[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 73 (Thursday, June 6, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S5208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CAMPBELL:
  S. 2595. A bill to authorize the expenditure of funds on private 
lands and facilities at Mesa Verde National Park, in the State of 
Colorado, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, today, I am introducing a very simple 
and important bill that will aid in our Nation's understanding of an 
ancient time.
  The 52,000 acre Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado 
holds one of the most unique archaeological sites in the world. The 
culture represented at Mesa Verde reflects more than 700 years of 
history. People lived and flourished in communities in the area from 
around 400 A.D. through 1300 A.D.
  Eventually, the people there built elaborate stone villages in the 
sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls that are today regarded as 
``cliff dwellings.'' The villagers lived in the cliff dwellings during 
the last 100 to 125 years of occupation at Mesa Verde. Within the span 
of two generations, in the late 1200s, the people left their homes and 
moved away. However, they left behind a literal treasure trove of 
artifacts in the ruins, artifacts that are still being collected and 
studied to this day.
  Our Nation's first conservationist and fellow Republican, President 
Theodore Roosevelt established the Mesa Verde National Park in 1906. 
Since that time, countless artifacts have been carefully excavated and 
catalogued.
  Unfortunately, those priceless treasures have not had a suitable 
home, and instead have been housed in what effectively is a tin shed 
built in the 1950s, which has since become infested with mice. The tin 
shed lacks proper temperature and humidity controls in an area where 
the humidity can swing from seventeen to eighty percent in a short 
time. A tin shed is no place to store 800 year old corn and yucca 
leaves or clay pot artifacts, especially considering such drastic and 
damaging climate changes.
  My bill provides the Secretary of the Interior with the authority to 
collect and expend donated funds for the design and construction and 
associated costs to build a visitors center. The legislation provides 
no Federal money for this much needed project, but allows for Interior 
to partner with devoted non-profit historical and cultural 
organizations, especially the Mesa Verde Foundation.
  The visitors center will be located on land owned by the Foundation 
adjacent to the entrance of the park. The proximity of the cultural and 
visitors center to the cliff dwellings will allow archeologists, 
students, and visitors an open and accessible window to the lives of 
indigenous and prehistoric people.
  I am proud to follow in the footsteps of fellow conservationist, 
Teddy Roosevelt, and ask the Senate for quick passage of this important 
bill. Thank you, and I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2595

       Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of 
     Representatives of the United States of America in Congress 
     assembled,
       The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to collect and 
     expend donated funds and expend appropriated funds for the 
     design, construction, maintenance, and operation of a 
     cultural center and related facilities to be constructed to 
     accommodate visitors, to protect artifacts and archival 
     materials, and for the administration of Mesa Verde National 
     Park on privately owned lands located outside and adjacent to 
     the boundary of the park.
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