The Unkar Delta

by Charles Robinson

Title

The Unkar Delta

Artist

Charles Robinson

Medium

Photograph - Landscape Photograph

Description

The Grand Canyon in Arizona is just one of the amazing landscapes of Arizona. This view of the Unkar Delta on the floor of the Grand Canyon was taken from Lipan Point on the South Rim. The Unkar Delta at the mouth of Unkar Creek, or River, is one of the largest archeological sites inhabitated by the Anasazi Indians in the area. The sandy banks were formed by rock debris that Unkar Creek swept down from the North Rim during floods. From around 850 to 1200 A.D., ancestral Puebloans used the area seasonally, planting crops and building homes and granaries on the delta and along Unkar Creek. Archeologists today believe that Puebloan use of the site peaked around 1100 A.D., but most had migrated away just 100 years later. The original inhabitants farmed on terraces close to the river, but as their population expanded they moved onto higher talus slopes. Life was hard here, with the average life expectancy just 34 years. Farmers constructed terraces that descended the delta in stair steps of irrigated fields and built small ditches to divert the waters of the creek to their crops. The ruins of an Anasazi Pueblo is visible on the North Rim at Wahalla Overlook. The inhabitants of this pueblo very likely traveled down Unkar Creek to the Delta to farm and hunt.

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May 29th, 2012

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