Durango is today a first class tourist destination. But how that came to be is steeped in history. I hope this very brief account will stimulate you to delve into more detailed reviews.
Fertile soil, fresh water, and abundant wildlife made the area an appealing location for man for thousands of years. The earliest known inhabitants appear to be the Paleo-Indian tribes who hunted the area between 8,000-10,000 BC. Later during the Archaic Period (to 1 AD), these migrating hunters started establishing camps and ultimately rock shelters and pithouses.
This trend to “settle” rather than to migrate resulted in the development of agricultural areas and the village concept known as Anasazi Basketmaker II sites. These are defined with small, shallow round or oval pit houses in small groups. Evidence of corn and other domesticated plants and the presence of storage pits were typical findings in this era. Excavations in the Durango area are thought to date from 1-400 AD. This was a period of good rainfall making the area prime for farming. The Basketmaker III Period was from 600-750 AD. During this period the pit houses were larger, but for the first time pottery was found. The Anasazi Pueblo I Period was from 750-900 AD . During these years architecture was introduced in the form of slab lined adobe surface rooms. Pithouses with surface rooms were built both as larger villages and as single units. The appears to be the height of Anasazi occupation as adverse climate changes resulted in the population moving to more favorable areas. The final phases of the Anasazi occupation includes the Pueblo II (900-1100 AD) and the Pueblo III (1100-1300 AD). During this time large aggregated sites of several hundred masonry rooms and kivas such as found at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. A large site at Chimney Rock is thought to possibly been a regional trade center. There have been finding in the San Juan Mountains of the presence of Anasazi possibly as seasonal resource procurement activities or possibly associated with trade with indigenous mountain groups that apparently lived a hunter and gatherer lifestyle similar to the Archaic Period. By the 1300s, Puebloan culture had disappeared.
