In December 1888, ranch cowboys Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason stumbled upon Cliff Palace in Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park, revealing the largest cliff dwelling there. The ancestral Pueblo community had stood in sandstone alcoves for roughly 700 years, “visible yet protected” by steep canyon geography. Unlike organized archaeology, the discovery came through routine exploration. Cliff Palace’s scale—around 150 rooms and 23 kivas—made it a defining North American archaeology site.
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