The Centennial Book Series Boxed Set - Signed by Authors

Price: $125.00
Publisher: Durango Small Press ()

Specially Priced at $125.00 We are pleased to offer limited edition, signed, boxed sets. Each of the seven books is signed by the author(s) and is contained in a handsome, sturdy slip case. These sets are numbered and will only be available while supply lasts.

In observance of the 100-year anniversary of the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park, the Durango Herald Small Press published an award-winning series of books about the people and events that have shaped the park. The Mesa Verde Centennial Book Series, was published in cooperation with Mesa Verde National Park, Mesa Verde Museum Association and The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado. Taken individually, each book examines an important historical element of the development of the park - as a set, these seven works present the reader with a rich mosaic that is the history of Mesa Verde National Park. Individual books can be purchased separately below.

Mesa Verde National Park: The First 100 Years (Rose Houk, Faith Marcovecchio, Duane A. Smith)

Price: $12.99
Publisher: MVMA/Fulcrum ()
Number of Pages: 130

On Sale In 2006 Mesa Verde celebrates its first century as a national park. Here, in one of the crown jewels of the national park system, Colorado played a large role in the birth of modern archaeology. But Mesa Verde is not just about archeology and ancient Native American lifeways. This book celebrates the park as a whole: from its surprising eighteenth-century discovery to the establishment of the park thanks to a group of nineteenth-century women to the inspiration it has sparked in the likes of Willa Cather and Ann Zwinger. Beautifully illustrated with historic and full-color photos and filled with modern essays and fascinating historic extracts, Mesa Verde National Park is both a keepsake and a wealth of information on a beloved National Park and World Heritage Site. Paper Bound.

Dirt, Water, Stone

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2006)
Number of Pages: 210

A Century of Preserving Mesa Verde They stood empty for centuries, simple dwellings, small villages, and large complexes in the mesa and canyon country of what is now Southwest Colorado. The forces of weather and geology had taken their toll, but many remained remarkably intact. In the late 19th century they were explored, excavated, and plundered for the pottery, baskets, tools, and even human remains they contained. Establishment of Mesa Verde National Park was their only hope for long-term preservation, but it would be a never-ending challenge. Dirt, Water, Stone is the story of that challenge, from the earliest preservation projects to the lessons still being revealed by the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde today.

Fire on the Mesa (Tracey Chavis)

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2006)
Number of Pages: 123

Today's visitors to Mesa Verde National Park see a vastly different landscape than their counterparts did a decade ago. In the past ten years, fire has swept over more than half the acreage contained within the park's boundaries. In 2000 alone, two fires encompassed more than 21,000 acres before they were contained. Fire on the Mesa examines the unique environment of Mesa Verde and the changing views of how to best protect it, taking readers inside the day-to-day struggle to combat fire while protecting priceless cultural resources.

New Deal Days

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2006)
Number of Pages: 134

The CCC at Mesa Verde They fought fires, built roads, constructed dioramas, and put Dolores's jail in the river. They were Mesa Verde's CCC Boys. As it did on public lands throughout the United States, from 1933 until the program was dissolved in 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps worked in Mesa Verde National Park. In that decade, the young men of the CCC fought a major forest fire, renovated park accommadations for visitors and staff, created a small, visually exciting museum, improved year-round access to the park, removed insect-ravaged deadwood, and landscaped the park headquarters area.

Photographing Mesa Verde

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durnago Small Press (2006)
Number of Pages: 124

Nordenskiöld and Now Fifteen years before Mesa Verde became a national park, a young Swedish scientist explored and photographed its landscape and cultural sites. Clambering up and down sheer cliffs while hauling heavy, cumbersome equipment, Gustaf Nordenskiöd produced vivid images of cliff dwellings and mesa tops sites. Publication of his comprehensive study of the ancient ruins the following year brought worldwide attention to the area. For the centennial year of Nordenskiöld's work at Mesa Verde, two couples spent years carefully recreating his photographic views. The resultant images became a highly popular exhibit in the Spruce Tree House museum, contrasting the natural and human-inflicted damages of centuries with the stabilized structures visible today. Now, for the first time, Photographing Mesa Verde: Nordenskiöld and Now presents those images in book form, along with a fascinating narrative about Nordenskiöld's work at Mesa Verde.

Travels and Travails

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2005)
Number of Pages: 196

Tourism at Mesa Verde Mesa Verde National Park was established on June 29, 1906, by Congress. The beginning of tourism in Mesa Verde is difficult to identify. We know the Ancestral Puebloans had trade connections with neighboring people. Scarlet macaw feathers, sea shells, turquoise and pottery all testify to this. The "moccasin telegraph" existed and so did the need to accommodate the travelers. Later, Dominguez and Escalante passed nearby in August of 1776. They too were "tourists" of sorts.

The Wetherills

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2006)
Number of Pages: 209

Friends of Mesa Verde Following in the wake of what one noted scientist called "transients who neither revered nor cared for the ruins as symbols of the past," the Wetherill family became the earliest students of Mesa Verde. Their careful excavations and record-keeping helped preserve key information, leading to a deeper understanding of the people who built and occupied the cliff dwellings. Based on decades of meticulous research, author Fred Blackburn sets the record straight on these early protectors of Mesa Verde.

Women to the Rescue

Price: $15.95
Publisher: Durango Small Press (2005)

Creating Mesa Verde National Park Who saved Mesa Verde? Women did. Who created the national park? Women did. Women to the Rescue is their story. From the 1890's into 1906, a group of determined, dedicated women did all in their power to preserve the ruins, make the public aware, and arouse Congress to action to establish a park. Then, at the moment of victory, they split into two factions and that is the rest of the story.