Frances Canyon Pueblito

Frances Canyon Pueblito is one of the largest and best-preserved Navajo pueblitos in New Mexico, hidden on a remote mesa in the high desert south of Navajo Lake.

Built in the early 1700s, the stone complex once contained roughly 40 rooms along with a multi-story tower, hogans, fireplaces, storage spaces, and other structures. Its position along the edge of a sandstone mesa gave residents a wide view across the surrounding canyon country and helped make the settlement easier to defend.

Today, substantial portions of the masonry still stand, allowing you to see distinctive defensive architecture that developed during a turbulent period of Navajo, Pueblo, Spanish, and Ute history.

History

Frances Canyon Pueblito dates to a period of enormous upheaval across north-western New Mexico. After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove the Spanish from New Mexico, Spanish forces returned and reconquered the Rio Grande pueblos beginning in 1692. Some Pueblo people fled west and lived among or near Navajo communities, contributing to a period of close cultural interaction.

The pueblitos emerged within this world. Although early archaeologists sometimes believed the structures had been constructed primarily by Pueblo refugees, later research has shown that most were built by the Navajo, often incorporating architectural ideas and material traditions shared between Navajo and Pueblo communities.

Tree-ring evidence from Frances Canyon indicates that construction and occupation occurred in several stages. The earliest activity appears to date from around 1710–1714, with additional building around 1722 and again during the 1730s. The site was probably abandoned by about 1745.

The Pueblito

Frances Canyon was large for a pueblito.

Archaeological investigations identified 23 ground-floor rooms, 12 second-story rooms, and three third-story rooms, along with hogans and other activity areas surrounding the main structure. The most distinctive feature is the tower built along the sandstone edge of the mesa.

Excavations and later studies uncovered an interesting collection of objects reflecting the cultural mixing of the period. Finds included European trade beads, copper bells, weaving tools, Spanish ornaments, a metal cross, bone whistles, and a fragment of a seventeenth-century wheellock firearm.

Grinding basins, rock art, sweat-lodge features, and more have been documented around the main pueblito, showing that Frances Canyon was more than simply a defensive tower.

Visiting Frances Canyon Pueblito

Frances Canyon Pueblito is a remote BLM site with no visitor center, restrooms, water, or other facilities.

The walk from the parking area is short and easy, and the ruins sit along the edge of a mesa overlooking the surrounding canyon country. Stay on established paths, do not climb on the ruins, and leave pottery fragments or other artifacts where you find them.

Getting There

Frances Canyon Pueblito is reached by dirt roads off NM 527, north of US 64.

Turn west near mile marker 11 and follow the road onto the mesa, then continue along the marked dirt roads to the parking area. From there, it is a short walk to the ruins. The roads can be rough or muddy, especially after rain or snow, so check conditions before heading out.