Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries

by Duane A. Smith

Originally published in 1988, Mesa Verde National Shadows of the Centuries is an engaging and artfully illustrated history of an enigmatic assemblage of canyons and mesas tucked into the southwestern corner of Colorado. Duane A. Smith recounts the dramatic 1888 "discovery" of the cliff dwellings and other Anasazi ruins and the ensuing twenty-year campaign to preserve them. Smith also details the resulting creation of a national park in 1906 and assesses the impact of more recent developments - railroads and highways, air pollution, and the growing significance of tourism - on the park's financial and ecological vitality. This revised and completely redesigned edition includes more than 50 illustrations and will be enjoyed by readers interested in environmental, Western, and Colorado history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native Americans

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Duane Smith received his academic degrees from the University of Colorado and completed his Ph.D. in 1964. That year he began to teach at Fort Lewis College where he is a Professor of Southwest Studies. His areas of research and writing include Colorado history, Civil War history, mining history, urban history and baseball history. He is an extremely popular professor at Fort Lewis, and he is the author of over thirty books on a variety of subjects including Rocky Mountain Mining Camps: The Urban Frontier; A Colorado History; Horace Tabor: His Life and the Legend; Silver Saga: The Story of Caribou Colorado; Colorado Mining: A Photographic History; Fortunes Are for the Few: Letters of a Forty-niner; Rocky Mountain Boom Town: A History of Durango; A Land Alone: Colorado’s Western Slope; Song of the Hammer and Drill: The Colorado San Juans, 1860-1914; Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980; Mesa Verde National Park: Shadows of the Centuries; The Birth of Colorado: A Civil War Perspective; and Sacred Trust: The Birth and Development of Fort Lewis College.

Reviews

[Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tidy recap of the history of Mesa Verde as a National Park. Confess I was disappointed because the motivation for reading was to gain pointers around exploring the park and insights into the ancient Pueblo culture --- neither gets a wit of attention, but I was intrigued nonetheless by the unanticipated biography of a US Natural Park!

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book describing the history of the creation and subsequent maintaenance of the Mesa Verde National Park. Very intersting describing the movements and politics that led to its creation in 1906. Then equally interesting as it describes the century since then. I read this in preparation for an upcoming visit. With luck, I can come back and update my review with hindsight.