8-11 & 8-12

Final days in Colorado Springs

During our last couple of days in Colorado Springs we visited Old Colorado City and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.

Old Colorado City was once a town but is now a neighborhood within the city of Colorado Springs.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was founded during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859.  It was briefly the capitol of the Colorado Territory. 

Currently Old Colorado City has a shopping district featuring art galleries, boutiques, restaurants, and tourist shops.

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a group of relocated Anasazi ruins cliff dwellings and museums. 

The Anasazi lived and roamed the Four Corners area of the Southwestern United States from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300.   

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were built at their present location in the early 1900s, as a museum, preserve and tourist attraction. 

The 40 room site was originally located in McElmo Canyon near Mesa Verde. 

 The process of relocating these cliff dwellings began in 1904 and was completed in 1907. 

The ruins were collected, packaged and finally moved by oxen out of McElmo Canyon to Dolores, Colorado. 

 There, they were loaded and shipped by railroad to Colorado Springs and finally brought to Cliff Canyon by horse and wagon.

The dwellings were reassembled in dimension and appearance to those in the four corners region using a concrete mortar as opposed to the adobe mud/clay mortar the Anasazi used. 

 

 

 

 This allowed touring of the Dwellings.

The nearby museum is housed in a three story pueblo structure in the architectural style of the Taos Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.      

These Pueblo Indians are descendants of the Cliff Dwelling Indians belonging to the Anasazi cultural line. 

 

 

In addition to a souvenir shop, the museum contains artifacts.