Salmon Ruins Museum, Heritage Park, Pioneer Homestead | living history museum

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n AD 1160, a gathering of various cultural groups from around the region found their way to reoccupy the pueblo. This blending of regional groups is called the San Juan Occupation. Because of the dominant pottery styles found during excavations, the San Juan Occupation was formally called the Mesa Verde Occupation, but the name was modified when modern testing showed that the various regional pottery styles were being made with local clays. The use of what had, until new testing, appeared to be the decorated ceramics of trade-wares, were actually made with local clay resources, which indicated that the craftsmen (pottery makers) were from other culture groups, but were making their pottery at Salmon Pueblo.

Around 1250, the San Juan Occupation also abandoned the pueblo. With evidence of ceremonial closure of the kivas, it is still difficult to say with certainty why this second group left. Whatever the reason, the pueblo remained unbothered until the opening of the region to homesteading in 1876.

n 1877, Peter Milton Salmon and his family moved west from Indiana to claim a homestead, located just west of Salmon Ruins. Later, in the early 1890s, his son, George Salmon, claimed his homestead on land adjacent to his father's, which contained the ancient ruin. The ruins stayed in family ownership, generally, until 1956. Purchased by San Juan County in 1964, the acreage was immediately placed on a $1 per year, 100 year lease to the San Juan County Museum Association. That same Association is the non-profit, independent 501(c)3 organization that operates the museum and site today.
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