Salmon Ruins

Today I ventured away from my temporary home base in Santa Fe to the northwest corner of New Mexico - quite literally.  On the way, I stopped at the Salmon Ruins, which I first visited on an archaeological tour in 2005.  This site was built around 1090 AD by people from the Chaco culture, occupied later by San Juan Puebloans, damaged by fire, subsequently abandoned, and later homesteaded by a family named Salmon.  I'm pretty sure that unlike the similar word for a fish, the "l" in their name is not silent.  Part of their homestead is still here, protected by a metal structure.

A walkway leads down from the site's museum to the one corner of the ruins.  Please stay on the path.

This room is just inside the corner.

The path leads past this round room, which appears to be a kiva.  As you can see, I wasn't the only person visited the site.

I soon found what would be a great kiva, which was too big to be fitted into a single photo.  Notice the rectangular raised section.

I then came upon another small kiva, which includes rectangular columns.

Here's another small kiva, surrounded by another wall.

The path leads up to what I believe is the highest part of the site.

Looking back from the high point above, I saw this row of rectangular rooms.

This kiva had logs between small wall sections along a round bench.

These rooms had notches and doorways.

Finally, here's yet another kiva, with rectangular columns around its bench.

To learn more about the Salmon Ruins, besides the link above, go to Visit Farmington, Archaeology Southwest and Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection.