This vast settlement of the ancestors of the Pueblo was not at all lost; it stood out there, visible, but protected by the sandstone cliffs and natural geography around it for ages. Nevertheless, this settlement only became a part of history when it was discovered by two cowboys in December 1888.
Nowadays, Cliff Palace of the Mesa Verde National Park is known as the largest and most famous dwelling. According to the National Park Service, this discovery was made possible by Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason, who were employed as cowboys in ranching back then, discovering an enormous ancestral Pueblo community that was hidden in a sandstone alcove. The thing is, this community had been standing there for about seven hundred years at the moment of discovery.
