Woods Canyon Pueblo

Archaeologists think there were thousands of Pueblo people living in the Mesa Verde area in the late A.D. 1200s. Such a large population needed a lot of food to support itself. The ancient Pueblo farmers grew corn, beans, and squash to feed their families.

The best places to grow crops in southwestern Colorado are in areas with deep soils, usually on the mesa tops and next to springs in the canyon bottoms. Some archaeologists believe that, during the A.D. 1200s, Pueblo people built their villages on the rocky edges of canyons so that they could save the nearby good farmland for their crops.

Living on the canyon edge also allowed the Pueblo farmers to be close to the water in the bottom of the canyon. After summer rainstorms, they could divert water onto their fields in the canyon bottoms.

Karen Adams is a specialist who studies plant remains found in archaeological sites to learn about life in ancient times.

Click on Karen's photograph to find out what she thinks about farming at Woods Canyon Pueblo.

Ernest M. Vallo, Sr., is an elder in the modern Pueblo community of Acoma, New Mexico.

Click on Ernest's photograph to learn his thoughts about Pueblo farming, past and present.

Did Pueblo people choose to live on the edge of Woods Canyon because the location helped them succeed as desert farmers?

Explore all five theories, then select which theory you think best explains why Pueblo people lived at Woods Canyon Pueblo.