• Overlooking Chetro Ketl

    Chaco Culture

    National Historical Park New Mexico

Benign Neglect

This is a phrase used to describe the type of preservation treatment that is used at the vast majority of sites in Chaco. Each structure is thoroughly documented, a careful condition assessment is made, monitoring and evaluations are done on a routine cycle, but no hands-on preservation treatment is performed. Many of the sites in this category of preservation treatment are relatively stable and do not need to be interfered with, so benign neglect is appropriate.

Did You Know?

Photo of William Henry Jackson on horseback

William Henry Jackson; a famous photographer of Western landscapes and railroads visited Chaco Canyon in 1877 with the U.S. Geological Survey. Because he experimented with a new photographic process, all the photos failed. More...