Tusayan Ruin and Museum

The Tusayan ruins are the remains of a small ancestral Pueblo village. A short 200-m trail surrounds the ruins and gives the opportunity to learn more about this place and the people who once lived here.

Download the guide of the Tusayan Ruins (PDF)

The Tusayan museum and the library have exhibitions that help bringing the ruins back to life. A picnic area and toilets are located here.

Photo: Puroticorico

Welcome to the Tusayan Ruins. While you walk around the village, remember that no one tried to rebuild the structures. During the summer of 2001, thanks to funds of the Vanishing Treasures program, archeologists of the park stabilized the ruins to protect them from the ongoing deterioration. Some places were only partially extracted from the ground to allow you to know the experience of an archeologic site.

Photo: Grand Canyon NPS

Results from dendrochronological studies show that people lived here around 1185 B.C. The style of the buildings and the artefacts is typical to the ancestral Pueblo culture. This ruin is one of the 4300 archeological sites registered in the Grand Canyon National Park. The neighboring pueblos would show an effort to cooperate between families. This history of this people and its culture only exists thanks to these artefacts and the stories of their descendants. Many doubts remain as for the reason they came, the way they survived, the way they were communicating. Few answers are definitive.

Photo: Kewl