Puerco Pueblo was a prehistoric settlement on the Rio Puerco, built of shaped sandstone blocks by ancestral Puebloan people and inhabited between A.D. 1250 and 1380. At its peak, the pueblo had more than 100 rooms and may have held 200 people. During its occupation, summer rains sustained fields of corn, beans, and squash across the river’s floodplain. The settlement was part of a wider network of large and small communities along the Rio Puerco and Little Colorado River, using the river as a travel corridor across the grasslands of the Colorado Plateau. Travelers and traders from far beyond the ancestral Puebloan cultural area visited, bringing different types of pottery, goods, and new ideas. Researchers trace these interactions through the variety of artifacts and rock art found in and near the village. Only about one-third of the site has been excavated, and some of that has been backfilled to preserve fragile remnants of walls and floor features.
