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<br />OG.H27 <br /> <br />APPENDIX: HEARING OFFICER'S REPORT <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />A public hearing on the proposal not to establish a wilderness unit <br />within Mesa Verde National Park was held in the Cortez City Hall, <br />Cortez, Colorado, on December 16, 1970. <br /> <br />The hearing was opened at 1 :00 p.m. by Hearing Officer John M. <br />Davis, 7272 East Camino Valle Verde, Tucson, Arizona 85715. <br />Present were 94 persons, and 22 oral statements were presented. <br />Reporter service for the hearing was provided by Theodore G, <br />Zarlengo, Denver, Colorado. <br /> <br />After all statements were presented, the hearing was closed at 2:45 <br />p.m., December 16, 1970. <br /> <br />THE PRELIMINARY WILDERNESS PROPOSAL <br /> <br />The Park and Environs <br />Mesa Verde National Park is located in Montezuma County in <br />extreme southwestern Colorado, 36 miles west of Durango and <br />southeast of Cortez. The park entrance is midway between the <br />towns of Mancos and Cortez, on the Navajo Trail, officially known <br />as U.S. Highway 160. <br /> <br />The park was established in 1906 to preserve thousands of cliff <br />dwellings, ruins, and artifacts - relics of the prehistoric Pueblo <br />I ndians who lived on the mesa tops and in caves of the steep-sided <br />canyons of the great Mesa Verde Plateau. Of the 52,074 acres <br />comprising the park, 51,526 are federally owned. <br /> <br />I n the act creating the park, Congress instructed the Secretary of <br />the Interior to: <br /> <br />. prescribe such rules and regulations and such service <br />as he may deem necessary for the care and management <br />of the same. Such regulations shall provide specifically <br />for the preservation from injury or spoilation of the <br />ruins and other relics of prehistoric or primitive man <br />within said park. . , ." <br /> <br />15 <br />