Acoma Pueblo is not called the Sky City for nothing. It stands on top a mesa, 350 feet above the desert floor. The pueblo has been there perhaps 1,000 years, making it the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America - although there are some who would disagree with that claim.

Besides the pueblo, there is San Estaban Del Ray Church, built in 1629. Constructed of adobe bricks hauled on puebloan backs up a steep path, the church's walls are 9-feet thick. The vigas came from Mount Taylor, 40 miles away. They too were carried on the backs of men who never let them touch the ground. One did and they refused to use it to support the roof.

Near the center of the plaza is a cistern, where residents planted three cottonwood trees for shade. Only one of the three trees survived and is about the only plant life growing on the mesa.

Ask about the tree, and you'll get a smile and joke. Residents call their solo cottonwood the Acoma National Forest.
