Washington – First Lady Laura Bush will come to Colorado Tuesday to help Mesa Verde National Park celebrate its centennial.
The White House announced this morning that she will be delivering remarks at an event for the 100th anniversary of the park renowned for its ruins and cliff dwellings.
She is to make remarks at Long House, the park’s second-largest ruin.
The official anniversary will be June 29, when according to the official anniversary web site Mesa Verde “will celebrate 100 years as the first national park set aside to preserve the works of humankind.” The anniversary celebrations are going on throughout this year.
The park is located in the southwestern corner of Colorado. The park’s architecture dates to the 12th century. The cliff dwellings were built by a group of people whom archaeologists refer to as Ancestral Puebloans, who lived in
the area from about A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300.
The park’s modern history dates to 1888, when two men looking for lost cattle,
Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason, came upon the 150-room Cliff Palace.
Mesa Verde National Park was established in 1906. Its name is Spanish for “green
table.”
A four-day party, free to the public, with a birthday cake, music, Indian
dances, a traders’ festival, craft demonstrations and other events is scheduled for
June 29 – July 2.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
