Art News

Much-Beloved Bandelier National Monument Rising from Ashes of Largest New Mexico Fire

THE BOTTOM OF FRIJOLES CANYON, N.M. (AP).- Tourist season is peaking in northern New Mexico but there are no visitors at the heart of much-loved Bandelier National Monument, tucked into the ancient canyons northwest of Santa Fe. No one is climbing the wooden ladders that reach up to the centuries-old dwellings that were carved into the canyon walls by ancestors of the Native American pueblos that surround the area. No one is picnicking along Frijoles Creek as it bubbles by. There’s just the silence of a devastated landscape and it could remain that way for years. Nearly two-thirds of the monument was scorched during the last month by the largest wildfire in New Mexico history. The flames of the Las Conchas fire burned across mesa tops and down canyons dotted with hundreds of archaeological sites. The fire stopped a mile from the monument’s largest concentration of