Mesa Verde NP, Colorado

20. Cliff Dwellings

Souvenir hunters camped in the ruins for several winters, and it is reported that many hundred specimens from there have been carried down the mesa and sold to private individuals. Some of these objects are now in museums, but many are forever lost to science. In order to secure this valuable archeological material, walls were broken down with giant powder, often simply to let light into the darker rooms, floors were invariably opened and buried kivas mutilated. To facilitate this work and get rid of the debris, great openings were broken through the fine walls which form the front of the ruin. Beams were used for firewood to so great an extent that not a single roof now remains. This work of destruction; added to that resulting from the erosion due to torrents of rain, left Cliff Palace in a sad condition.