This morning we visited the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park.

The mansion was built in 1904 by two Riordan (pronounced Rear-don) brothers and their families who developed the local logging industry.

It is actually two homes that are close to mirror images of each other connected by a large billiard and recreation room. The photo above shows one of the houses and the connecting room in the background.

It's a remarkable log, timber and rock structure built by the saw mill workers during the winter of 03-04. Although the main beams are log most of the walls are "log look" siding which was saw mill scrap produced when cutting a round log into square or rectangular lumber and would normally be burned as waste.

A row of stained glass surrounded both homes.

The Riordan brothers were very concerned about waste and although the standard at the time for logging was clear cutting they got involved in the earliest research in sustainable forestry with the newly created US Forest Service (1905). It was an interesting and informative morning.

Yesterday afternoon we took a hike from our trailer to the Elden Pueblo inhabited from about AD 1070 to 1275. A trail to the pueblo connects to the back of the RV park.

Once we got on the trail we discovered a hodgepodge of interconnecting trails that go who knows where. So Rick typed in Elden Pueblo in Google Maps on his Droid cellphone and all we had to do was follow the pointer. After about 1.25 miles we descended upon the back side of the pueblo. It was a cold and blustery afternoon and we were the only ones there.

It's peak population around 1250 was approximately 300 people.

The Forest Service and other groups use it as an educational site where they supervise groups excavating in areas surrounding the main structures (we're not too sure about the ethics of this).

One of our ethical concerns is that archaeologists always place modern markers in the trenches and then refill them. At Elden there are trenches everywhere with collapsing sidewalls which destroys the relative positioning of all items in the dirt and therefore destroys the ability to adequately interpret continuity and change over time if those areas are excavated. Not to mention the accident waiting to happen with kids running around, etc. Some trenches were partially covered with old sheets of plywood or tarps. All in all, very sloppy work, and not the appropriate message to convey to the public - especially in a formal teaching environment. And its disrespectful to Native Americans - this site in a known ancestral Hopi/Zuni pueblo. 

There is pottery scattered everywhere - especially in the piles of dirt removed from the trenches.

After about an hour we hiked back through the Ponderosas to our trailer and realized we hadn't taken a photo of our neighborhood in the RV park. That's Sharon and Abby checking out the tepee accommodations.

We leave Flagstaff tomorrow morning for a one night stopover in Gallup, New Mexico; then off to Bloomfield NM where we will camp for several days to visit Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruins. We'll keep you posted.