[Illustration: The flat mesa top is cut by a score of rugged canyons] The complete archeological wealth of the Mesa Verde will never be known. The great mesa, which rises high above the surrounding country, measures fifteen miles from north to south and twenty miles from east to west. Its flat top, sloping gently to the south, is cut by a score of rugged canyons and access to the remote areas is difficult. The ruins are often hard to find and many will never be discovered. In the days of discovery, as we shall see in the next chapter, the early explorers entered almost every cliff dwelling but they left few records. In recent times it is doubtful if one-third of the cliff dwellings have been entered and probably no living person has been in one hundred of them. The ruins on the mesa tops far outnumber the cliff dwellings but most of them are difficult to find. Earth and vegetation have covered them, often completely, and intensive search does not reveal all. This wealth of mesa-top ruins is indicated by a recent survey of a small portion of one mesa. Careful search of an area of only three square miles revealed over three hundred ruins. In 1906, one-half of the great mesa was set aside as Mesa Verde National Park in order that the ruins might be preserved for all time and made accessible to visitors. Cliff Palace and some of the other cliff dwellings have been excavated and out on the mesa tops ruins of earlier types have been excavated to complete the archeological story. In the nearby museum are to be seen the things which have been found in the ruins. Displayed in their chronological order they tell the story of the ancient inhabitants of the Mesa Verde. It is a fascinating story of a vanished people. For endless centuries they dominated the Mesa Verde, passing through higher and higher stages of culture. When an unendurable calamity forced them to leave they left behind abundant evidence of their skill and industry. With the care they now receive Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House, Sun Temple and the innumerable other ruins will stand forever as monuments to the skill of their ancient builders. Mesa Verde National Park was created to preserve the works of those prehistoric people. Slow, silent centuries have spread a cloak of mystery over it and visitors should come with open minds, prepared to hear an absorbing story of a strange people. Complete enjoyment and understanding come only to the visitor who is able to leave his modern self behind, momentarily, and live and think in terms of the past. 2 DISCOVERY After the cliff dwellings were deserted by the Pueblo Indians late in the thirteenth century they stood, unmolested by man, for many hundreds of years. The owls and pack rats took them over and enjoyed their security, but from all evidence it was many centuries before men again entered the caves.