N.M. Cliff Dwellings Reopen After Fire
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Jan. 27, 2009
Postcard of Puye Cave Dwellings, N.M. In the Tewa language, “puye” means “pueblo ruin where rabbits assemble or meet.” The site was named a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
A mile-long swath of cave rooms carved out of New Mexico's cliffs more than 750 years ago has reopened to the public.
In 2000, the Cerro Grande fire spread across 45,000 acres and forced the closure of the Puye Cliff Dwellings National Historic Landmark. Last fall, the Santa Clara Pueblo, which owns and operates the site, started offering group tours of the cave ruins and an early 20th-century Harvey House. In May, the pueblo will reopen the landmark to the general public.
"We're thrilled. I don't think anybody was sure they would be able to open it again," says Steve Lewis, spokesperson for Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau. "It's a very popular place. It's always a hit with visitors because it's a pretty remarkable ruin. It really speaks to the whole pueblo culture and the ancestral puebloans who live here today."
The 1,000 Tewa-speaking residents of Santa Clara Pueblo are descendants of the people who inhabited the cliff dwellings from 1250 until about 1580, when a drought forced them to abandon the cave rooms for their current location along the Rio Grande.
Tours of the Puye Cliff Dwellings begin at the Harvey House—the only one built on an Indian reservation. (The pueblo's development corporation renovated the hotel/restaurant, and transformed it into an interpretive center.) Then visitors can explore ruins of houses on top of the cliffs and hike along the cliff face for a glimpse of hundreds of cave rooms on two levels.
Lucretia Jenkins-Williams, Puye Operations Manager for the Santa Clara Development Corporation, said in a statement, "We have created a destination where people can experience the beautiful panoramic scenery of northern New Mexico, while learning of the ancient Pueblo people who called Puye Cliffs home."
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