The attraction was built using stonework taken from a prehistoric Pueblo site[2] in 1904 and was opened to the public in 1907.[5] An associated private museum features commercially developed displays about Ancestral Puebloan peoples[6] including exhibits of archaeological artifacts, tools, pottery, and weapons from Indigenous sites and/or replicated by the company that operates the site.[2] Included in the museum is an interactive hands-on demonstration of a traditional horno-style oven where the Anasazi's would cook.[2] The buildings were created as part of a commercial venture to divert tourists from Southwest archaeological sites by creating a version of a Pueblo dwelling place that was more easily accessible to early 20th century American visitors.[2] Visitors can walk through the dwellings, and various displays and interpretive material attempt to imbue the entire attraction with a sense of authenticity, though the Manitou Cliff Dwellings are not themselves authentic.[2]
Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum Sign
History
The Ancestral Puebloans lived and travelled the Four Corners area of the Southwestern United States from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300. Ancestral Puebloan peoples did not permanently live in the Manitou Springs area, but lived and built their cliff dwellings in the Four Corners area and across the Northern Rio Grande, several hundred miles southwest of Manitou Springs. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were built at their present location in the early 1900s, as a museum and tourist attraction. Some of the building materials were looted and stolen from a collapsed Ancestral Puebloan site near Cortez in southwest Colorado, shipped by railroad to Manitou Springs, and assembled in their present form as Ancestral Puebloan-style buildings resembling those found in the Four Corners.[7]
The project was directed primarily by Harold Ashenhurst and Virginia McClurg, founder of the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association.[8][9] Virginia McClurg focused her life on advocacy for women and fighting for human welfare and stability, especially within Indigenous cultures. This is why she was inspired to take on this project of preserving historical Indigenous historical art. After failed labors of trying to come up with an agreement for the future of Mesa Verde Park and how it would have been organized as well as trying to get Congress to pass the Antiquities Act, McClurg established the Colorado Cliff Dwellings Association, which led to the beginning of the dwellings endeavor.[1]
The ownership of the Cliff Dwellings has stayed within the family of Peyton Priddy for generations, according to General Manager Michele Hefner. Priddy was so enamored by the Dwellings as a child that years later, he brought it upon himself, alongside his wife, to purchase this attraction after its closure due to World War ll, which he was able to do after selling his family movie theater business.
The United States has tourist attractions called archictetural collections or reconstructed villages, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a example of these. Reconstructed villages promote history and are constructed for people to exeperience the history and heritige for themselves, while also promoting tourism and entertianment.[10]
Controversy
McClurg's creation of Manitou was highly controversial even at the time of its opening,[11] in part because it was being promoted as authentic, and since they were built as a form of entertainment to promote tourism. [2] Additionally it could be seen as contriversal since it eventually caused the demise of the Colorado Cliff Dwelling Association and created rifts amongst Southwest archaeologists and enthusiasts.[2][12] Edgar Lee Hewett, a famous early Southwest anthropologist, is widely cited at Manitou and in the attraction's materials as having approved of its construction, but in reality, Hewett was reluctant to legitimize the site and had little regard for the reconstructions.[11] The McClurg family continues to operate the attraction to this day. Although this site and museum give tourists a feel for what the cliff dwellings were like, it is not an authentic representation of the dwelling as Manitou Springs is far outside the boundaries of the Anasazi settlement.[2]
The authenticity of this site had been debated by archeologist Richard Wilshusen addressing that since the site was created with supplies not accessible to Ancestral Puebloans the creators cannot claim this to be an accurate representation.[13]
Kanien'kehá:ka and Monica Snowbird, visitors of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum who are apart of the Pikes Peak Indigenous Women's Alliance were left with many negative emotions after visiting the site because they believed it did nothing but add towards the already negative common stereotypes of Indigenous people, calling out defensive terms used within the museum tour in a tweet.[14]
↑ Fowler, Don D. (1999). Harvard vs. Hewett: The contest for control of Southwestern archaeology, 1904-1930. in Assembling the Past: Studies in the Professionalization of Archaeology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp.165–212.
↑ Troy Lovata, Inauthentic Archaeologies, (Walnut Creek, Calif: 2007, Left Coast Press) ISBN978-1-59874-011-0, p.49-75.
↑ Marshall Sprague, Newport in the Rockies: The Life & Good Times of Colorado Springs , (various editions, including Swallow Press, 1988) ISBN978-0-8040-0899-0
1 2 Weixelman, J.O. (2004). Hidden Heritage: Pueblo Indians, National Parks, and the Myth of the 'Vanishing Anasazi. Albuquerque: Doctoral Dissertation, University of New Mexico. p.392.
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