Not far from the small town of Pleasant View Colorado, just a few miles East of the Colorado – Utah border there are the remnants of an ancient Pueblo called by the incongruous name of Lowry Pueblo. It was named after an early area homesteader named George Lowry, history doesn’t relate why, and it wasn’t excavated until the early 1930’s. It was built around 1060 AD and last thought to be occupied during the 1300’s. It is located about 100 miles North of Chaco Canyon. They, those whose business it is to think about these things, believe it housed anywhere from 40 to 100 individuals. The Pueblo is now part of The Canyons of The Ancients National Monument which also includes other sites such as Hovenweep National Monument. That’s about as much history as I can fit into one paragraph, thanks to Wikipedia.

The real part of going to a place like this for me, once you get past all the factual stuff, is what is it feels like to walk around there and touch the stone walls and feel the closeness of the rooms, the cool darkness and realize you are standing in the same place that people stood a thousand years ago. This pueblo is one that you can enter and go through the rooms and walk down narrow dark passages towards the center of the building. The hallways have walls that are higher than your head, maybe seven to as much as ten feet tall on either side, which must have felt like canyons to people who were much shorter than we are today. They twist and turn and have well-worn stone steps that go up and down levels until you reach the center of the building where the Great Kiva is. The stone steps are worn down slightly in the middle, where you would place your feet to move up and down the steps and it must have taken many, many trips to wear down the steps to the point where it is noticeable. Given the fact that many were probably barefoot or wearing woven sandals of some type this kiva had to have seen a lot of use.

A kiva this size wasn’t just used by the 100 fulltime residents, there had to be a huge number of visitors from the surrounding area and from as far away as Chaco and points further south to participate in what ever uses the kiva was put to. The golden doorway in the image above is the entrance to the Great Kiva. There was no one else here the day I visited so I had the place to myself. I sat down on the sand floor with my back against the stacked stone walls and listened. I wanted the ghosts to talk to me, to hear the sound of the drums and singing and watch the different ceremonies being performed, but it wasn’t to be that day, all I heard perhaps was a few whispers on the wind.

Part of the enjoyment of traveling in the late fall like this is that many times you can experience a place such as Lowry Pueblo the way it must have felt by the people who first discovered it. You are not influenced by others who dash in, look, quickly read a pamphlet then leave for the next stop. You don’t have someone feeding you the canned story of the site, even though it is done with all the best intentions, you can simply take in your own impressions, fill in the spaces with your imagination and perhaps commune with the original inhabitants in your own way. A place like this with its dark passages and golden doorways lets you do just that. I highly recommend it.