7
You may walk into this small ground floor storeroom to inspect the original ceiling. The doorway was once plugged with masonry, but it was opened by an early explorer. This section of the pueblo is part of the first construction of Pueblo Bonito behind the older pueblo of the A.D. 900’s. Tree-ring dates from the Ponderosa pine vigas indicate that the room was built in A.D. 1038. Peeled willow sticks were laid across the beams and covered with juniper bark, and finally about six inches of packed soil to make a floor for the room above. The room to the left has not been excavated.
The next doorway you pass on your way to Station 8 is now closed with a modern gate. The room behind it was used for a storeroom by Richard Wetherill whose first camp was pitched outside the wall of the pueblo in this vicinity. When Pueblo Bonito was built there were 18 doorways in the rear wall, but all were plugged up by the Indians at some later date so that the only entry into the house was at the south wall of the plaza.