The Cliff Dwelling known as Oak Tree House at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.
Surprisingly, Mesa Verde National Park does not have the highest concentration of preserved ancient pueblo dwellings in the US. That distinction belongs to Chaco Canyon National Historic Park in New Mexico. But Mesa Verde has plenty of ruins to see and explore if you are interested. The sites there range from basic “pit houses,” which are little more than holes dug into the ground with connecting passages between them, to the elaborate cliff dwellings built into the naturally eroded archways high on the cliffs of canyons. I found the so-called “mesa top” dwellings to be the most fascinating, maybe because I could really see and get a feel for what life must have been like in these highly organized villages.
Within the Far View complex of sites at Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, lies an ancient community known as Coyote Village. This site is very interesting and fun to explore. It is an intimate look directly into the lives of the Anasazi more than 500 years ago. This is the view of one of the living quarters believed to house a family.
While the pit houses are the earliest type of dwellings, dating back to around 600 A.D., the mesa top dwellings came later. According to archaeologists, these dwellings were in use around 900-1000 A.D.
Coyote Village. This is the view looking down into a kiva, which is believed to be a family or community gathering place used for dance, worship, and other social rituals.
This is the central tower of the village. It is unknown what the towers were used for. Some archaeologists believe they were ceremonial, based on their common proximity to kivas, others speculate they were part of a village to village communication network.
The elaborate cliff dwellings, such as the Cliff Palace, were the most recently occupied sites, being in use around 1200-1300 A.D.
The Cliff Palace at Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park is the largest preserved cliff dwelling of its kind in the United States. The Anasazi, or “Ancient Ones” are believed to have occupied this community, and others like it, from about 1200-1300, after which it was abandoned.
The inhabitants of these complexes used a series of ladders and “toe trails” (notches carved into the rock) to enter and exit the village for farming and hunting activities. There is some speculation that the cliff dwellings were built out of a need for defense against other tribes. All of the dwellings at Mesa Verde were abandoned by late in the 1300’s. Archaeologists believe that a prolonged drought caused the inhabitants to move south in search of more fertile ground for farming.
We are very fortunate these sites were set aside and protected as a National Park in 1906. Even by that time, many of the ruins had been plundered by those seeking relics. If you ever wanted to travel back in time, a visit to Mesa Verde provides the perfect opportunity.
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