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Altitude: m. ASL.
Region:
United States > New Mexico
Cache type: Other type
Size: No container
Status:
Ready for Search
Time required:
1:00 h
Distance to travel:
0.50 km
Date hidden: 2011-04-11
Date created: 2011-04-11
Date published: 2011-04-11
Last modification: 2011-04-12 
879 visitors 
2 x rated 
Rated as: n/a
Cache attributes
Description
EN
Twin Angel Ruins. Twin Angel is an Anasazi Ruin along remnants of the Great North Road from Chaco Canyon. First excavated in 1915 by Earl Morris, the ruin contained two room blocks and two kivas. It got its name from nearby Angel Peak, called Twin Angels at the time. We could only find one of the kivas, but the east and west room blocks were very obvious. This ruin is unsanitized and unstabilized - it appears as the last excavator left it. That’s a refreshing change from the pristine cliff ruins at Mesa Verde, first stabilized by the same archeologist Earl Morris in the 1930s and very cleaned up since. The site commands unobstructed views south down Kutz Canyon towards Chaco, and climbing a bit to the west yields an almost 360 degree panorama. Twin Angels may have been a waystation guiding pilgrims along the Great North Road to the Great Houses at Chaco Canyon. Solstice and other celebrations may have seen much travel through Twin Angels, Halfway House, Pierre’s Complex and other outliers to Chaco Ruins.
Twin Angels was built in the early 1000s, and abandoned by 1300. There is no arable farmland nearby, so it’s thought to have been a rest stop for pilgrims traveling to Chaco along the Great North Road. The North Road probably ran along Kutz Canyon below Twin Angels to the Salmon Ruin Great House farther north. It’s been traced as far as a primitive stairway cut into the lip of Kutz Canyon. Twin Angels lies on a northward meridian from that stairway, so it’s likely the North Road continued to it. Very interesting ruins.
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