BGuthrie Photos: CO -- Mesa Verde Natl Park

CO -- Mesa Verde Natl Park:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MESA_000912_004.JPG: They had a fire that swept through the area several years ago, One of the things it did was reveal some new ruins which they couldn't see previously.
2. MESA_000912_005.JPG: The fuzz in the middle is condensation which got inside the lens
3. MESA_000912_009.JPG: Our Disappearing Views Years ago, the view from Mesa Verde was so clean and clear that only the curvature of the Earth prevented you from seeing mountains in New Mexico and Arizona over 200 miles away. Unfortunately, the times have changed. Air pollution is a problem even in remote corners of the American Southwest. Both the spectacular views and the quality of our air is affected. While a few sources are natural, many others are not. Industrial processes in far distant cities and regional coal-fired electric generating plants are only some of the many sources. The views and the quality of the air you breathe in our National Parks may diminish in the future. The question is what will our children be able to see when they visit Mesa Verde many years from now?
4. MESA_000912_036.JPG: Before they started building the structures, these were how the Anasazi lived -- in holes. There would be poles supporting roofs of mud and sticks.
5. MESA_000912_044.JPG: Alcove Dwellers. Centuries before they built cliff dwellings, the Anasazi in this region used alcoves for sleeping and shelter. There is only a shadow-record of their lives: pieces of hunting gear, intricate baskets, and crude pottery, and some stone-lined pits. The storage pits were a significant find. By around AD 550, hunters and seed-gatherers who entered the region about AD 1 and used alcoves for temporary shelter were beginning to farm the mesa top and store part of the harvest -- tentative steps toward permanent settlement. Hundreds of years later, after living primarily on the mesa tops, the Anasazi moved back to their ancestors' alcoves, but as a larger, more technically accomplished population. ... At 26 feet (8 meters) high, Square Tower House is the tallest structure in the park. The four-story "tower" was actually part of an extensive, multi-storied unit with about 80 rooms and 7 kivas. Most of the other high rooms collapsed after abandonment.
6. MESA_000912_050.JPG: Pitroom. This pitroom was used for ceremonies as well as cooking and sleeping. The slabs and floor cavities are typical of earlier pithouses; some villagers may have moved here in winter, finding the pitroom easier to heat than surface dwellings. Villages of this era had only one or two pitrooms. Possibly, spiritual matters evolved from family to community affairs. In the subterranean chamber to your right (part of the later village), the features appear to be mainly ceremonial. The pitroom was a transition from pithouse to kiva. The absence of domestic features such as manos and metates and storage cists signaled a shift toward a more formally structured religious chamber. This pitroom's rectangular shape is unusual; most were circular.
7. MESA_000912_056.JPG: Stone Village Notice that the walls of this village indicate masonry construction -- rough stones loosely cemented with clay. Though the two villages have similar layouts -- row of houses, plaza, pitroom -- these later walls are all masonry. We are uncertain why the Anasazi began building above-ground masonry villages. Perhaps there was a shortage of house-timbers, or disastrous fires soured people on the earlier, wood-laced dwellings. In later pueblos along the Ruins Road Drive you can see how the Anasazi refined this technology, shaping and fitting stones to support multi-storied villages.
8. MESA_000912_057.JPG: Ceremonial Chamber. This is an Anasazi kiva, an underground religious room. To picture what occurred here, archeologists rely on comparisons with modern Pueblo Indian kivas and beliefs. The small, circular hole in the floor is a sipapu, a symbolic entrance into the underworld -- the Pueblo place of origin. By this time in their development, pitrooms had evolved into more formalized religious structures -- kivas. This early kiva design was continued in Mesa Verde villages.
9. MESA_000912_061.JPG: Sun Temple. Far above, the D-shaped symmetry is striking, especially the twin kivas. Unlike its contemporaries -- the haphazard cliff houses -- Sun Temple appears to follow a preconceived design. Such massive construction must have involved a community-wide effort. Perhaps people from all of the surrounding cliff dwellings helped with this project. The structure was never completed: there is no evidence of a roof or roof timbers. Apparently, construction stopped when the Anasazi people began to leave the area. It is tempting to view Sun Temple as the cliff dwellers attempt to appeal to the spirits and forestall the total abandonment of their homeland. Though the structure appears ceremonial (nothing about the rooms suggests habitation -- no doors, no windows or firepits), its exact function remains a mystery.
10. MESA_000912_072.JPG: Oak Tree House. Adapting to Alcoves. To level the sloping alcove floor, the Anasazi filled in behind retaining walls. The altered floor not only supported rooms but also provided working space and a safe play area for children. Oak Tree House appears to utilize every inch of alcove space. Some apartments rose four stories to the roof of the inner alcove. There are additional storage rooms along an upper ledge. Oak Tree House contains about 50 rooms and 6 kivas.
11. MESA_000912_079.JPG: Fire Temple. Dance Plaza. Though the large alcove below is filled with Anasazi construction, there is no evidence of any habitation. The central pit -- too large for domestic cook fires -- held layer upon layer of ashes. Fire Temple's size and carefully crafted, symmetrical features suggest community-wide ceremonial gatherings. New Fire House. To the right is New Fire House. Though it lacks the alcove expanse of Cliff Palace or even Oak Tree House, this split-level village makes efficient use of natural ledges.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Mesa Verde National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. The park occupies 81.4 square miles (211 square kilometers) and features numerous ruins of homes and villages built by the ancient Pueblo people. It is best known for several spectacular cliff dwellings — structures built within caves and under outcroppings in cliffs — including Cliff Palace, which is thought to be the largest cliff dwelling in North America. The Spanish term Mesa Verde translates into English as "green table".

Geography:

Mesa Verde National Park is located in the lower south-western corner of the state of Colorado [show location on an interactive map] 37�11'02?N, 108�29'19?W (37.183784,-108.488687).

Elevations in the park range from about 6,100 feet (1,860 meters) to about 8,400 feet (2,560 meters). The terrain in much of the park is dominated by ridges and valleys running roughly north and south; many of these ridges peak at an east–west crest near the park's northern border which turns more northerly–southerly towards the park entrance. The northernmost point is 13.2 miles (21.2 kilometers) farther north than the southernmost; the westernmost point is 11.9 miles (19.2 kilometers) farther west than the easternmost.

Early history:

Spanish explorers seeking a route from Santa Fe to California in the 1760s and 1770s were the first Europeans to reach the Mesa Verde (green table) region, which they named after its high, tree-covered plateaus. However, they never got close enough to see the ancient stone villages, which would remain a secret for another century. Occasional trappers and prospectors visited, with one prospector, John Moss, making his observations known in 1873. The following year he led eminent photographer William Henry Jackson through Mancos Canyon, at the base of Mesa Verde. There Jackson both photographed and publicized a ...More...
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages here that have content directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]
- 2003_CO_Mesa_Verde: CO -- Mesa Verde Natl Park (56 photos from 2003)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Indians] [Natural Beauty] [Park (National Park Service)]
2000 photos: Image quality isn't going to be very good because these are scans of prints. In 2000, I was using a Pentax ME Super SLR camera. This was way before I went digital so the images you see on this site were manually scanned from the original prints, some 4x6 and some 5x7. The scaffolding that was being used on the Washington Momnument came down in March so you'll see it disappear this year. In 2000, I took three weeks and drove across country in my new Saturn station wagon -- taking the northern route through Montana and other places, arriving in San Francisco (a place I'd always wanted to visit), and then returning via a southern route. The cross-country drive meant that I took pictures in a 20 different states (an annual record for me) as well as one foreign country.
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].