Mesa Verde National Park/Hdqrs

The ruins at Mesa Verde were discovered by a rancher in 1889 who was searching for stray cattle. The ruins were in fact the largest concentration of cliff dwellings ever found, built by ancestors of Pueblo Indians, the Anzasi, 1,000 years earlier. It is located near the Four Corners where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah meet. Initial requests to have the ruins turned into a national park were denied, and the unprotected antiquities were shipped to Europe by a Scandinavian archaeologist. It was finally named a national park in 1906.