Inscription Rock - El Morro NM EarthCache
Inscription Rock - El Morro NM
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Located on El Morro National Monument’s Inscription Rock Trail Loop
A reliable waterhole hidden at the base of a massive sandstone bluff made El Morro a popular stop and campsite for travelers. Ancestral Puebloans settled on the mesa top over 700 years ago. Spanish and American travelers rested, drank from the pool, and carved their signatures, dates and messages for hundreds of years. Today, El Morro National Monument protects over 2,000 inscriptions and petroglyphs, as well as Ancestral Puebloan ruins. The posted coordinates take you to a point on the Inscription Rock Trail Loop (A paved trail a total of ½ mile in length)
The softness of the bluff’s sandstone made it easy for travelers to carve pictures, names, dates and messages. Ironically, that is also the reason that the famous inscriptions are slowly disappearing. This poses the ultimate challenge to the National Park Service mission of preserving the inscriptions in perpetuity while allowing natural processes to operate. There are three primary sources for the inscriptions; The Puebloans, The Spaniards, and The Americans. The Zuni Indians, whose puebloan ancestors lived here, call this place Atsinna which means “Place of writings on rock.” The Spaniards called it El Morro “which means “The Bluff or Headlands.” The Anglo-Americans called it Inscription Rock. The study of the ruins on top of El Morro dates the construction to the late 1200’s. The first identified non-puebloan inscription dates from 1605 by Don Juan de Onate, the first governor of the area. He referred to El Morro as “Agua de la Pena” – water of the rock. Numerous expeditions by Spanish conquistadors and later by the American Army Survey Corps and Union Pacific railroad surveying teams passed through El Morro, all leaving there mark until in December 8, 1906, shortly after the passage of the Antiquities Act, El Morro National Monument was created to preserve the history of the area. December 2006 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of El Morro National Monument.
To Log this EarthCache:
• Post a picture of yourself and/or GPS in front of one of the many petroglyphs located on the rock face please state in your post if the glyph is Puebloan, Spaniard, or American.
Please also e-mail the answer to the following: The inscriptions are carved in Zuni Sandstone, what is the name of the sandstone that formed on top of the
zuni sandstone that protected the softer under layer? (Answer found on Inscription Rock Trail Loop Informational signs)
Remember to stay on the designated trail and not to touch the inscriptions.
The above information was compiled from the following sources: • National Park Service, Trail Guide, El Morro National Monument.
Placement approved by the El Morro National Monument Staff
Additional Hints
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