Tag Archives: Mesa Verde

The Long and Winding Road to Wetherill

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Mesa Verde National Park, continued….

Back on a cold winter day in 1888, the Wetherill brothers were out in a snow storm looking for lost cattle when they spotted through the snowflakes something they described as “An enchanted castle.”  They had stumbled upon what is now known as the Cliff Palace.  Therefore, like Columbus who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 to “discover” America, the Wetherill Brothers were credited with being the first to “discover” the Cliff Palace.   Nevermind about the people who lived there for 100 years, or all the subsequent Puebloans, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, etc. that followed.  The mesa is named for the Wetherills.  (You can’t please everyone, so you’ve got to please yourself!) Continue reading →

Mesa Verde: Legacy of Stone and Spirit

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I recently read an article about a man who has a “bucket list to go everywhere.”   The article claims he is the “Worlds Most Traveled Man.”   I am not that kind of checklist traveler…I don’t need to “go everywhere.”  But I do maintain lists of things I want to see, otherwise, I might never leave the internet.  😉   When it comes to an already well-developed list such as our 59 National Parks, I figure there is a good reason to use that list as a guideline.  These places have received the pinnacle of “Park” status, not “Monument, Seashore, or Reserve.” Only 59 of them are an official “Park.” So there must be something special there worthy of a list, right?  So I confess, while in southwestern Colorado, I took a slight detour to visit Mesa Verde National Park. Continue reading →