Mesa Verde: Revisiting My Past
- Alan Campbell
- Jul 17
- 6 min read
Two score and 18 years ago, give or take a year, my parents threw me in the back seat of our non-air conditioned Dodge, and we took off on a two-week summer vacation through the Western deserts.
It was hot, my transistor radio (those of a certain age will know what that is), melted when I laid it up in the back window, and I don’t even want to talk about what happened to my crayons.
But, that’s not the story here.
One stop along the way was Mesa Verde, the cliff dwellings built by Native Americans around the year 1200.
I was fascinated. Even as a grade-schooler, I thought it was one of the coolest places ever.
We only saw them from the roadway, above, and in the park museum. They had to have had tours at the time, but my father wasn’t one of those to stop anywhere for long.
I’ve always wanted to return. It’s taken nearly 60 years to do so. This time I did tour one of those dwellings, the Cliff Palace, first hand.
Two Questions
Mesa Verde is in southwestern Colorado, very close to the four corners area of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
For the unfamiliar, these cliff dwellings are exactly that. Villages, quite literally, built into the sides of a cliff face.
Walking through the remains, two questions continued to roll around my head.
No, one of them wasn’t, why did they decide to do it? Though that’s certainly a good one.
These were constructed more than 800 years ago. There was no mechanized equipment. The Native people who created them had to climb down, a long way down. It’s around 100 feet from the canyon rim to the Cliff Palace floor.
Some of the sedimentary materials used to construct the walls were present in the area they descended to, and some did have water flowing down through the cracks from above, but not nearly all of what they needed would have been there, so they would have been hauling a LOT.
Plus, time spent building took away from them raising crops, gathering food, tending to their current homes and doing all the other things they needed to survive. This would have been an incredible addition to their workload.
Once they made the move, everyone would have continued to climb up and down to get to the top, where they continued to grow crops and hunt for food. Man, woman and child, young and old.
So, I want to know ‘who’.
First, I want to know who dreamt up this plan? Who was it that was just strolling along the mesa one day, looked across the canyon at the opposing cliffs, and said, “Gee, that would be a great place to live.”
Can you imagine if someone came up with the idea today that we should just give up our houses, apartment buildings, etc. and go live underground. People are certainly saying that, but it’s a pretty limited number of people who are buying into it.
Which leads to my second who question, who was the tribal leader who bought into the idea and was so charismatic, and powerful, to be able to convince his people to actually do it?
I mean, it’s one thing to come up with the idea, as incredible as it would have been around the year 1200, but it’s on a whole ‘nuther level to convince people to actually do it.
Whoever they were, the dreamer and the leader, the idea took off.
There are 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park!
Cliff Palace is the largest of those. The primary construction on it occurred over 20 years from 1260 - 1280, though work never really stopped while people continued to live there.
It’s believed the palace housed between 100 and 120 other people, and included 150 rooms, living spaces, storage rooms and special chambers, 75 open spaces and 21 kivas.
Kivas were large, oval, rooms, dug into the ground almost like basements. One theory for why Cliff Palace is larger than the other cliff dwellings is that it may have been an administrative and/or community center. The kivas might have been used for special ceremonies, meeting places or possibly living space for visiting dignitaries.
Obvious Question, Why?
No one really knows why these people built the dwellings or, maybe even more importantly, why they left them behind.
Defense from attack is on the list, though it isn’t chief among them.
Environmental factors seem to be the leading contenders. Moving off the land above cleared more of it for growing crops. The dwellings provided much more permanent structures and the cliffs protected from the elements, such as severe storms, winds, snow and the sun.
Why they left might even be a bigger question.
They only lived in the dwellings for about 100 years, leaving around 1300. A leading contender for speculation as to why they left is drought. There is some record of prolonged droughts at the time, meaning their crops would have been failing.
There’s also a thought that growing societal difficulties, conflicts within the tribes, led to a split.
And there are some, more philosophical, who subscribed to the belief that it was time. Just as it was time for them to build and move into the dwellings, the time had come for them to move on.
Esther, Maiden of Mesa Verde
I can’t tell the story of Mesa Verde without talking about Esther, Maiden of Mesa Verde. I’m very sorry, and a little bit ashamed, of the story. Though, somewhat in my defense, I was only 10 years old at the time.
Esther is a very well preserved Native American mummy who, back in the 1960s, was on full display in the Mesa Verde Museum.
My parents jokingly called her my girlfriend and I brought home a souvenir postcard with her photo on it.
I’m sure that postcard is still buried in a box somewhere. I did find copies of it online, but have decided it not appropriate to repost it here.
Esther was a Basket Maker. Her remains were found in a cave, nine miles north of Durango, Colorado.
She was so protected from exposure that her mummified remains were little damaged by the elements. She still has her teeth, her hair, and even her skin.
She was placed in the Mesa Verde Museum in 1939 because it was the closest to the location where she was discovered.
For a feel of how different those times were compared to today, there is an archival Mesa Verde Notes online story written when the park was “honored” with being chosen for her display, after she had already been on a summer expedition.
Thankfully, times have changed.
Esther was removed from the museum in the early 1970s.
In 2013, she was reburied in an undisclosed location as part of repatriation efforts, led by the Hopi and Acoma Pueblo tribes.
The National Park Service today is making real efforts to recognize and honor the indigenous people who lived on its lands.
Proof? The Park Ranger leading our tour became genuinely emotional, fighting tears back, when discussing the importance of visiting with Native Americans and listening to the first-hand stories of their ancestral heritage.
The current introductory video at Mesa Verde was created with input from the tribes and is narrated by tribal voices.
Money is an issue. The museum exhibits look exactly like they did in the 1960s, with the exception that there are now empty displays where inappropriate items have been removed.
A large wall mural/display talks about how the museum is being redesigned. Unfortunately, that display was put up in 2018 and, when I asked the park ranger if there were a timeline for the renovation, he said it was still waiting on funding.
Ute Reservation - Final Note
On a happier note, two words, fried bread.
As you leave the park you’ll drive past Mesa Verde Soda Point on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.
Vendors from the area’s Native American tribes have set up a number of displays with arts and crafts for sale. Information about the area is available and, best of all, at least if you’re like me, freshly-made fried bread!
If you’ve never had fried bread, you’re missing out. It’s a light bread, that’s fried. What more can you ask? Just put on a little strawberry jelly, or chocolate syrup with powdered sugar and you're in bliss.
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**I allow use of my photos through Creative Commons License. I'm not looking to make money off this thing. I only ask you provide me with credit for the photo by noting my blog address, alansheaven.com, or a link back to this page.
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