The Prehistory of Colorado and Adjacent Areas is a short, accessible account of the state's human past. Based on the archaeological record, this book reconstructs past lifeways using current theory and explanations. Using a regional, rather than site-specific approach, it presents current explanations of what prehistoric Coloradans did at various points in time and why they changed.

For forty years, A Colorado History has provided a comprehensive and accessible panoramic history of the Centennial State. From the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to contemporary times, this enlarged edition leads readers on an extraordinary exploration of a remarkable place.

Written with the general reader in mind, this is the updated edition of the classic on the geology of the red rock and canyon country of the Fours Corners region of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

A vivid account of the prehistory and history of Denver as revealed in its archaeological record, Denver: An Archaeological History invites us to imagine Denver as it once was. Around 12,000 B.C., groups of leather-clad Paleoindians passed through the juncture of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek, following the herds of mammoth or buffalo they hunted. In the Archaic period, people rested under the shade of trees along the riverbanks, with baskets full of plums as they waited for rabbits to be caught in their nearby snares. In the early Ceramic period, a group of mourners adorned with yellow pigment on their faces and beads of eagle bone followed Cherry Creek to the South Platte to attend a funeral at a neighboring village. And in 1858, the area was populated by the crude cottonwood log shacks with dirt floors and glassless windows, the homes of Denver's first inhabitants. For at least 10,000 years, Greater Denver has been a collection of diverse lifeways and survival strategies, a crossroads of interaction, and a locus of cultural coexistence. Setting the scene with detailed descriptions of the natural environment, summaries of prehistoric sites, and archaeologists' knowledge of Denver's early inhabitants, Nelson and her colleagues bring the region's history to life. From prehistory to the present, this is a compelling narrative of Denver's cultural heritage that will fascinate lay readers, amateur archaeologists, professional archaeologists, and academic historians alike.

"Following this discovery and further detrital-zircon studies of Mesozoic strata on the Colorado Plateau, Dr. Dickinson began preparing this volume in order to identify key aspects of the sedimentary and tectonic history of Mesozoic strata of the Colorado Plateau and directly adjacent areas. He divided the strata into seven depositional systems"--