{"id":111462,"date":"2015-06-29T16:56:28","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T22:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-named-best-cultural-attraction-2\/"},"modified":"2015-06-29T16:56:28","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T22:56:28","slug":"mesa-verde-named-best-cultural-attraction-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-named-best-cultural-attraction-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesa Verde named Best Cultural Attraction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cliff
Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America, was built in Mesa Verde National Park from about 1190 to 1260, and abandoned about 1300.<\/span>STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sunset, a Western living and traveling magazine, has named Mesa Verde National Park as a Best Cultural Attraction.<\/p>\n

Mesa Verde National Park was selected from four nominees as Best Cultural Attraction. The competition included Portland\u2019s LanSu Chinese Gardens, Seattle\u2019s Museum of History and Industry and Durango\u2019s Music in the Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to be named the Best Cultural Attraction in the West by such a prestigious and highly regarded news source,\u201d said Cliff Spencer, superintendent of Mesa Verde National Park. \u201cIn conjunction with our partner, Aramark, we strive to provide unforgettable experiences to park visitors, offering an opportunity to explore the most notable and best preserved archaeological sites in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded by the Southern Pacific Railroad to promote travel in the West, Sunset magazine based its selection in part due to the park\u2019s concessioner, Aramark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted that Mesa Verde National Park has been honored as the best cultural attraction in the West,\u201d said Aramark spokesperson Bruce W. Fears. \u201cThe park offers a unique combination of rich history, natural beauty and outdoor adventure for visitors to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Services offered by Aramark include the 700 Years Tour, a chronological journey through the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans. The four-hour tour offers an ideal way to experience the award-winning cultural destination.<\/p>\n

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde National Park as the first national park created to \u201cpreserve the works of man.\u201d The park contains over 5,000 archaeological sites built by the Ancestral Pueblo people, who inhabited Mesa Verde from 550 to 1300.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

magazine gives it top honors over Seattle, Portland, Durango sites<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,74],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-theft"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111462"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}