Unfortunate indeed, is he who views this ancient city and sees only the towering walls. Unfortunate because the stones are the least important part. Cliff Palace is really built of the hopes and desires, the joys and sorrows of an industrious people. It is not a cold, empty city for it is still warm with the emotions of its builders. In each fingerprint and tool mark lie the prayers of a young couple for a home filled with children and happiness. Each storage bin is chinked with a farmer’s prayers for a bountiful harvest. In each plastered kiva wall is an ancient priest’s reverence for his gods. A pot is not just a piece of baked clay: it is an ancient potter’s moulded prayer for beauty and strength. Each solid wall is a testimony of success; each shattered human bone, each broken jar is an admission of defeat.
Cliff Palace stands today as a monument to the ancient people of the Mesa Verde. For many centuries they occupied the great, green mesa and finally, almost in its center, they built their greatest city. Certainly it was their outstanding architectural achievement but it is only one of many hundreds of ruins which stand in silent testimony to the skills of an industrious people.
For over a thousand years the Indians enjoyed the security and bounty of the Mesa Verde. In the beginning their culture was simple but as the centuries passed they progressed steadily without taking a backward step. Finally they reached the highest point of their development and for the brief century during which they occupied the cliff dwellings they enjoyed the fruits of their long struggle. Then catastrophe came and in a short time they were gone.
The north rim of the mesa rises 2000 feet above the valley
The flat mesa top is cut by a score of rugged canyons
The complete archeological wealth of the Mesa Verde will never be known. The great mesa, which rises high above the surrounding country, measures fifteen miles from north to south and twenty miles from east to west. Its flat top, sloping gently to the south, is cut by a score of rugged canyons and access to the remote areas is difficult. The ruins are often hard to find and many will never be discovered. In the days of discovery, as we shall see in the next chapter, the early explorers entered almost every cliff dwelling but they left few records. In recent times it is doubtful if one-third of the cliff dwellings have been entered and probably no living person has been in one hundred of them.
The ruins on the mesa tops far outnumber the cliff dwellings but most of them are difficult to find. Earth and vegetation have covered them, often completely, and intensive search does not reveal all. This wealth of mesa-top ruins is indicated by a recent survey of a small portion of one mesa. Careful search of an area of only three square miles revealed over three hundred ruins.
In 1906, one-half of the great mesa was set aside as Mesa Verde National Park in order that the ruins might be preserved for all time and made accessible to visitors. Cliff Palace and some of the other cliff dwellings have been excavated and out on the mesa tops ruins of earlier types have been excavated to complete the archeological story. In the nearby museum are to be seen the things which have been found in the ruins. Displayed in their chronological order they tell the story of the ancient inhabitants of the Mesa Verde.