Mesa Verde

Richard Whetherill tends to get the credit for ‘discovering’ in the European settler sense, Mesa Verde. It was of course known by the native Ute Indians in the area who considered the cliff dwellings sacred.

There is another person who perhaps should have the title the Wetherills have assumed and that is John Moss a prospector and more so Virginia McClurg. Virginia was Regent-General of National Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association (what a title!).

She was instrumental in advocating for the protection of Mesa Verde which lead to the action by Theodore Roosevelt to make it a National Park in 1906. Virginia and Lucy Peabody were both deeply involved in this advocacy. Virginia sounds like she had a fascinating life and I encourage you to read about her in the short Wikipedia article linked above.

We made a flying tour of Mesa Verde. I had not seen Mesa Verde since my childhood. Unfortunately, it is not a park that is easy to see quickly. The drive in from the entrance takes quite a while. The park is one of the few, however, that allows dogs almost everywhere. However the weather was not so friendly for a small black dog and the hot weather defeated even a short hike.

I will leave it here with a few vignettes of some of the ruins. There is so much there.