The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a fake historical site located just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

 on US Highway 24 in Manitou Springs

Manitou Springs, Colorado

The city of Manitou Springs is a Home Rule Municipality located in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,980 at the 2000 census.Students are served by Manitou Springs School District 14 and Manitou Springs High School....

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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.

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

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. It was created in 1906 to protect some of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in the world...

. The project was done with the participation of well-known anthropologist Dr. Edgar Lee Hewett

Edgar Lee Hewett

Edgar Lee Hewett, D.Sc., was an archaeologist/anthropologist active in work on the Native American communities of New Mexico and the southwestern United States, and most famous for his role in bringing about the Antiquities Act, a pioneering piece of legislation for the conservation movement...

, 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.

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)
  Cave of the Winds (Colorado)
  Cave of the Winds is a cave in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. It is located just west of Colorado Springs on US Highway 24, near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Tours of the complex of caves are given daily.-Silent Splendor:...
  
  
• Garden of the Gods
  Garden of the Gods
  Garden of the Gods is a public park located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.-Genesis of the park:Entrance to the park is free according to the wish of Charles Elliott Perkins, whose children donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909....
  
  
• Seven Falls
  Seven Falls
  Seven Falls is a series of seven cascading waterfalls in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The sum of the height of the seven falls is 181 feet and there are a total of 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak. In the late 19th century, some of the associated property was...