Canyons of the Ancients National Monument (the Monument)
encompasses 171,000 acres of federal land administered by the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Monument is located in the
Four Corners region of southwestern Colorado, about 50 miles
west of Durango, 10 miles west of Cortez and 12 miles west of
Mesa Verde National Park. The Monument was designated on June 9,
2000 by Presidential Proclamation to protect cultural and
natural resources on a landscape scale. The Monument contains
the highest known archaeological site density in the United
States, with rich, well-preserved evidence of native cultures.
The archeological record etched into this landscape is much more
than isolated islands of architecture. The more than 6,355
recorded sites reflect all the physical components of past human
life: villages, field houses, check dams, reservoirs, great
kivas, cliff dwellings, shrines, sacred springs, agricultural
fields, petroglyphs, and sweat lodges. Some areas have more than
100 sites per square mile. The num