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The Ancestral Puebloans leave Mesa Verde

c. 1300

Cliff dwellings in Colorado are abandoned

Disputed Vanished people · Verified 2026-10-31 · WWV-HS-UM-002

By about 1300 the Ancestral Puebloans had left their cliff dwellings and farms across the Four Corners region. Drought, conflict and social change are all proposed, and they moved to places like the Rio Grande.

They did not vanish. Their descendants live in Pueblo communities today.

Sources

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