A statue in front of the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center depicts an ancestral Puebloan climbing up a cliff face using hand and toe holds while carrying a bundle of wood for fuel. The sculpture, titled "The Ancient Ones," was created by Edward J. Fraughton and was a gift from the Mesa Verde Foundation.

Tara Travis, curator of Mesa Verde National Park’s collection of artifacts, said the collection holds some three million objects, including this piece of petrified wood that was unpacked recently at the new visitors center. in addition to archaeological artifacts, the collection includes natural and park history items and traditonal garb from the 26 modern-day tribes who are descendants of the ancestral Puebloans.

Tara Travis, curator of Mesa Verde National Park’s collection of artifacts, said the faces on the figures portraying everyday activities of the ancestral Puebloans in the park’s new visitor center were modeled after their living descendants. Jim Eaot from the Zuni Pueblo was the source of this face.

A visitor to the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center at the park's entrance pauses to admire the view from the Rotunda, which frames Park Point.

Bill Strong of Lynchburg, Va., who said he has been on the road visiting national parks since April 12, pauses next to Joe Cajera Jr.'s sculpture "In the Moment," to check his email on Wednesday at the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center. The sculpture, depicting a storyteller, was a gift from the Mesa Verde Foundation.

Park Ranger Matt Huebner gives a family who stopped by the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center some ideas about what to visit in the park .

"The Ancient Ones," a sculpture by Edward J. Fraughton located in front of the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center depicts an ancestral Puebloan climbing a cliff carrying a bundle of wood. The sculpture was a gift from the Mesa Verde Foundation.

Displays inside the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center describe the Ancestral Puebloans, who began living on the mesa some 1,500 years ago.

An interactive, three-dimensional map at the new visitors center at Mesa Verde National Park educates visitors on various aspects of the park, including the animal and plant life there, the ancestral Puebloans and the effects of wildfires. To the left is a metal map of the park to give the visually impaired a sense of its topography.

“We wanted to put people back into the landscape,” said Tara Travis, curator of Mesa Verde’s collection of artifacts, when talking about the displays at the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Center. The faces of the figures performing the everyday tasks of ancestral Puebloans were modeled from their descendants in modern day Native American tribes.

Tara Travis, curator of Mesa Verde National Park’s collection of artifacts, said the park’s new visitor center will house some three million objects in this repository, which includes cabinets with microclimates to preserve the more fragile items.

Gov. John Hickenlooper is scheduled to attend the grand opening of the new Mesa Verde National Park Visitor and Research Centeron Thursday.