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Photograph of Mesa Verde National Park
Photograph by Elaine from Sheffield, England, CC BY 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Mesa Verde National Park

Built in 1906. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“Mesa Verde National Park is a national park of the United States and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, and the only World Heritage Site in Colorado. The park protects some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan ancestral sites in the United States.”

Wikipedia article Mesa Verde National Park, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 21 National Register listings published here for Montezuma County · listed in 1966 · category: District · built in 1906.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. 10 mi. E of Cortez on U.S. 160, Cortez, 81330
  • When was it listed? October 1966
  • Category. district
  • Census division. Mancos
  • When was it built? 1906
  • National Register reference number. 66000251 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

348 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 348 fires within 5 miles of Mesa Verde National Park between 1992 and 2020, burning about 28,707 acres in total. 334 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Natural334
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Equipment and vehicle use2
Recreation and ceremony1
Fireworks1
Arson/incendiarism1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2015Naturalunder an acreTres Rios Field OfficeJUNIPER CREST
9 September 2005Naturalunder an acreMesa Verde National ParkCHICK
8 September 2005Naturalunder an acreMesa Verde National ParkREED
5 September 2009Naturalunder an acreTres Rios Field OfficeNORTH PARK
5 September 2009Naturalunder an acreTres Rios Field OfficeSTINKING SPRINGS
4 September 2009Naturalunder an acreMesa Verde National ParkRANGER
4 September 2006Naturalunder an acreTres Rios Field OfficeGRIZZLEY
4 September 2004Naturalunder an acreMesa Verde National ParkEAST

Every fire recorded in Montezuma County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Mesa Verde National Park: 1 occurrence, 1 prospect, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Mesa Verde QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionProspect
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrenceGravel

Every working recorded in Montezuma County

Storms near this property

59 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cortez, the town this property stands in, in 59 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 10 thunderstorm wind, 9 lightning, 9 wildfire, 8 heavy rain. The reports record 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2001LightningCortez3 hurtno account filed
August 2003HailCortez$1,000,000no account filed
August 2002WildfireCortez$300,000no account filed
July 1997LightningCortez$150,000no account filed
June 1996Heavy RainCortez$100,000no account filed
July 1997LightningCortez$60,000no account filed
July 2018Heavy RainCortez$50,000Thunderstorms moved over the area and produced 1.55 inches of rain within an hour and a half. Street flooding occurred as the storm drains were not able to handle the volume of rainfall. Water backed up into an area next to the flooded roads and flowed into the ground level floors of an apartment building. Water also pooled up to about a foot deep in a large vacant field.
June 2006Flash FloodCortez$30,000no account filed
July 2002WildfireCortez$30,000no account filed
October 2006Thunderstorm WindCortez$20,000Large trees were blown down in Cortez. One tree landed on a truck on Market Street. A 50 foot spruce tree about 2.5 feet in diameter was snapped off about 15 feet above the ground. Also, a 75 foot section of the roof on the Ace Hardware store on North Broadway was peeled back.|
September 2005LightningCortez$20,000no account filed
September 2003Flash FloodCortez$20,000no account filed
February 2003Thunderstorm WindCortez$20,000no account filed
August 2023FloodCortez$10,000The emergency manager reported that heavy rain from thunderstorms led to minor flooding across portions of Cortez, including some basements in homes along Highway 491 and Veterans Park.
May 2017LightningCortez$10,000Morning thunderstorms produced frequent lightning which ignited numerous tree fires and blasted a tree which fell across electrical lines. Lightning also sparked a structure fire on South Madison Street in Cortez.
August 2006Flash FloodCortez$10,000no account filed
September 2003Flash FloodCortez$10,000no account filed
June 1999Thunderstorm WindCortez$8,000no account filed
September 2002Thunderstorm WindCortez$7,000no account filed
July 2005LightningCortez$4,000no account filed
May 2004Dust DevilCortez$3,000no account filed
August 2013LightningCortez$2,000A power pole was struck by lightning and started on fire.
July 1998LightningCortez$2,000no account filed
October 1998LightningCortez$500no account filed
August 2022FloodCortez$100Localized flooding occurred at the intersection of 1st Street and South Maple Street as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms.
August 2023FloodCortez-The emergency manager reported several inches of rain running through the streets of Cortez as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms. The Cooperative Observer measured 0.55 inches of rain in 35 minutes.
August 2023FloodCortez-The emergency manager reported flooding at the intersection of 25 and L Roads northeast of downtown Cortez as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms.
July 2018FloodCortez-Thunderstorms moving over the area produced 1.55 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Minor street and building flooding occurred with the first floor of a low lying apartment receiving some water.
August 2016Heavy RainCortez-About 3 miles east of Cortez a storm total of 1.31 inches of rain was measured.
August 2016Heavy RainCortez-In Cortez 0.72 of an inch of rain was measured within a 4 hour period.
September 2013Flash FloodCortez-A car was washed 15 feet off Highway 160 into a ditch by flash flood waters. Mud and debris was also reported at mile marker 29 at the intersection with County Road 21.
July 2007Heavy RainCortez-Thunderstorms produced rainfall of 1.20 inches in Cortez between 1325 and 1410 MST. The heavy rain caused street flooding in Cortez. The water was up to three feet deep on 5th Street.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
June 2006HailCortez-no account filed
September 2006Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
August 2006HailCortez-no account filed
October 2006HailCortez-no account filed
September 2005Funnel CloudCortez-no account filed
August 2005Heavy RainCortez-no account filed
July 2004Heavy RainCortez-no account filed
July 2003WildfireCortez-no account filed
September 2003Flash FloodCortez-no account filed
June 2003Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
August 2003WildfireCortez-no account filed
August 2003HailCortez-no account filed
August 2003HailCortez-no account filed
November 2002FloodCortez-no account filed
September 2002FloodCortez-no account filed
July 2002WildfireCortez-no account filed
July 2000WildfireCortez-no account filed
July 2000WildfireCortez-no account filed
June 2000WildfireCortez-no account filed
August 2000FloodCortez-no account filed
September 1998Funnel CloudCortez-no account filed
July 1998WildfireCortez-no account filed
August 1998Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindCortez-no account filed
September 1997Heavy RainCortez-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Montezuma County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000251 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Montezuma CountyAll 21 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.