In the Shadow of the Volcano: Recent

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T 5EGAN AS A SLIGHT St1IFT IING of the ground, a small earth tremor noticeable enough to be felt, but not large enough to do any dam age. This would be remembered later as the first sign that all was not right with the world. The next two tremors were three weeks later, and these were larger, louder, more violent, each shaking the ground nonstop for almost a minute. Mothers clutched their babies, children cried, and men grabbed their weapons. Even the "At 4 p.m . ... I noticed that a grotto which was situated on one of the knolls ofmy farm, had normally stoic dogs whimpered and opened . and I saw that it was a kind of fissure that had a depth ofonly half a meter .. I felt ran to hide. It was noted later that a thunder, the trees trembled . .. and it was then I saw how, in the hole, the ground swelled out and the animals of the forest were unusu raised itself2 or 2'/2meters high, and a kind ofsmoke or fine dust - gray like ashes - began to ally quiet, both before and after the rise up in a portion ofth e crack . .. Immediately more smoke began to rise, with a hiss or whistle, loud and continuous, and there was a smell ofsulfur. I then became greatly frightened." Dionisio tremor, and this became a sign to Pulido, describing the birth of Pancutin Volcano in his cornfield on 20 February 1943 (from watch for. Still, the religious leaders "Pancutin: The Volcano Born in a Mexican Cornfield," by James Luhr and Tom Simkin). told the people that even though this was not a good message from the gods, the proper rituals very angry. Councils were held, the spiritual and moral and behaviors would appease whomever was angry. It was transgressions of the people pointed out, and appropriate close to corn harvest time in the Kana'a Valley, and there remedies prescribed. The religious leaders prayed and was much to be done to prepare for the coming winter. made offerings to the gods, in the hopes that the transgres The earth tremors began in earnest the following week. sions could be rectified, at least enough to stop the earth At least once or twice a day, and sometimes 10 or even 20 from shaking. times, the ground shook, and loud cracking sounds came And then it happened. A crack in the ground, 100 feet from deep underground. Although damage was minor long and two feet wide, appeared at the head of the valley, and limited to a few collapsed walls and roofs, the people within sight ofthe ripen- were scared. Their oral traditions recounted a time when ing corn fields where the Issue Editors: Mark D. Elson the ground moved like this, but it was very long ago and people were working. A and Michael H Ort not even the elders, nor their elders' grandparents and strange whistling sound Archaeolog!:J 50uthwest great-grandparents, had lived through such a time. Clearly, came out of the crack, and is a Quarterl!j someone or something living deep inside the earth was suddenly the ground Fublication ot the Center tor Desert L-________________________________________________________________________~ )\rchaeolog~ shook and the earth roared louder than the thunder of a This time, the smoke shot up thousands of feet into summer rainstorm, which, until now, was the loudest sound the air, and black cinders and large basalt chunks rained anyone had ever heard. Most surprisingly, smoke, or what down upon the people in the fields, who quickly grabbed looked like smoke, began spewing from the crack, setting their children and ran back to their homes. The base of the the nearby brush and trees r---------------------------, -u cone began to glow a on fire. This smoke was pe ~ fiery red, and lava culiar and fell back to the co~ started to ooze from ground, forming a mound ~ it, moving directly that was soon several feet toward the fields and high. The fissure quickly the more distant vil lengthened, producing a lage. curtain of fire that leapt Gathering all the high into the sky. Those food they could working in the fields hur carry, the people left ried back to the village, with the village within an the roar of what was obvi hour, just as the lava ously a huge and very an pushed down the gry monster in their ears walls of the first every step of the way. That house. The roar of night, the horizon glowed the eruption had an unearthly red, and become even louder, tongues of flame and light almost deafening, ning lit up the smoke and cinders, ash, and blackened sky, while the hot basalt continued monster continued to bel to fall around the vil low. The people began lagers. The forest making plans to leave the was already on fire, village and move the five and the smoke - miles north to their lower mixed with the vol elevation winter settle canic ash - made ment. Sunset Crater Volcano and a portion ofthe Bonito lava flow. To the people breathing difficult. But early the next living in northern Arizona, the eruption ofSunset Crater must have been an Still, luck was morning, the roar and awe-inspiring sigh t. with the people, and smoke suddenly stopped, and several of the more brave they managed to get out with some food and only a few villagers carefully crept to the base of the cone that was minor injuries. The food would not be enough to sustain now over 150 feet high. The air smelled of burned earth them through the coming winter, but they could hunt and and sulfur. A fine ashy powder covered the ground sur gather, and they could count on help from their more for face, along with larger black cinders and chunks of black tunate kin in other villages. But most importantly, the lead rock, some of which were warm, or even hot, to the touch. ers needed to determine why this had happened and, once Returning to the village, they consulted with the leaders, they did, undertake the proper rituals and prayers to en who told the people that the monster must be sleeping or sure that it never happened again. had left. Groups were quickly assembled to harvest their It must have worked, because to this day, some 900 fields, because without the corn harvest, the winter would years later, it hasn't. be very difficult. The account told above about the eruption of Sunset Almost everyone in the village who could walk re Crater Volcano, while clearly fictional, could easily have turned to the fields and hastily began picking the nearly occurred in the area just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, some ripe ears, which were loaded into baskets and carried back time between A.D. 1050 and 1150. Many of the details in .to the village. They stared in awe and fear at the new 150- this story are taken from accounts of the 1943-1952 erup foot-high hill, wondering if, or when, the monster sleep tion of a volcano in Michoadtn, Mexico, called Pancutin. ing beneath it would awake. Their question was answered Par\cutin is very similar to Sunset Crater and is perhaps that afternoon, after only half the crop had been harvested, the most well-studied cinder cone volcano in North when, without warning, the monster began to roar again. America. rage 2 Archaeolog.:J Southwest Volume 17, Number 1 The significance of Sunset an eruption on the north rim Crater was first realized in the of the Grand Canyon that has summer of 1930, when archae only recently been found to ologists from the Museum of have occurred at about the Northern Arizona (MNA) un same time as Sunset Crater. covered a prehistoric pit struc The eruption of two volcanoes, ture sealed beneath a thick layer / located about 125 miles apart, ofblack volcanic cinders.

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