My last Arizona adventure ends with a visit to Homol’ovi State Park and Meteor Crater!
Where should one visit when they are about to move across the country? Well, places that you haven’t yet of course. Along with Petrified Forest National Park, I still hadn’t seen the famous Meteor Crater or nearby Homol’ovi State Park. So, my last weekend getaway in Arizona was set.
I first visited Petrified Forest National Park (my previous post) and then the next day, I made my way to Homol’ovi State Park. The park preserves seven Homol’ovi (a Hopi word meaning “place of little hills”) ruins, two of which are open for visitors.
Before we talk about the pueblos, Homol’ovi was also home to a group of Mormon settlers. In the late 1870s, Sunset, Arizona, was home to a small farming community along the banks of the Little Colorado River. Frequent flooding washed away the irrigation system the settlers built, leading to food shortages. The settlers moved on to greener pastures by 1888, leaving only their cemetery behind. The Little Colorado River now runs right through where the town used to be, so the cemetery really is the only thing left. No wonder the area flooded so much.
Okay, back to the pueblos. Homol’ovi II is the most excavated of the seven pueblos. It was occupied around 1300 to 1400 and has about 1200 rooms and about 40 kivas. Between 750 and 1000 people could have lived here. Due to their location near the Little Colorado River and lower elevation, archaeologists think they may have been growing cotton here and trading it to the Hopi mesas. In fact, the Hopi People, who live just a bit north of here, believe their ancestors built these pueblos.
Now for the other open site. Homol’ovi I is only slightly excavated, making the archaeologist in me want to break out my trowel. This was the first pueblo excavated at the park and the artifacts found here can be found at the Smithsonian. It was in 1896 when that was still acceptable practice. Later work here found that the pueblo had 1100 rooms, plus numerous kivas. The pueblo was built at two different times, in stone between 1285-1290 and in adobe between 1350-1360. The later section was built on top of an artificial platform to combat the frequent flooding of the Little Colorado River. However, the occupants were soon gone, leaving around 1400.
Meteor Crater is actually a meteorite crater just east of Flagstaff, Arizona. The crater is more scientifically known as the Barringer Crater but got its official geographic name from the nearby post office in Meteor. The crater is about 3,900 ft (1,200 m) across and 560 ft (170 m) deep. The crater is still privately owned by the Barringer family, who advertises the site on billboards throughout the region on Interstate-40.
Daniel M. Barringer, who gave the crater its scientific name, bought the land and tried to mine the crater floor thinking there were vast deposits of minerals from the meteorite. He failed to really find anything. However, he did come up with the theory that the crater was caused by a meteorite and not a volcanic explosion like the other craters in the area as this is near the San Francisco Mountains volcanic field.
Both Homol’ovi State Park and Meteor Crater are near Winslow, Arizona (famous for that Eagles song) on Route 66 and Interstate-40 and west of Flagstaff. You can’t miss Meteor Crater with all the billboards on I-40. They are everywhere. Both were enjoyable visits.
Check out my next update where I visit Fort Smith in Arkansas!
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I thought Meteor Crater was just some cheezy tourist trap. I was thrown by all the tourist trappy signs. I guess it really is a cool place.
The author of this piece says the crater, officially know by the USGS as Meteor Crater is west of Flagstaff. This is wrong. The crater is 19-20 miles west of Winslow making around 33 miles east of Flagstaff.
Dude, it was a typo.