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So, I was checking out real estate prices in my part of the world when I came across a property listed at $1.3 million dollars and located a thousand miles from nowhere. I noticed right away that the builder had attached his ultra modern home right smack onto an ancient Anastasi ruin that has to date back to 800 AD if not earlier.
For those not familiar with the Anastasi (or Ancient Ones as the Native Americans call them), they flourished here in the Southwest for hundreds of years and then abruptly vanished into thin air around 600 - 800AD. They left behind some pretty sophisticated architecture for those days, beautiful clay pottery, and the bones of the members of their families.
Archeologists say that probably severe drought and over population were among the causes for the disappearance of an entire people. They also tell us that the end of this culture was sudden and brutal. There is strong evidence that people were killed in their homes by some brutal enemy. Skeletons with broken skulls, skeletons with every limb broken before they died, even skeletons of children and babies that had apparently been dashed against the unforgiving stone and brick walls.
There is also strong evidence for cannibalism towards the very end of these people's existence in this area. Did they turn on one another and eat the bodies of those they killed due to famine and extreme hunger? Or were the Anastasi members of some cult that demanded that they should eat the bodies of their enemies or even family members? We will never probably know the answers, but we do know that these things happened everywhere around the Four Corners region.
OK, so I am mostly not very superstitious, but you couldn't PAY me $1.3 dollars to live in that house attached to the ruins of an entire people. I don't believe in ghosts, but my hackles always go up when I visit ancient places like Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon.
Who knows what happened in that dwelling to which that house is attached? And the desolation of the place is just overwhelming. If you ask me, it's got all the ingredients for a horror novel written by Stephen King.
Am I over re-acting? Would YOU actually pay $1.3 million to buy that home attached to the haunted remains of a vanished people? My roommate thinks I'm being silly. Am I?
I wouldn't be interested in living that far out in the middle of nowhere. I do think it is a very cool place and would love to visit it and stay a few days.
I would think hooking the house to the old remains is a great thing because they are now being taken care of. I am sure many many good things also happened there. Too bad most just focus on the bad.
My nearest neighbor is about a quarter of a mile down the road, and I feel that I'm living in the middle of nowhere. That place must be 30 miles from ANYTHING! Throw in the ruins of a vanished people and you can pretty much forget it in my book.
I don't find it creepy at all. In fact I find it sad that someone is allowed to build an ugly Flintstone house adjacent to what must be an historic Native American site with stone ruins of a structure. Is this in Colorado? How on earth does Colorado as a state allow this to happen?
Well, I won’t even live on a one acre lot because it’s not close enough to my neighbors. I wouldn’t live there.
I live in California and crap shacks in desirable areas cost that much so the price doesn’t phase me.
You can buy a pretty darn nice mansion here for $1.3M - at least for the present. We're growing pretty fast so get a lot of transplants from much more expensive areas, so that's driving the prices up and up.
Back to the subject though - yeah, it's a little creepy even if you don't have any inclinations toward the paranormal. Plus, why was it even allowed? Aren't those ruins protected by the US government?
I don't find it creepy at all. In fact I find it sad that someone is allowed to build an ugly Flintstone house adjacent to what must be an historic Native American site with stone ruins of a structure. Is this in Colorado? How on earth does Colorado as a state allow this to happen?
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Originally Posted by RocketDawg
You can buy a pretty darn nice mansion here for $1.3M - at least for the present. We're growing pretty fast so get a lot of transplants from much more expensive areas, so that's driving the prices up and up.
Back to the subject though - yeah, it's a little creepy even if you don't have any inclinations toward the paranormal. Plus, why was it even allowed? Aren't those ruins protected by the US government?
I have no idea how a private owner or builder was allowed to encroach upon these ancient ruins which otherwise would be protected by the National Park Service (the State of Colorado doesn't control National Parks or Monuments). This is another thing that bothers me about that house. When you go see Anastasi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park for example, you aren't even allowed to so much as pick up a single pottery shard. But some wealthy entrepreneur gets to enrich themselves further by laying claim to what appears to be two separate sets of ancient ruins that are more than a thousand years old?
It's extremely disrespectful which I think is part of what makes me feel wary about the place.
Mesa Verde is where I woke up in the middle of the night outside my sleeping bag & tent. But I was in the air, as high as the tree tops. I was maybe 12 ... I started screaming "I'm outside!" & heard my mom say "Pat, she's gone!" to my dad & something lowered me back in. I had my eyes closed tightly & then I heard my mom say "No wait, she's here!" & I opened my eyes & saw the tent above me.
My parents had specifically placed me in between them to sleep because I sleepwalk while camping. A few years before that I had wandered off in the middle of the night & they found me standing on the edge of a riverbank. I have no memory of that event, it was further North in the Colorado Rockies than Mesa Verde.
All's I know about the Mesa Verde incident is that I had an argument with my sister in the tent because the moon was full & I wanted to fall asleep looking at it through the zipper window. She was scared of the window being unzipped but I won, lol. Last thing I remember was looking at that moon through the treetops. Then I woke up level WITH the treetops.
I love Mesa Verde; it's a powerful, magical place & I would go primitive camping there again but I would NEVER build there.
I love Mesa Verde; it's a powerful, magical place & I would go primitive camping there again but I would NEVER build there.
You hit the nail on the head calling Mesa Verde a "powerful, magical place." I feel the same way about Mesa Verde, as well as the other places like it where I've done some primitive camping myself. It's hard to avoid the strong feelings that arise from seeing these places from so along ago and thinking about the unknown tragedies which caused the ancient Native Americans to abandon them. Anyone who gets to visit Mesa Verde will find it to be pretty amazing. But living there? Out of the question.
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