The pueblos of southwestern Colorado are among the most ancient in the US. Many villages, roads, and irrigations systems left by these early settlers date back to the 9th century. This ancient civilization, commonly referred to as the Anasazi (the ancient ones), flourished here. What caused them to disappear is still a mystery. Mesa Verde National Park, a prime site for these ancient pueblos, is also the location of the Mancos Archeological Site.

The mesas were first settled about AD 550 by people known as "Basketmakers," a formerly nomadic tribe that began to replace hunting and gathering with farming. Their first villages were pithouses, both atop the mesas and within the cliffs. As they continued to advance technologically, the people learned stone masonry, and their dwellings then rose two and three stories above ground and with 50 or more rooms.

Less than a century years later, the people left. Perhaps they had depleted the land and forests and so were no longer able to sustain themselves. Perhaps extended droughts destroyed their crops. We may never know the answer, but we can marvel at the creations they left behind, high atop the mesas and within the cliffs of Mesa Verde National Park.