SALMON RUIN
Our drive through the four corners area would not have been complete without a stop at the Salmon Ruin. With our last name being Salmon, how could we not visit Salmon Ruin?
The ruins at the site date from approximately 1088 AD and was built approximately the same time as some of the great houses in Chaco Canyon 45 miles away. The site originally included a great house and a complex that contained around 150 ground-level rooms plus another 100 or so small rooms on an upper level. The original occupation only lasted about 25-30 years, but was followed by a secondary occupation by Pueblo people 1160 - 1265 A.D. A great deal of structural modification was made during the secondary occupation, including building circular kivas within rooms that were originally square.
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The name comes from the Salmon family (no relation to us) who owned the property and began excavating the ruins in the late 1800s and protected the relics through 1960s when it was purchased by the San Juan County Museum Association. There is a self-guided tour of the ruins along with a small museum on site.
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