"This guide is intended to serve as a layman's aid in identifying the remnants of ancient pottery which still litter the surface of the canyons, mesas, and flats of the Northern San Juan/Mesa Verde region, and as a brief primer on the subject of prehistoric pottery classification.  Identifying a pottery sherd, and therefore its age, leads to recognition of the cultural phase of the remarkable Ancestral Puebloans who fired it...producing ceramic art through time while prevailing in wilderness...long centuries before Columbus set sail on his voyage to discovery". —Preface

"Although this guide was compiled, written, and designed as a packable field guide to help laymen identify sherds of prehistoric pottery which are scattered across public lands, it is emphatically not the author's intention to promote or condone the collection or removal of pottery sherds from public land". —Louis A. Crane, Author