2004 Most Endangered

Most Endangered Places in New Mexico 2004

• Albuquerque Locomotive Shops, Bernalillo County
  
• Motel Blvd. / Old U.S. Highway 80
  
• Aztec Ruins National Monument
  
• Marked and Unmarked Cemeteries Throughout New Mexico
  
• Mesa Prieta
  
• The Hoyle House
  
• Traditional Village of Agua Fria
  
• Folsom Hotel
  
• Lake Valley Ghost Town
  
• Valle Vidal Unit
  
• St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church
  

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Aztec, San Juan County Nominated by Anna M. Chavez, Aztec, NM

SIGNIFICANCE The main structural ruins of this center of ancestral pueblo life and culture were preserved and protected when they were dedicated as a national monument in 1923. The ruins date to the 12th and 13th centuries. People associated with Chaco Canyon, the impressive Anasazi center to the south, built and used this place. They were followed by people related to the Mesa Verde site, another major center to the north. Aztec Ruins was designated a World Heritage Site in 1987. Aztec is not only significant for its history, much of which is unknown, but for its importance to contemporary indigenous people and tribes.

Research at Chaco showed that the central structures were within a much larger city, and the areas between standing ruins were a complex "cityscape" of roads, platform mounds, gardens, and other features. Recently (1980s), a previously undiscovered complex of structures, roads, great kivas, earthworks, and other features was found outside the protected Aztec National Monument, extended parts of its own "cityscape," just as at Chaco. Like many National Park System units, its surroundings were presumed to be protected by its relative remote location, and little thought was given to the prospect of intensive development on its boundary.

THREAT Ancient Aztec is today embedded in a modern city that is growing over parts of the ancient city and to the very boundaries of the national monument. We know from the research of the 1980s that the prehistoric "cityscape" is there but we do not yet know its plan or extent. More knowledge of this and other areas around the protected ruins may well revolutionize our understanding and interpretation of magnificent Aztec, but only if we can preserve and study that rapidly vanishing, unprotected landscape.

High density development is proposed on the critical terrace at the north edge of the Monument. The City of Aztec recently annexed the land and intends to zone it for residential and commercial development. The ruins, graves, and cityscape of the unprotected area immediately adjacent to the monument, as well as the visual environment of the monument itself are gravely threatened by imminent destruction.