Manitou Cliff Dwellings

Outside view

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a fake historical site located just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado on US Highway 24 in Manitou Springs.

Anasazi Museum

The Cliff Dwellings' museum is located within the facility and exhibits reproduced Anasazi-style Indian cliff dwellings. The Anasazi lived and roamed the Four Corners area of the United States Southwest from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300. The museum was established in 1904 and opened to the public in 1906.^[1]

History

The Anasazi peoples did not live in the Manitou Springs area, but lived and built their cliff dwellings in the Four Corners area, several hundred miles southwest of Manitou Springs. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were built in their present location in the early 1900s, as a tourist attraction. The building stones were taken from a collapsed Anasazi site in southwest Colorado, shipped to Manitou Springs, and assembled in their present form as Anasazi-style buildings, some of which are replicas of well-known buildings in Mesa Verde National Park. The project was done with the participation of well-known anthropologist Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett, but without the permission of any Federal or State agencies, and claims in testimony by descendants of the original entrepreneurs that the dwelling was found 35 miles from Manitou Springs are complete fabrication. ^{[2] [3]}

References

• Paul Weideman, "Like a magnet on Stonefridge," Santa Fe New Mexican, 8 Feb. 2008

1. ^ Anasazi Museum
2. ^ Troy Lovata, Inauthentic Archaeologies, (Walnut Creek, Calif: 2007, Left Coast Press) ISBN 978-1-59874-011-0, p.49-75.
3. ^ Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies: The Life & Good Times of Colorado Springs , (various editions, including Swallow Press, 1988) ISBN 978-0804008990

External links

• Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum
• Tourist Information
• Multi-Monitor Panoramic Images of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings
• Map to Manitou Cliff Dwellings

See also

• Cave of the Winds (Colorado)
• Garden of the Gods
• Seven Falls

Coordinates: 38°51′48″N 104°54′45″W / 38.863403°N 104.912449°W / 38.863403; -104.912449