Overlooking the Puerco River, the pueblo was occupied 600 to 800 years ago by Ancestral Puebloan People. Features include partially stabilized walls of several room types and a number of petroglyph panels. One of the latter appears to have been a solar calendar. The sun follows different paths throughout the year. This petroglyph marks the summer solstice. During the morning, a shaft of sunlight travels down the side to penetrate the centre of a small spiral.
Puerco Pueblo stood one-story high, with 2 to 3 rows of connected rooms of approximately 100 rooms surrounding a central plaza. Within the plaza were several rectangular ceremonial roooms called kivas. The village was a lively center even after the abandonment of larger Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon pueblos to the northeast. It was inhabited from about A.D. 1250 to the late 1300s, and housed a number of families. The nearby river provided the water that nourished plant and animal life necessary for this pueblo community.
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