Although the small cliff dwellings of the Mancos Canyon were discovered
in 1874, fourteen years passed before the largest of the cliff dwellings
was found. Very little is known about that intervening period of
fourteen years. There is considerable evidence that a number of
prospectors and cattlemen were in the canyons of the Mesa Verde. Without
doubt ruins were seen but the evidence is fragmentary and indefinite. We
must move up to the year 1888, for the discovery of the greatest of the
ruins.
At this point one name becomes especially prominent in this story of
discovery, the name Wetherill. It is encountered in almost every tale of
early exploration and it is found in a great many of the ruins, carved
or written on cave walls. In 1881, Mr. B. K. Wetherill moved into the
Mancos Valley and settled on a ranch a few miles north of the Mesa
Verde. In the Wetherill family were five sons, Richard, John, Alfred,
Clayton and Win. Addition of a brother-in-law, Charles Mason, rounds out
the group of men who did the most work in discovering and exploring the
ruins of the Mesa Verde.
The Wetherills were noted for their friendliness toward the Ute Indians
who occupied the Mesa Verde and surrounding areas. In the early eighties
the Utes began to allow them to winter their cattle in the Mancos
Canyon, which bordered the Mesa Verde on the east and south. Immediately
the men began to notice small cliff dwellings. They entered a number and
even scratched about to see what was buried in the ruins. Rapidly their
interest grew, especially when a Ute, named Acowitz, told them that in
one of the canyons to the north was a cliff dwelling that was larger
than all the others. His description of its size sounded unbelievable
but from that time on the Wetherills had it in mind as they worked with
their cattle. Once Al thought he saw it. Walking along a canyon bottom
one evening he saw in the cliff, far above, the arching roof of a great
cave. But darkness was coming and he did not climb up to it.
Actual details of the discovery of the greatest cliff dwelling are
somewhat confusing for as the different men told the story in later
years there was some variation in the minor details. On one point,
however, there was no disagreement. Credit for being the first white men
to enter Cliff Palace goes to Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law,
Charles Mason. Many years later Mason, in an article in the Denver Post,
told of this stirring event which took place on December 18, 1888.
“In December 1888, Richard and I started out to explore. We followed the
Indian trail down Chapin Mesa, between Cliff and Navaho Canyons, and
camped at the head of a small branch of the Cliff Palace fork of Cliff
Canyon.... We rode out to the point of the mesa.... From the rim of the
canyon we had our first view of Cliff Palace, just across the canyon
from us. To me this is the grandest view of all among the ancient ruins
of the Southwest.”
[Illustration: Cliff Palace
On December 18, 1888, two cowboys discovered Cliff Palace, the largest
of the cliff dwellings. The picture duplicates the view they had from
the opposite canyon rim.]