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.

 

• People
  Learn about the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived at Mesa Verde over 700 years ago.

• Places
  Cultural information on Mesa Verde's cliff dwellings and mesa top sites.

• Stories
  A Mesa Verde National Park Timeline.

• Collections
  Information on the park's artifact and archival collections.

• Preservation
  Mesa Verde preserves nearly 5,000 archeological sites. Learn about some of the ways the park's archeological program manages and protects these sites for current and future generations.

• Preserving Cliff Palace
  Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in the park, inspires visitors to imagine what life was like over seven hundred years ago. But the task of preserving this nearly eight century old site has its challenges as well as its rewards. Learn about the current conservation and stabilization project of this magnificent ancient structure.