Monument gains key 440-acre parcel DenverPost.com

CORTEZ – Canyons of the Ancients National Monument recently gained a 440-acre parcel 7 miles west of Cortez that includes Morrison Canyon, 10 important archaeological sites of ancestral Puebloans, the Anasazi, dating from A.D. 500 to 1150, and a mesa overlooking Trail Canyon.

The Trust for Public Land will convey the parcel to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management so it can manage its cultural resources, the agency said Tuesday in a news release.

The parcel was the last piece of the 2,000-acre Tail Canyon Ranch owned by Reece and Leslie Ann Malles. The landowners approached the BLM last year about selling it.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell played a key role in securing money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the nonprofit trust to acquire the parcel for the public, according to the trust’s Colorado director, Doug Robotham.

Part of the ranch was sold previously to private buyers, but a conservation easement has been placed on that to protect other important cultural sites, including a great kiva, one of only a dozen known to exist in southwestern Colorado, the BLM said.