Bones and Walls

bones_and_walls, originally uploaded by craptastica.

Bones and Walls. Walls and Bones. That's all that's left in these plains. That's all there ever was.

To us bones and walls are the random leftovers that happen to color the New Mexico plains between cities. More accurately they are the uneroded reminders of ruined civilations. Civilations that didn't exist that long ago.

These adobe remainders from the Rio Puerco Valley lay in the shadow of the giant volcanic neck called El Cabezon. The dilapdated and rotted wood window frame pictures this giant ex-volcano perfectly. It's not hard to imagine that this abandoned homestead once held the hopes and dreams of a small family hoping to make a living under the shadow of a geologic grace.

Their hopes and dreams, however, proved unattainable as did those before them. The plains surrounding El Cabezon are filled with the dusty wooden remains of once lively ghostowns. Most of these are the skeletons of the towns that died in the 1940s when the Rio Puerco dried up and life became untenable without flowing water.

This story is not that unlike those told by the ruins and petroglyphs left from those who came before. The 8,000-foot volcanic monument shares these stories with unnatural clarity through messages carved in stone and built from the earth throughout centuries by the Navajo, Chaco Culture, Jemez, Zia, and Santa Ana Pueblos.

So look at these photos and enjoy, but remember that you too harbor bones and walls.