Pueblos and Atom Bombs

Today was more fun for my owners that it was for me. Momma had to help write this blog....because I was in the truck most of the day!

We drove north of Albuquerque to Santa Fe and then continued another 50 miles to Bandelier National Monument where we saw the remains of Pueblo villages from the late 1400's. Ancestral Pueblo people first started coming into this region over 10,000 years ago. It is an amazing place.

They built circular rooms called kivas below ground and covered them. They were similar to what we would call community centres.

These are the remains of rooms built in a circle.

 This drawing shows what the rooms in a circle would have looked like, with three covered kivas in the middle. Can you spot the dog? I was very happy to hear that it was common for the Pueblos to have dogs as pets!

Some families lived in the limestone cliffs. Dad and momma climbed ladders to see the rooms inside.

 This is the view from inside.

The openings faced south which made them warmer, unlike the hills across from them that are snow-covered.

 Second floors were added by putting posts into holes they made in the rocks.

 

At the base of the cliff, there was a long house that stretched over 800 feet with adjoining, multi-storied homes with hand-carved caves making back rooms.

More petroglyphs...this one is supposed to be a parrot. The Pueblos traded with people from as far as central Mexico and Baja California.

Just south of Bandelier is a town called Los Alamos that was secretly created during World War. It was here that scientists built the first atomic bomb. Dad and momma visited the Bradbury Museum to learn the history of the town and how today scientists are working on using nuclear energy to improve our lives. Half of the radioactive isotopes used in medicine today come from Los Alamos.

The first atomic bomb was called The Gadget. It was tested successfully in the desert outside of Roswell, NM, and then used to end the war with Japan.

Whew....that's a lot of history....I don't understand it all, but I like the pictures!