Tuesday, January 30, 2007

4.5-ton slab falls from cliff, damages ancient dwelling at Mesa Verde National Park
Something looked different at the popular Square Tower House at Mesa Verde National Park when research archaeologist Julie Bell took visitors by the most photographed site at the park recently.

There was rubble where rubble should not be.

A 4.5-ton slab fell on the picturesque ruin sometime last month, smashing a storage room, rupturing the wall of a kiva and coming to rest inside a two-story room at the far end of the site.

"It pierced the kiva like a knife," Bell said. "Fortunately, it didn't get the tower."


A shame, but not unexpected. For some reason, I was under the impression that Threatening Rock at Pueblo Bonito had only recently fallen, but it appears to have followed up on its threat in 1941.