Mesa Verde National Park turns 120 years on Monday.
On that day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act of Congress establishing the national park to preserve cultural heritage in the Four Corners – a first-of-its-kind dedication.
For hundreds of years, Mesa Verde was home to the ancestral Puebloans – a place for farming, hunting and ceremony.
Coinciding with a litany of summer activities celebrating the milestone anniversary, the park’s leadership reported an increase in May visitation numbers.
“Things are busy and doing well at Mesa Verde National Park,” said park Superintendent Kayci Cook Collins. “We got our May visitation in recently, and it was up about 4.7% over last May, and it is up about 2% year-to-date.”
Earlier this year, park officials reported a decline in 2025 visitation numbers, with about 475,000 yearly attendees – or a 3.4% decline from the previous year. The update came as Cook Collins explained the park was gearing up and hopeful for the high-traffic months to come – its seasonal hiring nearly complete and a few long-term infrastructure projects slated for summer.
Cook Collins, along with officials from the Bureau of Land Management and Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, provided updates to Montezuma County commissioners during its Monday workshop.
“We weren’t sure what was going to happen with gas prices and international travel, so we are hoping we are on a trajectory to have a good and busy summer,” Cook Collins said.
Cook Collins, who has been at the helm since 2021, also announced she will be leaving the superintendent role at the end of August to retire after 43 years with the National Park Service.
Upcoming events coincide with Mesa Verde’s 120 years celebration and offer attendees opportunities to learn about its history and connect with cultures of the Native people who used to occupy the lands.
Mesa Verde includes 30 miles of trails across about 52,000 acres and contains more than 4,700 archaeological sites from the ancestral Puebloans, including 12th and 13th century cliff dwellings.
A Friday evening program will delve into the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps and Morefield Campground. Established during the Great Depression under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the camp provided jobs for unemployed youths during hard times. The CCC camp, specially, provided labor to the route Knife Edge Road and completed other preservation work. The program, hosted by the Montezuma Heritage Museum, is led by interpretive ranger Eric Sainio beginning at 8 p.m. at the Morefield Campground Amphitheater and is free.
“That’s near and dear to my heart because that’s how my grandfather got his start in the National Park Service, working up at the CCC camp,” Cook Collins said. “He fell in love with grandma. I could go on and on.”
Another evening program at Morefield Campground is scheduled on the park’s anniversary, focusing on its history.
The park is also giving three free entry days from July 3 to July 5. Normally, the Fourth of July is a free-entry day but officials have expanded it to cover the entire Fourth of July weekend.
“If you have out-of-town guests or you just haven’t been to Mesa Verde in awhile, it’s a great time to come because you don’t have to pay the entrance fee,” Cook Collins said.
Occurring throughout the same Fourth of July weekend is the park’s Annual Indigenous Art and Culture Festival, a celebration of Mesa Verde’s ancestral groups. Located at the Visitor and Research Center on July 4, the festival is providing an art market and traditional Hopi dances with the Lomayestewa family. Cultural demonstrations will be provided at the Mesa Verde Museum the following day, as well as Hopi dances at the Chapin Mesa Amphitheater.
On July 10-12, the Oak Canyon Dancers from the Pueblo of Jemez be at the park and providing cultural heritage performances through song and dance.
On July 21, Mesa Verde’s interns will provide a paneled discussion at the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez for a third year.
“We have had them present on their experiences and now we are broadening the scope,” Cook Collins said. “So that will be a wonderful opportunity to hear more about how people get connected with skills-building opportunities.”
awatson@the-journal.com
