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Access to Frijoles Canyon Will Be Limited
Starting June 1, 2012 all access to the most visited part of the park, Frijoles Canyon, will be via a shuttle bus from the nearby community of White Rock. This is to alleviate a parking shortage created by the Las Conchas Fire. More details to follow.
Tsankawi Trail Stop 9
NPS Photo by Stella Carroll Pottery making school in 1981 known as Duchess Castle By the early 1900’s an effort was underway to revive pottery making in the contemporary pueblos. As interest in native crafts grew, pueblo artists were able to use their skills to provide monetary income for their families and to continue their long-valued traditions. As part of this revival Madame Vera von Blumenthal and Rose Dugan built a home and pottery-making school here in 1918, known today as Duchess Castle. From this vantage you can see the remains of those buildings in the valley to the northeast. (There are no trails down to this area.) Pueblo pottery is still a very successful art form, both as a commercial industry and as the continuation of an important daily activity of Ancestral Pueblo life. Today the revival of the pottery tradition is seen in the common black-on-black polychrome and red pottery of San Ildefonso Pueblo. |
Did You Know?
Ancestral Pueblo people traded items such as fine quality obsidian and pottery from this area for items such as macaws, copper bells, and seashells from distant lands.