Although the small cliff dwellings of the Mancos Canyon were discovered in 1874, fourteen years passed before the largest of the cliff dwellings was found. Very little is known about that intervening period of fourteen years. There is considerable evidence that a number of prospectors and cattlemen were in the canyons of the Mesa Verde. Without doubt ruins were seen but the evidence is fragmentary and indefinite. We must move up to the year 1888, for the discovery of the greatest of the ruins.

At this point one name becomes especially prominent in this story of discovery, the name Wetherill. It is encountered in almost every tale of early exploration and it is found in a great many of the ruins, carved or written on cave walls. In 1881, Mr. B. K. Wetherill moved into the Mancos Valley and settled on a ranch a few miles north of the Mesa Verde. In the Wetherill family were five sons, Richard, John, Alfred, Clayton and Win. Addition of a brother-in-law, Charles Mason, rounds out the group of men who did the most work in discovering and exploring the ruins of the Mesa Verde.

The Wetherills were noted for their friendliness toward the Ute Indians who occupied the Mesa Verde and surrounding areas. In the early eighties the Utes began to allow them to winter their cattle in the Mancos Canyon, which bordered the Mesa Verde on the east and south. Immediately the men began to notice small cliff dwellings. They entered a number and even scratched about to see what was buried in the ruins. Rapidly their interest grew, especially when a Ute, named Acowitz, told them that in one of the canyons to the north was a cliff dwelling that was larger than all the others. His description of its size sounded unbelievable but from that time on the Wetherills had it in mind as they worked with their cattle. Once Al thought he saw it. Walking along a canyon bottom one evening he saw in the cliff, far above, the arching roof of a great cave. But darkness was coming and he did not climb up to it.

Actual details of the discovery of the greatest cliff dwelling are somewhat confusing for as the different men told the story in later years there was some variation in the minor details. On one point, however, there was no disagreement. Credit for being the first white men to enter Cliff Palace goes to Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law, Charles Mason. Many years later Mason, in an article in the Denver Post, told of this stirring event which took place on December 18, 1888.

“In December 1888, Richard and I started out to explore. We followed the Indian trail down Chapin Mesa, between Cliff and Navaho Canyons, and camped at the head of a small branch of the Cliff Palace fork of Cliff Canyon.... We rode out to the point of the mesa.... From the rim of the canyon we had our first view of Cliff Palace, just across the canyon from us. To me this is the grandest view of all among the ancient ruins of the Southwest.”