Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0394Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is of two men sitting on a ledge over looking a large canyon. Above the image "50" is printed, below the image "V23209 - A Canyon Where Ancient Cliff Dwellers Lived (S.) Mesa Verde Park, Colorado." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company Copyright, Underwood & Underwood Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Portland, Oregon, London, Eng., Sydney, Aus." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
V23209
CANYON WHERE CLIFF DWELLERS LIVED, MESA VERDE PARK, COLO.
Lat. 37 (Degrees) N.; Long. 108 (Degrees) W.
The Mesa Verde is located in southwestern Colorado. Nearly fifty thousand acres of this land were set aside as a national park in 1906. In it are found wonderful ruins of the cliff dwellers, a prehistoric people who made their homes under the overhanging cliffs of the meas. In the precipitous walls of the cliff there are strata of soft stone between layers of hard material. The action of the elements in places has carved out these soft layers, leaving a roof above and a floor beneath, upon which the anient cliff dwellers built their homes. From thse homes high up on the edge of the cliff, the families could look out across the deep canyon where they raised their corn.
It was about the year 1876 that the ruins were first discovered and the wonders of the Mesa Verde explored. The dwellings found then, however, are small and insigificant as compared with those discovered later. The largest and most picturesque ruin is the Cliff Palace, discovered in 1888. It is three hundred feet long and originally contained two hundred rooms. From a distance it looks like a whole town with towers and walls rising out of a heap of ruins.
Several deep canyons in this vicinity contain the cliff dwellings, some so concealed by scrub growth that they have only recently been discovered. To reach some of thse villages, one must go down into the canyon from the other side, using steps cut int he rock by the cliff dwellers. Many of the walls have fallen, but the ruins show towers, and rooms circular, square, or rectangular. Some contain well built fireplaces. Broken pottery is abundant.
Copyright by The Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection