NAMESAKE

Congress established Mesa Verde, meaning "green table" in Spanish, as the first cultural park in the National Park System in 1906 to preserve the notable cliff dwellings of the ancestral Puebloan culture. The park received greater recognition in 1978 when it was designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by the United Nations. Occupying part of a large sandstone plateau rising above the Montezuma and Mancos valleys, Mesa Verde National Park is 81 square miles, consisting of 52,122 acres and rising more than 8,500 feet above sea level. Mesa Verde National Park serves as a spectacular reminder of the 13 centuries-old ancestral Puebloan culture by preserving hundreds of dwellings and artifacts.

The archeological sites found in Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. Mesa Verde National Park offers visitors a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people. Scientists study the ancient dwellings of Mesa Verde, in part, by making comparisons between the Ancestral Pueblo people and their contemporary indigenous descendants who still live in the Southwest today. Twenty-four Native American tribes in the southwest have an ancestral affiliation with the sites at Mesa Verde.