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Show Anasazi Indian Village Looks at Ancient Life l,.,.mmnmmmn. . m .. ... n, wn.,-! The museum and visitor center at Anasazi Indian Village State Historical Monument near Boulder explains a long-ago culture with an on-site ex perience for the visitor who can walk among the remains of the village once inhabited by the Anasazi Indians. What ultimately happened to the inhabitants of the Coombs site is a puzzle. The village may have been abandoned due to a change in the rainfall pattern or possibly a change in the growing season, or perhaps a combination of both. It is also possible that there was pressure from outside peoples, but ar-cheologists ar-cheologists have found no real evidence to support that reasoning. Shortly before or after abandonment, aban-donment, the village was burned and, whatever the reason for abandonment, the town was never reoccupied. With the exception of perishable artificats (sandals, baskets, mats, and other wood or vegetable materials), the artifacts displayed in the museum at Anasazi Indian Village were found at the site. The diorama seen in the museum was constructed to scale using the map drawn by the archeologist and architectural evidence uncovered through excavation at the site. The village was excavated during the summer seasons of 1958-59 by the University of Utah as part of the Glen Canyon Salvage project. The musuem offers special programs and filmstrips for groups. Superintendent Larry Davis and his assistant Dee Hardy, both trained archeologists, can make the visitor's stay at Anasazi a special experience with an introduction to the ancient peoples of the area. Outside, five picnic areas provide an additional attraction. Overnight camping is available at nearby Deer Creek and on Boulder Mountain at Oak Creek, Pleasant Creek and Singletree campgrounds. Probably the most interesting parts of the village are the areas where the visitor can see for himself how the ancient inhabitants lived. A clearly marked self-guiding tour with trail guide leads the visitor easily around the site, explaining each archeological antiquity. (B) Anasazi Indian Village, just outside Boulder on Utah Highway 12, offers the visitor to Garfield County a unique and exciting look at the past. The State Historical Monument, open year-round, encompasses the site of an Anasazi Indian village where life for about 200 people were sustained for a period of 75 years almost a thousand years ago. "Anasazi" is a Navajo term adopted by archeolcgists to describe the ancient Indian people who inhabited the four-corners are of Utqh, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico during the period of perhaps a few hundred years before Christ until the late 1500's. Anasazi translates roughly into "enermy ancestors" and was used by Navajos to describe the remains which were discovered when they entered the Southwest about 1500. The structures of today's modern Pueblo Indians are not at all unlike those unearthed at the various sites in the four-corner area where some of the most extensive archeological research in the world has taken place. Anasazi Indian Village, known to archeologists as the Coombs Site, is thought to have been one of the largest communities of Anasazi Indians west of the Colorado River. Occupied from about 1050 to about 1200, its inhabitants are believed to have come from northwestern Arizona. The everyday tasks of making a living and obtaining materials to be used for making pottery, tools, and buildings must not have been too difficult for the Anasazi at the Coombs site. There was an abundance of fertile soil around the village and streams from the magnificent Aquarius Palteau flowed nearby. A variety of wild animals and useful plants were available around the village and in the nearby mountains. Corn, beans and squash were raised in garden plots near the community and small game such as rabbits, rodents and birds were '; hunted in the vicinity. Deer and mountain sheep, valued not only for food but also as providers of hides, horns and sinew, were obtianed from the canyon country to the south and the plateau to the north. .Various kinds of stone, wood, clay and vegetable fibers were available in the neighborhood. The resources at hand for the ancient occupants were equal to or better than those of many areas where the Anasazi lived. |