Troweling Through Time: The First Century of Mesa Verdean ArchaeologyThere is scarcely a tract on the Colorado Plateau that does not have evidence of human occupation. Many of the richest remains have been found in the Mesa Verde Province, which covers southwestern Colorado and adjacent parts of New Mexico and Utah. The archaeology of the north edge of the Southwest began in 1849 with the discovery of Chaco Canyon by the U. S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. By the end of the nineteenth century the form of