athletic contests."
Or maybe the clash of bureaucracies can be resolved.
