I remember taking a class in college on Latin American immigrants in the US. The professor (from Puerto Rico) asked the first day of class what the oldest settlement was in the US. He expected people to say Jamestown or Plymouth, and he’d pull the ‘gotcha’ St Augustine card. Most students obliged him.
I told him Old Oraibi on the Hopi mesas. He was flummoxed.
Being a trained archaeologist who worked in the SW, I am chagrined to say I’ve never been to Chaco. All my cars were of the sporty variety and that road in would have ripped the oil pans from them.
Further, when you visit Santa Fe, they will lay it all out.....Santa Fe predate the invasion at St Agustine to capture Fort Caroline, a French colony just to the north at the river of May, Jscksonville/Mayport.