Ancient History
To a lot of people, Colorado means the Old West. But in the grand scheme of things, the Old West isn’t really that old at all. Archeologists speculate that hunters from Siberia crossed into Colorado 11,000 years ago – even before that dinosaurs roamed the state. In relatively recent history, the Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the southwest region of Colorado. Today, you can walk in dinosaur tracks in the Picketwire Canyon in Southeast Colorado or see the petrified remains in Dinosaur National Monument in Northwest Colorado. The rock art on canyon walls and cliff dwellings, such as Mesa Verde National Park is remaining pieces of the ancient people who called this state home.
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Discover Colorado through the museums, sites and programs of History Colorado. Take a ride on the historic Georgetown Loop Railroad®, walk the grounds of Fort Garland...
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Home to Mesa Verde National Park, two national monuments and a tribal park. Travel the Trail of the Ancients, the only National Scenic Byway dedicated to archeology....
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Travel back in time at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, a new 20,000-square-foot museum located in Woodland Park, Colorado, featuring fossils from North...
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The Denver Museum of Nature & Science inspires curiosity and excites minds of all ages through scientific discovery and presentation and preservation.
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Explore craggy hills, discover fragments of a long ago world where the largest land creatures of all time once roamed and died. Rock art, scenery, homesteads,...
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Chimney Rock is an archaeological area that was home to the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians 1,000 years ago. Guided and self-guided tours available daily.
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Visit the Anasazi Heritage Center for more information.
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Yucca House National Monument is a large, unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan site. Found in Southwest Colorado between Towaoc and Cortez. There are no facilities or fees.
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Hovenweep National Monument protects six prehistoric, Puebloan-era villages spread over a twenty-mile expanse of mesa tops and canyons along the Utah-Colorado border.
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Petrified redwood stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of detailed fossils of insects and plants reveal the story of a very different, prehistoric Colorado.
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