Las Animas - Bent County Library District

Following in the wake of what one noted scientist called 'transients who neither revered nor cared for the ruins as symbols of the past, ' the Wetherill family became the earliest students of Mesa Verde. Their careful excavations and record-keeping helped preserve key information, leading to a deeper understanding of the people who built and occupied the cliff dwellings. As devout Quakers, they felt they were predestined to protect the historic sites...

An account of Gustaf Nordenskiold's explorations of the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde with Al Wetherill.

"A total of 221 new sites were discovered from the Bircher fire and were fully recorded. Besides a complete narrative of each of these 221 sites, the following report after summarizing the regional cultural history, Park environment, and previous work in the Park, addresses the specific fire effects abserved on archeological resources within the Bircher Fire" (from abstract p. iii)

There is scarcely a tract on the Colorado Plateau that does not have evidence of human occupation. Many of the richest remains have been found in the Mesa Verde Province, which covers southwestern Colorado and adjacent parts of New Mexico and Utah.

Archaeologists with field and laboratory experience explore the long history of human habitation throughout the Mesa Verde, Colorado area, discussing such topics as the environment, the earliest hunters and foragers, Tewa origin stories, sacred landscapes, fire and archaeology, ancient violence, and archaeology in the region over the past century