Cliff Palace Discovered: Ancient Pueblo Ruins in Mesa Verde
Richard Wetherill was chasing stray cattle through a snowstorm when he saw it: an entire stone city built into the cliff face, abandoned for 600 years. Cliff Palace held 150 rooms and 23 ceremonial kivas, constructed by Ancestral Puebloans who somehow hauled sandstone blocks up sheer rock walls. Wetherill found pottery still sitting on tables, tools where they'd been dropped. The family spent winters digging through the ruins, shipping artifacts east for $3 each. By the time Mesa Verde became a national park in 1906, thousands of pieces were already gone—scattered into private collections, their stories lost with them.
December 18, 1888
138 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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