The small stream beside which Escalante camped that night is still called the Mancos. Only a few miles below his camping place it cuts directly into the Mesa Verde. The former inhabitants of the cliff dwellings had known it well. It had failed them during the great drouth. And now, on August 10, 1776, exactly 500 years after the beginning of that drouth which had caused them to leave the Mesa Verde, Escalante, a man of a new race, camped beside the Mancos, only a few miles from the empty ruins of the cliff dwellings. Without doubt he saw the great mesa, the Mesa Verde, for it looms high above the Mancos Valley. But he turned away; he was seeking the sea to the west. During the following three-quarters of a century many other Spaniards must have seen the Mesa Verde for there was much exploration in the region. Sometime during this period the mesa was given a Spanish name—Mesa Verde—the “green table.” The Spaniard who named it is unknown. Possibly he named it after climbing to its summit for from the valley below it is not so evident that the top is flat and eternally green. Could it be that he even saw the cliff dwellings and we have failed to find the record in the musty archives of Mexico or Spain? No, probably not. We must consider that the cliff dwellings were still unseen by modern man. In 1848, the Mesa Verde, although still unknown, passed from Mexican to American ownership. Slowly the new owners drew nearer. The date of discovery of the now aged cliff dwellings was close at hand. The first known mention of the Mesa Verde was made in the year 1859. In that year an exploring expedition set out from Santa Fe, under the leadership of Captain J. N. Macomb, to explore certain territory in what is now the State of Utah. Serving as geologist for this expedition was Professor J. S. Newberry and in his geological report he wrote: “Between the Rio de la Plata and the Rio de los Mancos we skirted the base of the extreme southern point of the Sierra de la Plata. These mountains terminate southward in a long slope, which falls down to a level of about 7500 feet above the sea, forming a plateau which extends southward to the San Juan, the Mesa Verde, to which I shall soon have occasion again to refer.” Farther on in his report he adds: “To obtain a just conception of the enormous denudation which the Colorado Plateau has suffered, no better point of view could possibly be selected than that of the summit of the Mesa Verde. The geologist here has, it seems to me, satisfactory proof of the proposition I have before made....” From the manner in which he spoke of the Mesa Verde it is very evident Professor Newberry voiced a name that was in common usage. This was true also of all the rivers and mountains mentioned in his report. Their names indicate the Spaniards had done a very thorough job of christening the landmarks of the region.