Tusayan Ruin - Grand Canyon

If you are at the Grand Canyon, it is nice to pop over to the Tusayan Ruin and Museum to get a sense of the past peoples living here.

People have lived on the Colorado Plateau for thousands of years. This particular ruin of the Tusayan is one of more than 4000 archaeological sites recorded within Grand Canyon National Park. It is estimated that people began construction of the Tusayan Pueblo around 1185. It was a small community, and it is estimated that at any one time about 16 to 20 people likely lived here. It is a dry climate, so it is hard to say what attracted people to live here. They ate wild foods and game, and also had to cultivate their own corn, beans, and squash.

Where some rooms were

Location of Large Kiva - a ceremonial chamber

This stop is a great place to get a sense of some of the cultures that have inhabited Grand Canyon. It was good that our kids could experience not only the overwhelming geology of this area, but some of the cultures as well.