April 16 - 2018 Towaoc, Colorado

April 16 was a day for me to mark in the calendar. We went to see Mesa Verde, which is a native American ruin from around the year 1200 A.D. I have wanted to see this place, ever since I saw pictures of it for the very first time, many years ago. So, this was a special day for me.

 

I think it also deserves to be mentioned, that we finally found some history, that interested me MORE than it interested JJ.😊 He likes history about politics, wars, and big events that have made their mark on history. I like learning more about everyday life in years gone by. It fascinates me to see and learn about how people have lived in the past. So, for once, it is ME writing about the history we saw today😊
Mesa Verde is a special place, because it is so well preserved. It is easy to guess that people could have lived here, and how their lives might have been. I like to imagine what it would have been like. Even the experts can only guess, but they have gotten some good clues about the lives of these people, through the things they found here. In the museum, we saw very well-preserved pottery (keramik), jewelry (smykker), baskets (kurve), sandals, arrowheads (pilespidser), and tools. The first archeologists found corn (majs), squash, and beans, so they know that these people were farmers, and some of what they ate. All this helps give an idea of everyday life, so many years ago. There were even shoes woven with feathers for warmth.

Cliff Palace



Spruce Tree House

Square Tower House

The houses were built into alcoves (klippeafsatser) in the cliff wall (klippevæggen). The only way up and down was by climbing the vertical (lodrette) wall with only some holes they had made for hands and feet. (We were lucky – we had ladders😊)

 

 

 

Mesa Verde is a National Park. As in most of the other parks, the park rangers give guided tours. We went on a tour of “Balcony House” (the only one of the four houses that was open today, because of restoration and weather). It is not the one we would have picked, if we had a choice, because it involves climbing steep ladders! But, we didn’t have a choice…. It was a very good tour, and it was really interesting, to see the dwelling (beboelse) up close. Balcony House had 40 rooms and probably had 40-50 people living there.

 

 

A Kiva - it would have had a roof/ceiling - it was the living room

We came to see the cliff dwellings. But, once again, we saw and learned so much more. First, we learned that the ruins are up on top of a mountain! (We had always seen pictures that are looking down on the ruins, so we thought they were down. But no…. We drove about 2000 ft/600 m up, before we could look down on the dwellings.) They were so secluded (afskåret) up there, that they were first discovered by “whitemen” in 1888, when 2 cowboys stumbled (løb ind i dem) upon them, during a snow storm. (That must have been something!!!!!)

 

 

We also learned that the Ancestral Puebloans hadn’t always lived in cliff dwellings. Around 600 A.D., the first people to live in the area in permanent homes, lived in “pit houses”. These houses were made by digging down into the soil, and then building walls and ceiling out of wood and clay, to cover the pit. They made a hole in the roof, to serve as both door and chimney (skorsten). At first, the houses were built signally. Later they were built in groups and pueblos (towns). At some point, around 1200 A.D., the natives moved to the cliff dwellings.        

The pit houses were not as well preserved as the cliff houses.
They were prone to fire (brandfarlig), so the walls and roofs are gone.

Finally, we learned that this area is very prone to wild fires. We saw many areas, where all the trees were burnt. Our guide told us that, because the area is so high, it gets struck by lightning often, and because it is so dry, it burns. In the early 2000’s, the area had many fires. We were surprised that the scars are still so evident. This fire was from 2002.

And we saw wild horses. We have seen areas, where road signs warn about them, and we have seen some, that we thought might be wild, but today we were sure.

Written by Mary