• View inside Spruce Tree House

    Mesa Verde

    National Park Colorado

History & Culture

On June 29, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde National Park to "preserve the works of man," the first national park of its kind. Today, the continued preservation of both cultural and natural resources is the focus of the park's research and resource management staff.

 
View of Square Tower House





For cultural information on Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings and mesa top sites, click on Places.

 
Artist rendition of Ancestral Puebloan traders.

 


For information about the Ancestral Puebloans who lived at Mesa Verde, go to People.

 
Park Ranger archeologist documenting a wall in Spruce Tree House.


For information about Mesa Verde's Archeological Site Conservation program, current projects and research including stabilization, post fire site surveys, and architectural documentation, click on Preservation.

  • Visiting Cliff Dwellings Visiting Cliff Dwellings

    for information on visiting the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde Read More »

  • Artifact Gallery Artifact Gallery

    links to artifact gallery activity Read More »

Did You Know?

Photograph of Cliff Palace, 1895 - 1900 by WH Jackson

On a snowy December day in 1888, while ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason searched Mesa Verde’s canyons for stray cattle, they unexpectedly came upon Cliff Palace for the first time. The following year, the Wetherill brothers and Mason explored an additional 182 cliff dwellings.