Mesa Verde was first described as "ruins so magnificent that they surpass anything of the kind known in the United States."<BR>Fewkes' activities at Mesa Verde both opened and closed eras in Southwestern archaeology. The era of random pothunting and commercial exploitation was ended with Fewkes' arrival in 1908. The serious twentieth-century scientific work and scholarly interest is dated from Fewkes' arrival and his excavations and repairs.<BR>Fewkes' early research is expanded and updated in the Introduction by Larry V. Nordby. Nordby is the first archaeologist to study the ruins of Cliff Place at Mesa Verde since Fewkes. Started by the "ancestral Puebloans" [Anasazi] in the late 1100s A.D., Cliff Palace was abandoned around 1295 A.D. Nordby's new perspective evokes criticism of Fewkes' early work.