The monument was proclaimed in order to preserve the largest concentration of archaeological sites in the United States, primarily Ancestral Puebloan ruins.

[7] For a fuller understanding of the architecture and life style during this period, pueblo buildings in the Mesa Verde region were built with stone, windows facing south, and in U, E and L shapes.

[8] As refinements in construction techniques increased, the Puebloans built larger pueblos, or villages, on top of the pit-houses starting about AD 1090.

[5][9] At least 8,500 distinct structures have been identified in the monument, and the density of archeological remains is the highest of any region in the United States.

The 60,000 people's pueblos and reservations reside in three geographic areas: After 1300, hunter-gatherers, ancestors of the Ute and Navajo, moved into the southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah and came to inhabit the region.

[15] One of the expeditions was that of Spanish friars Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez who traveled from New Mexico, through western Colorado to Utah.

[12] While other national monuments in the Southwest, including Hovenweep, were limited to the area around major ruins, "Canyons of the Ancients was perhaps the first to explicitly recognize that ruins do not tell the entire story—that ancients lived in, hunted, gathered and raised crops, and developed water and religious sites throughout the larger landscape,” according to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

[12] Vandalism and treasure hunting are difficult to minimize due to an inadequate number of federal employees and law enforcement personnel to monitor and prosecute those who deface ruins or steal archeological remains.

A news article in July 2006[citation needed] reported that funding for the monument had decreased by almost 40% since 2004, and that a particularly severe looting episode occurred in January 2006.

These surfaces are upheld by sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age that are mostly covered by much younger gravel and sand layers deposited in the last several million years.

Carbon dioxide is produced from rocks of Mississippian age (Carboniferous Period 359.2–299 million years ago) in the McElmo Dome, from wells drilled to a depth of about 8,000 feet (2,400 m).

The dome contains one of the largest deposits of carbon dioxide in the United States, and the extracted gas is used for enhanced oil recovery.

However, off-road vehicles and an increase in road construction for oil and gas exploration, allow greater access to archeological areas.

Large trucks known as "thumpers" were found searching for oil and gas pockets by pounding the earth and recording the seismic data, having received a green light from the Bureau of Land Management.

After 130 years of exploration and research identifying tens of thousands of irreplaceable and fragile archaeological sites, we know that Canyons of the Ancients represents the best of our cultural heritage.

Using an army of volunteers who contribute on the ground services and applying the principles of balanced management and science-based decision-making, this crown jewel preserves ancestral homes and landscapes for Native American citizens and for children and communities throughout the United States.

[11] Mammals that pass through the riparian and piñon-juniper woodland are jackrabbits, Mule deer, ringtail, fox, muskrat, beaver and bobcat.