Puerco: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Petrified Forest National Park, National Park Service

Nicholas, Lisa; Cowley, Jill

The Puerco landscape is located approximately 10 miles from Petrified Forest National Park headquarters at Painted Desert and 18 miles from the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center. The first known modifications to the landscape where made throughout the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, when Ancestral Puebloans built and occupied Puerco Pueblo. During the historic period, the Puerco area has served shifting roles as part of Petrified Forest National Monument (1906-1978) and Petrified Forest National Park (1978-present). The Arizona landscape consists of three distinct zones: riparian, mesa, and plains. Throughout the human history of the site, each zone has been used differently, and archeological remains from Puerco continue to reveal the progression of human activities here. The landscape is bounded on the north and east by the ephemeral Puerco River. The lush vegetation of the riparian area offers both visual and physical relief from the surrounding arid environment. Ancient inhabitants of Puerco Pueblo used the riparian area for food gathering, hunting, and limited farming. Activity in the are continued during historic times, as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) had its first camp in the Petrified Forest on the floodplain between the mesa and the embankment. The CCC, and potentially other New Deal work agencies, performed several projects in the riparian area, including extensive erosion control work along the south bank of the Puerco River, construction of the well and pump house, and installation of the water pipeline from Puerco well to headquarters at Rainbow Forest. Erosion control projects continue along the channel and banks of the Puerco. The sandstone mesa rises above the river and snakes south. About 35 feet above the river at the Puerco Pueblo site, it then gradually rises from the valley floor as it travels south. The ancient inhabitants of Puerco Pueblo built their pueblo on the northern tip of the mesa, overlooking Puerco River. During early park and New Deal-era development, the area adjacent to the pueblo became a park entrance and checking station. At this time, the comfort/checking station was built and the parking area laid out. Although tourists visited the Puerco Pueblo to see the ruins and petroglyphs along the mesa edge, no formal trail network was installed until the 1990s. Farther down the mesa are the two historic sandstone quarries serviced by a network of roads, now barely visible, fanning out from Petrified Forest Highway. The third zone of the landscape is the broad plain that extends a great distance east of the mesa. Ancestral Puebloans probably used the area near the base of the mesa for agriculture, and they certainly used the cliff faces for etching petroglyphs. The CCC located its third camp at Petrified Forest (second camp at Puerco) on these plains about one half-mile south of Puerco Pueblo. The site offered little refuge from the intense sun and heat, but it was close to the quarry-related work sites they had established along the edge of the mesa. Today, Puerco serves mainly as an interpretive center for Puerco Pueblo. Most of the site’s resources exist as archeological sites, including traces of prehistoric cultures, remains of the CCC camps, and New Deal era roads and work sites. The Puerco period of significance is identified as 1934-1941, marking the years during which the CCC and New Deal agencies were active in the area. Puerco has played a role in the development of Petrified Forest National Park, as adaptations to the landscape were part of the planning and action to advance the park’s public purpose and support conservation efforts.

Puerco: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Petrified Forest National Park, National Park Service

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