The flat tabl rises some 2000ft above the floor of the valley.

The Spanish named it well.

Mesa verde.

The green table.

Here in the walls of the mesa are hundreds of abandoned cliff dwellings, well preserved evidence of a very old Indian culture.

The Anasazi, meaning ancient ones, occupied this southwestern part of Colorado for almost 1300 years.

These were the descendants of even earlier tribes that, over centuries of time, had slowly migrated from Asia into North and South America.

These first inhabitants of our Centennial State became farmers, planting corn, beans, and squash up on top of the mesa while living in well-protected cliff dwellings under the large overhanging rocks.

By the end of the 13th century, they had vanished from the region, following trails that took them south into the Rio Grande Valley.

Here they built and lived in Adobe villages, for these were the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians of the southwest.

Why did the Indians leave here?

Well, we're not really sure why the Anasazi left here.

We do know there was a long drought towards the end of the 1200s, which probably brought on starvation here and maybe forced the people out.

And they probably moved further south into areas that were more productive.

Whatever the reasons for leaving these settlements, the cliff dwellings would never be used again.

In fact, they would never be rediscovered for almost 500 years.

At the very time that our Declaration of Independence was being made known to the world, two Spanish priests and their party of eight men were camped here in the very shadow of Mesa Verde.

It seems incredible that in our country's history, when English colonists along the Atlantic seaboard knew nothing about the vast wilderness out west.

Men from Spain were here exploring the southwestern part of what was to become the Centennial State.

In 1776.

Father Escalante and Father Dominguez were searching through much of western Colorado and eastern Utah for a new and better route to the Spanish missions in California from their northern outpost of Santa Fe.

These early trails of discovery had come not from the east, but rather north from Spain's great empire in Central America and Mexico.

Starting in 1539.

No longer is it enough for me to ride behind the leader, or to send someone else in my place.

I want my own command.

And you shall have it, Coronado.

Sooner than you expect.

At long last, I have news from Spain.

King Charles has long wished to know the truth of Cabeza de Vacas allegations as to what he saw during those six years of trying to make his way back here to the capital from the north.

You refer, of course, to the legend of Cibola.

Yes, those golden cities of Cibola that no one has been able to find.

But what of your expedition north only last year, headed by the Franciscan monk Marcos de Niza?

You know as well as I that what de Niza brought back were more allegations mere sightings with no evidence.

Due largely to the death of de Nizas friend Esteban.

Oh, yes.

The death of the black man at the hands of the Indians was most unfortunate.

Tragedy.

When you think how near de Niza must have been.

Yet not daring to venture further for fear of a fate similar to that of Esteban.

And now you want confirmation, the knowledge that such a place exists?

That will be part of your task.

Me, Capitan general, you will lead this largest of all expeditions northward, with the authority and soldiers necessary to penetrate farther than we have ever probed.

You will claim for the Spanish crown not only the land, but the wealth that is sure to be found.

It is a great opportunity, Coronado.

In the spring of 1540, Coronado and his expedition started north from Compostela.

For two long years he searched for the legendary Cibola, traveling through much of our southwest, passing within a few miles of Colorado.

Instead of gold, he found a dry, desert like environment populated only with terraced Indian villages that he and his men called pueblos.

What Coronado & succeeding expeditions, never realized was that they gave to this region far more than they ever took away from the land.

Hispanic culture introduced the Indians to Christianity.

Missions were built as well as new towns with a new architecture.

Spanish names like Sangre de Cristo, Rio Grande, Santa Fe were given to mountains and rivers and cities.

The explorers brought the first cattle and sheep into this region, and rode on the backs of these four legged creatures, never before seen by Native Americans.

The horse would change the Indian s way of life.

By 1800, Native Americans on the great Central Plains of North America had adopted the use of the horse in a nomadic style of living that was much different from what they had been used to before.

These Indian groups, who had earlier farmed on the eastern fringes of the plains, now spent more and more time on horseback following herds of wild game, Tribes with names like the Crow, the Dakota, the Sioux.

The Cheyenne moved out of the woodland area around the Great Lakes, giving up their former pottery making & the raising of corn to live and hunt on the Central Plains.

By 1800, the Ute tribe occupied much of western Colorado.

The Cheyenne and Arapaho, its eastern plains.

The acquired skill of riding horseback, The Indian son learned as well the need for following the trail of these shaggy beasts, of how best to divide the herd, to single out the cows or bulls to be killed.

At one time on the Great Plains of America, it is estimated that there were millions of these animals roaming in great herds across the prairies.

Small bands of perhaps 100 to 300 Indians, that made up each tribe came to depend almost entirely upon these beasts for providing the necessities of life.

The buffalo, which is more accurately called a bison, not only provided shelter for the Indians new home, the teepee, but provided as well much of their food, their bedding, and, of course, warm robes.

The bones of the bison were were even used to scrape clean the flesh from the hides.

The tendons were stripped into thread to sew together the skins to make their garments even dried buffalo manure that today we call buffalo chips was put to use as a fuel.

Hunting became the central task of the Indian men.

For women, it was cleaning and curing the hides and cooking the meat.

As the bison moved to new grazing lands, so moved the Indians and their villages quickly and efficiently.

Horses and hunting grounds became valuable.

It is little wonder that the many tribes on the plains became warlike to acquire or protect what they considered to be their land and property.

War between tribes in fact, became an accepted part of Indian life on the plains.

Tolerated as well were the small numbers of white men who moved across the Indians sacred hunting grounds toward the mountainous land beyond.

Some searching for the yellow metal, while others laid strange looking pieces of iron in streams to catch and kill the beaver.

The year 1832, the completion of Fort William, better known as Bent's Fort, named after the well-known trader and merchant William Bent Here in southeastern Colorado, stands a replica of that famous early fort in Western history, now designated as a National Historic Site, Bent's Fort was the first semi-permanent American settlement in Colorado.

It was in continuous use from 1833 to 1849.

More importantly, it was located on the northern or mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail, connecting Saint Louis with the growing trade center of the New Mexico Territory.

Here, William Bent and his partners brother, Charles Bent & Ceran Saint Vrain established a trading post for merchants and trappers.

It also became a supply station for soldiers of the United States Army, patrolling along the border between US and Mexican territory.

The Arkansas River over there was in fact the border at this point.

The fort served mountain men as well, supplying them with needed food and provisions as they trapped the streams and rivers of the southern Rockies.

For many years they had traded this kind of pelt, beaver.

But by the middle 1830s, the demand for such pelts was becoming less and less.

The reason?

Well, back in eastern cities, hats made with beaver fur were gradually being replaced by the much newer and fancier silk hats.

At the same time, however, there was a growing market in Saint Louis for this kind of hide, buffalo.

In fact, a buffalo hide out here in the West could be traded from the Indians for about $0.25 worth of knives, beads and trinkets, and then transported back east and sold on eastern markets for as much as $6.

It was a very profitable transaction for the trader.

It's little wonder that families passing through here on their way to Santa Fe were impressed by such trading.

Even young people 13 years of age wrote back home about what they had experienced.

Dear Laura, it has been 46 days since we left Missouri on our way to Santa Fe.

The trail is long and worrysome.

Last week the weather was very hot and dry.

Thank goodness for my bonnet.

It does help to keep the sun off my face.

The only relief is when we cross rivers, but even then, it is often necessary for the men to help push the wagons through the muddy waters.

A week ago we were stopped by a small band of Indians.

Lucky for us, they wanted only a few items and trade and then left us alone.

Today we are resting in a trading post called Bent's Fort.

We are getting ourselves cleaned up while the men are repairing damage to our wagons.

There is much trading going on between the Indians and the owners of the fort.

This morning, General Kearny and his troops arrived.

What a sight!

I understand from father that they are on their way to Santa Fe to protect our country's interest in this part of the West.

There is even talk of war with Mexico.

Following General Kearney's march into Santa Fe.

War with Mexico had indeed become a reality.

Within two years American troops forced a settlement.

What is now called our southwest became United States Territory in 1848.

Later to be divided up into states by Congress, when enough people would settle the land for what was to become Colorado, Settlers began arriving in the early 1850s.

At first, they were largely Mexican farmers, pushing northward from Taos and Santa Fe to the San Luis Valley.

Here they settled and began to build towns with names like Garcia, San Luis, Conejos And while villages became towns, the land started to bloom with crops planted after the introduction of irrigation systems.

It was land that had seen the coming, and the going of the Anasazi felt the influence of the Spaniard and the Mexican.

For years its mountains and plains had been occupied by nomadic Indians.

Depending upon the horse and the bison.

Up its river valleys came the trappers and American traders from the east.

These early trails were fast becoming dirt roads for settlement.