The Kayenta in our adventure bears only a passing resemblance to the historical outpost. This is a work of fiction. I have expanded the size of the town to allow more interactions between the visiting academics and the local westerners. My apologies if this does not sit well with you, but I wanted to get it out in the open right at the beginning. My Kayenta is as fictional as Professor Moriarty's asteroid.
Other liberties I have taken include increasing the drivability of the roads. From what I read, it is unlikely that a truck of the time (1923) would be able to travel from Flagstaff to Kayenta without breaking an axle. And while it would have been fun to have the Player Characters run around trying to fix it every five miles, that is not the story I want to tell.
The ancient cliff house dwellings of the Pueblo Indians at Betatakin, about twenty miles west of Kayenta are really there, but again, I have added details that do not exist for the purposes of telling a horror story. I mean no disrespect to the long ago builders of this remarkable city.
Also Black Mesa is a real place and the center of much debate about land use. I visited this site many years ago, and was bowled over by the stark beauty of the land and the timeless quality of the native residents. I understood on the spot that I would write a story that takes place in this wild and untamed place.
I hope you join me in the adventure.
