Looking Back: Mesa & Chelly 1935

This 1935 silent documentary, Looking Back Through the Ages, shot in black-and-white 16mm, explores archaeological work at Mesa Verde National Monument and Canyon de Chelly. At Mesa Verde, it showcases cliff dwellings like Cliff Palace, excavated since 1906, revealing Ancestral Puebloan life from 550-1300 CE. In Canyon de Chelly, it highlights digs uncovering 5,000 years of habitation, from Puebloan ruins to Navajo traces. A pre-war lens on the Southwest’s past, it reflects early 20th-century efforts to preserve these sites amid growing scientific interest, though limited by the era’s methods.