Mesa Verde is another one of those none railroad venues I had in mind when the trip started. I was last here in 1964 and have since visited dozens of Mesoamerican sites in Mexico and Guatemala. I wanted see how Mesa Verde compared in the way the people lived and the way the government was preserving and presenting the cultures in each country. My impression was that the Mesa Verde culture was less advanced (no writing for instance) but the Mexican government was doing a better job of preserving and presenting the sites in their country. I was struck by the fact that at the site I visited, Spruce Tree House, they were doing what appeared to be basic archeological investigations, measuring the walls and floors and sketching them. I asked the Park Ranger why it had taken so long to get around to this and was told it was a lack of funds. Although they had received funds to do this work several years ago, they had two big fires in the park and spent all the money, I think he said three million dollars, fighting the fires. It was only recently that they had those funds replaced. In general, the facilities I saw were old and often in need of repair. They were improving the roads in the park so that was a good sign that some money was coming in. I hope the trend continues.
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