Mesa Verde National Park Fun Facts: 5 Things You Didn't Know

Let’s jump into some Mesa Verde fun facts! Colorado’s incredible Mesa Verde National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most spectacular preserved areas of architecture, artifacts, and natural resources in North America.

Podcast Episode Overview

In this episode of Exploring the National Parks, we are headed back to one of our favorite National Parks — Mesa Verde! We are diving into the fun facts about this park and focusing on the people who lived here.

The incredible human history in this area is what this park is all about, and we are so excited to share it with you! Join us as we take a deep dive into the Ancestral Puebloans who called Mesa Verde home.

In this episode, we discuss:

The surprising number of cliff dwellings in this national park
The number of tribes that have special ties to Mesa Verde
The largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde
The insanely cool things that archeologists have found in this park
The magic and the mystery of this park

This park protects the heritage of our country in a sacred and beautiful way, and it’s up to us to learn about it and how we can preserve it.

We hope these fun facts will help you cherish this amazing place as you explore it with your family and friends!

Listen to the Full Podcast Episode:

Mesa Verde National Park Fun Facts

1. There are over 600 cliff dwellings within Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States, protecting over 600 cliff dwellings and nearly 5,000 other archaeological sites. And when you visit, you only see a fraction!

The Ancestral Puebloan people lived on top of the mesa, with some estimates putting their population at several thousand up to over 20,000. They left behind some of the most unique architecture in the United States, which was thankfully protected by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

Many of the archeological sites weren’t discovered until after a wildfire burned through half of the park. With brush and trees burned, archeologists were able to see new sites uncovered on top of the mesa in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Ancestral Puebloans lived in Mesa Verde for 700 years. As you traverse the park, you can walk through history, watching as their civilization figured out how to farm, where to build homes, and how to survive together. Their efforts continue today with the tribes that still have ties to Mesa Verde, the green table of southwestern Colorado.

2. Twenty-six tribes have special ties to Mesa Verde

There used to be a common misconception that the ancestral Puebloan peoples simply disappeared from Mesa Verde. We now know that they likely moved on to other places in the southwest. They left behind an incredible feat of architecture in their ancient dwellings.

The Ancestral Puebloans thrived at Mesa Verde from about 550 A.D. to 1300 A.D. As you drive on top of the mesa on Mesa Top Loop Road, you’re passing through about 600 years of their history.

These people grew and shaped generations around their ability to grow food, weave baskets, and keep expanding until they reached the mesa’s edge. They started with pit houses, where they lived for most of their time on Mesa Verde. Only in the last 100 years of their time on the mesa top did they build and move into their cliff dwellings.

They left behind a legacy for the 26 associated tribes and all who revere Mesa Verde National Park as a sacred place today.

The 26 Native American tribes with ties to Mesa Verde extend throughout Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

3. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park and North America

Most cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde have one to five rooms, and many others were used as single-room food storage facilities.

That makes Cliff Palace all the more impressive with its 150 rooms and 23 kivas. That’s like living in a mansion built into the side of a mesa!

You can get up close to Cliff Palace on a ranger-guided tour offered by Mesa Verde National Park. Make sure you book your tour tickets before your visit because these cliff-dwelling tours sell out quickly.

All of the cliff dwellings in the national park are the culmination of the Ancestral Puebloans’ incredible civilization on the mesa top – Balcony House, Square Tower House, Spruce Tree House, Step House, and the Sun Temple.

There is one caveat to this fun fact. According to the National Park Service website, Long House has 150 rooms, 21 kivas, and a row of upper storage rooms, all of which housed 150 to 175 people. According to our calculations, Long House could be larger than Cliff Palace!

Long House is also accessible via a ranger-guided tour, but unlike Cliff Palace, which is in the main part of the park on Cliff Palace Loop, you have to drive Wetherill Mesa Road and then hike to reach Long House. Unlike Cliff Palace, you can climb the ladders in Long House. We highly recommend taking the Long House tour!

4. Inside the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, archeologists have found trinkets and artifacts from faraway places

The list of fascinating artifacts archeologists have recovered inside the cliff dwellings includes:

Shells from the Gulf of California
Macaw feathers from Central America
Turquoise from New Mexico
Copper bells from Mexico

The Ancestral Puebloans did not live in isolation. Mesa Verde was a bright star in their civilization but wasn’t the center. Trade took place across massive distances. Archeologists have even found evidence of chocolate from the Mayans at nearby Chaco Canyon.

The Ancestral Puebloans built a vast network of trade routes through the Southwest, including roads to facilitate travel and trade. Some archaeologists believe they built towers and cliff dwellings in specific locations to facilitate communication between communities, all by line of sight. Yes, exactly like that scene from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Southwest Colorado and the American Southwest are rife with artifacts and architecture left behind by the Ancestral Puebloans. The Mesa Verde region is only the tip of the iceberg.

5. We don’t know the exact reasons why the Ancestral Puebloans left Mesa Verde

There are a few theories about why the Ancestral Puebloans moved from Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon to other nearby areas.

Theory one is that drought pushed this flourishing civilization off the mesa tops and into more arable areas. We know there were severe droughts over extended periods during the 1100s and the 1200s.

Theory two is that they had grown so large and so quickly that the land couldn’t support them any longer. In an effort to support their population, they overused and depleted the land to the point of widespread famine.

There are points for and against both of these theories. We know with certainty that by 1250 A.D., Chaco Canyon was deserted, and by 1300 AD, Mesa Verde was empty.

Descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans give their answer to the mystery in Footprints of Our Ancestors. They believe their ancestors learned what they needed, and it was time for the next step in their journey. They may have left, but they are not gone.

Don’t forget to complete your task for this week! Do you think Long House is the *actual* largest cliff dwelling in North America? Or do you stand by the NPS and vote for Cliff Palace? Head over to the Dirt In My Shoes Facebook or Instagram page and cast your vote!

Links mentioned in this episode:

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Mesa Verde National Park Fun Facts: 5 Things You Didn’t Know