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Aztec Ruins National MonumentGreat Kiva interior
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Aztec Ruins National Monument
History & Culture
Cover of administrative history

Aztec Ruins National Monument Administrative History of an Archeological Preserve
(PDF) (5279 kb)
Click the above link to read the following chapters:

The chapters include:
1 An Anasazi Village Misnamed Aztec
2 Earl Halstead Morris And The Aztec Ruins
3 Peeling Away Prehistory
4 A House In Ruins
5 A National Monument, Stillborn
6 The Decade Of Dissention, 1923-1933The 
7 The Great Depression & Capital     
  Improvements
8 Miller Administration, 1937-1944
9 Satellite Attractions
10 The Mission of Mission 66 
11 The Last Quarter Century And Beyond
12 Stabilization: The High Cost Of Water
13 Specimen Collections: Recent 
  Assessments And Their Significance For  
  Future Research

Sunrise through the Great Kiva's windows  

Did You Know?
Ancestral Pueblo peoples at Chaco Canyon and Chimney Rock used sun and shadows to track the changing of the seasons. Recent studies indicate the Great Kiva windows at Aztec were purposely aligned to solar and lunar events as well. Was this an astronomical observatory?

Last Updated: April 16, 2008 at 20:34 EST