Mesa Verde National Park

Visit the park on-line:
http://www.nps.gov/meve/

President Theodore Roosevelt on June 29, 1906, set aside Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. This land, inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans for over 700 years, included the most complete and extensive concentration of prehistoric cliff dwellings in the United States. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. In fact, these sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.

The Native Americans first settled on the Colorado Plateau and farmed the mesas. Life was hard in the arid climate, boasting warm summers, cold winters, and limited rainfall. They lived in various settlements above ground until AD 1100, when they started constructing the massive cliff dwellings.

Many have thought that the Ancestral Puebloans retreated to the cliff dwellings to hide from aggressors, but archeological evidence does not support that theory. In fact, the entire region lived in harmony. The cliff dwellings do offer better protection from the elements than the mesa-top sites, which may be one reason we see so many similar dwellings across the southwest.

Between AD 1200 and 1400, there was a mass exodus from the region. To this date, we still do not know why. Perhaps the climate changed significantly, eliminating the ability to farm on the mesa. What do we know, is that their descendants live on in modern tribes residing in the Rio Grande river valley in New Mexico, the Ute in Colorado, and the Hopi in Arizona.

Each year, new dwellings are continued to be uncovered, allowing researchers to peer deeper and deeper into the past. It is this continued effort that has led to the decade old change in name from Anasazi to Ancestral Puebloan to reflect the people who lived here.

When traveling in the Southwest, there are many must-see National Parks,. This is one of them. The fact that you can still walk the grounds and experience the cliff dwellings from within, make it not only a wondrous educational opportunity, but an experiential one as well. The park is open year-round and worth spending at least three days exploring its history.

All Images take by me in 2006.

Intro and Outro Music: Redondo Beach by Apple Loops

Score by Kevin MacLeod, used with permission: Long Road Ahead, Expeditionary, Unpromised, Shamanistic, and Ritual

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• adventure
• travel
• log
• southwest
• colorado
• anasazi
• ancestral
• pueblo
• puebloan
• mesa
• verde
• national
• park
• native
• americans

[NorthWoodsVideo]

Nice job presenting Mesa Verde. Hope to go there soon.

[qiranger]

@NorthWoodsVideo Thanks!

[windrosefiberstudio]

I've been studying the Anasazi with my son and this is just what we were looking for! Gorgeous images! Great information! The energetic music also appeals to youth and helps maintain their attention. Thank you for this beautiful look at Mesa Verde National Park and for the educational resource!

[qiranger]

Glad you enjoyed it. I am teaching a lesson in the next few weeks, so I thought I would use my experiences and create some extra materials to supplement the book. My mother also teaches and will have a until on the people of the region too.

[mayokiconner]

nice! what editing software do you use particularly for the intro?

[qiranger]

Glad you really enjoyed it. The project was assembled in Final Cut. The opening sequence is a template from iMovie '06; however, rather than using their title bar, I use Motion to overlay that aspect. The music is the Redondo Beach Medium Loop from Apple.

[aztec714ok]

white people are monkeys

[MysterEy1]

Watch my video. Where are we?

[Iroamwhereever]

Great! I'd love to visit mesa verde

[9musicluverxo]

I this place haunted?

[mapari00]

Very true. We don't know what we lost. One good thing though is that there was a LOT that wasn't taken and there was a family (the Wetherill's) who lived locally and collected just like everyone else, but they took notes on what they found and where they found it and they were super active collectors. They were amateur archeologists.

[dorotwhy]

It's sad to know that so much evidence of their existence  was lost. If these dwelling hadn't been looted, the artifacts, etc. would have given us hints as to their way of life, their history. If enough was gathered, it may have told the story of how they came to reside there and the reasons they left.

[mapari00]

When they are studying the Ancestral Puebloan sites they are very careful to be revernt. If human remains are found they do not collect them. They leave them in place, possibly placing a rock over them. Other artifacts are rarely removed now either unless they are particularly well preserved or unique. Unfortunately from the1870's when Mesa Verde was discovered until the 1900's, artifact digging was a fun past time and completely legal. When MV became a park in 1906 it became protected.

[mapari00]

There is no written history, but the modern tribes keep their history by storytelling. Many things you see in the ancient sites have similar structures to Native American structures in recorded history. There were thousands & likely millions of artifacts (& remains) found and there are so many more still out there. Archeologists are continually studying the sites in the park, though they no longer do digs. They were finding the same things over and over. Now they study the structures.