This is a project that has been years in the making and will likely never reach its conclusion due to various reasons, the most significant being the ongoing personal discovery of Ancestral Puebloan sites and there are many perhaps hundreds if not thousands. Allow me to digress for a moment and provide some background on where this decades-long endeavor began.

During spring break from college after a week of cross country skiing and snowbound in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, my friends and I decided to take a brief side trip up to Mesa Verde National Park before heading back to Big Sky Country for our final semester of study at Montana State University. I had seen photographs of the famous ruins from the time I was a kid and always marveled at them. Yet the pictures begged more questions than they could ever possibly answer. This was my first real-life encounter, but clearly from the first instant of viewing certainly not to be my last, of Mesa Verde and what lies beyond. As the evening approached with a blustery March wind in our faces and a few feet of snow on the ground at elevations in excess of 8,000 feet, we peered over the cliff edges onto Cliff Palace, then Spruce Tree House, Square Tower and more. However I’m convinced the weather had little if anything to do with the cold chill running down the back of my neck as we gazed in awe and reverence at the incomparable sites so precariously perched on ledges below.

I was hooked.

Decades later I’m still returning year after year to investigate, explore and try to understand who these people were and what happened to them. Perhaps we will never realize the full extent of their story, but their rich legacy of artwork painted and chiseled onto the red rock and their amazing masonry and architecture scattered throughout the Four Corners area might be considered the largest and most puzzling museum in the world. The Anasazi or Ancestral Puebloans, often controversial in their history and origin yet enigmatic and mysterious inspire a rendering of similar intent. Hopefully you will find my images on this project I have been exploring worthy of their storied past. As a final tribute I would be lying if I didn’t say the infamous Edward Curtis did not have a bit of influence on how I have approached this meaningful project.

Thanks for investigating and hope you enjoy the photographs of this amazing area and cultural treasure. New images will be added to my website over time so stay tuned and stay in touch. Email if you have any questions or need more info.

Rob Outlaw