From dinosaur fossils to the ruins of ancient civilizations, much of North America’s prehistoric history has already been discovered. However, every now and then explorers find a piece of history that has remained untouched for thousands of years.
Explorers from The Smoky Mountain Relic Room had the good fortune of finding previously undiscovered ancient ruins while on an expedition to find dinosaur fossils in a remote area of Colorado. Located in Sevierville, Tennessee, The Relic Room is North America’s largest and most diverse collection of history currently available to the public. In addition to housing a wide variety of artifacts, The Relic Room also produces a YouTube series, Chasing History, which documents the adventures of explorers and educates viewers about a variety of historical topics, including prehistoric species and past civilizations.
In spring of 2020, paleontology hobbyists from The Relic Room went on an expedition to dig up dinosaur bones on a private ranch in northwest Colorado. While there, the team heard rumors about the existence of prehistoric ruins in a nearby wilderness area accessible only by foot. While there was no record of prehistoric ruins in that area, the team from The Relic Room was determined to uncover a lost part of human history and document the discovery on film for the public to view on the Chasing History YouTube channel.
The ancestral Puebloans were the Indigenous people who resided in this part of northwest Colorado. Existing from 700 to 1130 AD, the ancestral Puebloans built remarkable prehistoric stone buildings not seen anywhere else north of Mexico. In addition to building homes and entire villages with stone, they also cultivated maize and squash, worshipped, created works of art, and had a familial and community life that resembles how we live today.
The Relic Room team had ventured on foot into the Colorado wilderness when they sighted a promising crack canyon. From a distance, they noticed traces of stone ruins at the canyon entrance. Due to the inaccessibility of the area, it took the team hours of exploring the canyon wall until they made a more exciting discovery. They had found the site of a prehistoric granary, the most intact prehistoric Native American ruins ever discovered outside of the existing national parks.
Granaries were used by the ancestral Puebloan people to store their corn and other food items. In total, explorers found six ancient granaries in the same area and more than a dozen throughout the canyon. The explorers even discovered and documented ancient corn cobs at the site. They also reported finding remnants of tools made from dinosaur gastroliths, which were stones dinosaurs ingested to help with digestion that were later found and used by prehistoric people to make useful items.
The Relic Room explorers had found remains that confirmed what history tells us about the ancestral Puebloans. North America experienced a severe drought early in the 12th century and the ancestral Puebloans were impacted as resources became more scarce. They protected themselves by moving their stone homes into the shelter of narrow canyons, making their settlements more difficult to access and easier to defend. They also camouflaged their granaries within the canyon landscape to protect their food stores from raids by neighboring groups.
Taking care to only take photos and leave the artifacts undisturbed for professional archaeological researchers, The Relic Room team filmed their discovery and published it to YouTube with the title “Newly Discovered Prehistoric Ruins.” The Smoky Mountain Relic Room and its educational initiative, Chasing History, aims to cultivate an interest in history and exploration and inspire future scientists and explorers.
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