Pueblo Bonito / Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico

Chaco Canyon National Monument was established by presidential proclamation in 1907, owing largely to the efforts of Edgar L. Hewett, Director of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research, whose first of many expeditions into the canyon was in 1902.

Pueblo Bonito, “the pretty village,” has been known by that name since at least as far back as 1840, and was probably named by Spanish or Mexican soldiers or traders.

Excavation of Pueblo Bonito was begun in 1896 by Richard Wetherill who homesteaded in the canyon, and by George H. Pepper of the American Museum of Natural History. The work was financed by two wealthy young brothers from New York, Frederick and Talbot Hyde, who formed the Hyde Exploring Expedition for the purpose. In four seasons 190 rooms were cleaned out. Research was resumed by a joint National Geographic Society—U.S. National Museum expedition in 1921 under the direction of Neil M. Judd, who in seven summers completed the excavation of 600 or more rooms and 33 kivas, and made extensive tests in the large trash mound, and in the plaza.

The Bonito Trail is about one-third of a mile long. Along it you will find numbered markers corresponding to numbered paragraphs in this booklet. Please keep off all ruin walls.