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From Primedia Publications

Mesa Verde: An Ancient Mystery
An Ancient Stucture Remains a Modern Mystery
By The Editors of HistoricTraveler.com


The ruins that remain offer a window into a world that will, in many ways, always remain locked in the past.
Eons ago rushing water cut deep canyons into what are now arid mesas in southwestern Colorado. Today the canyons reveal more than geological history. Between 200 and 300 years before Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic, people actually lived in the steep canyon walls. They were called Anasazi, a Navajo word meaning "the ancient ones" or "the ancient enemy."

The Anasazi weren't cave dwellers. In hollows washed from the vertical sandstone, they built neatly squared-off stone houses and towers and circular, subterranean religious structures called kivas. Many of these still stand—beautiful and baffling. Why did the Anasazi build their houses in the inhospitable canyon walls? It's a mystery that still puzzles anthropologists. Did they seek protection from other tribes? Members of the Ute tribe now in the area tell stories of a great battle, but there's no concrete evidence that Utes lived here then. Did the Anasazi want to leave the mesa top free for farming? Or did they simply want to shelter their mud-sheathed buildings from the deteriorating effects of weather? There had to be a compelling reason for people to live in such an inaccessible site. To get to the mesa above or the canyon floor below, they climbed the sheer rock face, using only shallow handholds and toeholds carved into the stone, baskets strapped to their backs for carrying things.



Did their successful culture condemn them to overpopulation and starvation?
Their best cliff buildings were the earliest ones, built around 1200. The quality declined after that, until about 1250, when the Anasazi began leaving the area, possibly heading southwest to join or become the Pueblo tribes. They were all gone by 1300. Again, why? Did their successful culture condemn them to overpopulation and starvation? Were they chased out by others? Piles of ritualistically destroyed human bones of men, women, and children hint that a religious crisis may have played a role.

We can only puzzle over what they left behind—their homes, weaponry, pottery, baskets, bits of clothing, and other household items. They also left behind the remains of their earlier dwellings up on the mesas—pit houses that date from as early as 550 A.D. and stone houses that began appearing around 750 A.D. There's still some of it there to see. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill creating Mesa Verde National Park, the first national park set aside to preserve the works of man. Then, in 1978, it was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, a division of the United Nations, because of its "outstanding archaeological remains and importance in preserving the global heritage of mankind."

Getting There
The entrance to Mesa Verde National Park is about nine miles east of Cortez and six miles west of Mancos off U.S. 160 in southwestern Colorado. For park information, call (970) 529-4461, or visit www.nps.gov/meve. For area camping, lodging, dining and other information, call the Mesa Verde-Cortez Visitor Information Bureau, (800) 253-1616.