Nearly 32 million people have visited Mesa Verde National Park since it was created by presidential proclamation in 1908.
And for more than 100 years nearly every one of those visitors has flocked to the park’s crown jewel – Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America.
But recently, the park’s jewel was closed, visible only from an overlook, as archaeologists started to work on preserving the site and repairing extensive cracks discovered a few years ago.
Heavy foot traffic and gravity itself – the dwelling was built on the side of a steep alcove – have taken their toll over the years.
“Everything is slowly moving downward,” said Gary W. Ethridge, a preservation archaeologist with Mesa Verde National Park, as he pointed to a heavily traveled path on the edge of an alcove.
Cliff Palace was first discovered in 1888 when ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason combed the canyons for their cattle. It boasts 150 rooms and 23 kivas.
Since its discovery, the cliff dwelling has attracted many in awe of the construction and the lives of the ancestral Puebloans who occupied the area about 700 to 800 years ago.
“A lot of the frontal architecture is not very well supported,” Ethridge said. “In addition, this site is heavily visited. There is a picture of the site in the ’70s, where there are so many people standing on the site, there is not a spot anyone else could stand.”
Archaeologists plan to address the path and the retaining wall first, because if it slides, the rest of the site could be in jeopardy. The site is built in tiers.
Inside the site, Ethridge pointed to a well-masoned kiva – Kiva F. The round ceremonial room has large cracks running down the side of the wall, and one wall is bowing inward. The kiva is supported by a makeshift lumber support.
“We no longer let folks walk around Kiva F,” Ethridge said. “We did the best we could to support that wall, but we need to do better.”
During preservation, Kiva F likely will undergo some reconstruction, and it also may be a candidate to be filled.
Filling the structure with dirt up to a certain point will provide some support and allow visitors to see part of the kiva.
“We won’t likely fill it up all the way,” Ethridge said. “Plus, there are other, very well-preserved kivas here.”
Archaeologists are doing test excavations under the lower trail, so they can eventually put supports under the trail.
A crew of about 10 will repair cracks throughout the more than 800-year-old structures.
“Everything is settling and slowly moving and cracking inward,” Ethridge said.
The crew will use a mobile hoist to drop supplies over the alcove’s lip from the parking lot.
Crews also plan to do some preservation work at the very top of the alcove, where rooms seem to hang on a precarious ledge, which is actually an arch inside the alcove.
“Those rooms are remarkable,” Ethridge said. “They are all original construction.”
But preservationists need to work on some of them to ensure they stay on the ledge.
“We just want to do a bit of stabilization and need to keep people from walking under it,” Ethridge said.
This isn’t the first time archaeologists have battled to preserve Cliff Palace.
Building the parking lot above the site’s alcove caused unique problems with water drainage and affected the natural filtering of the sandstone, and it also caused water to run off and damage other areas where water historically didn’t run off.
To combat moisture problems, a tunnel was built in the 1960s to keep water out of the site, and in 2012 water runoff from the parking lot was piped out and away from the site, Ethridge said.
Archaeologists also plan to repair damage caused by a 1995 water-line break that flooded some of the site.
This spring and fall, tourists who come to see Cliff Palace will have to visit other sites in the park. Cliff Palace will still be visible from the overlook.
Preservation will halt on the Thursday before Memorial Day and the site will reopen to limited tours for the busy tourist season then close again for more preservation work after Labor Day.
