When President Donald Trump’s monument reviewers visit southwestern Colorado’s Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, they’ll find one of the quieter but most historic attractions in the state, with more than 6,000 Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, kivas and rock paintings spread across 176,056 acres.

Managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, the Canyons of the Ancients — about six miles from Cortez and — was designated a national monument by President Bill Clinton on June 9, 2000. It draws about 30,000 visitors a year and the BLM’s multi-use management plan still allows for grazing and oil and gas development on parts of the monument, just as it did before the designation.

Kristi Carriker’s Canyon Trails Ranch has been offering guided horse trips through the ruins for nearly 30 years. When Clinton signed the national monument designation in 2000, “I was leery,” she said. Related Articles September 8, 2020 Guest commentary: With too many people (and feces) it may be time to limit access to protected areas

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“But we didn’t see a huge change,” she said, noting that the biggest issue she has had is the recent BLM decision to require permits to access some portions of the monument. “Most of my business is through the internet and I suppose people might have heard about Canyons of the Ancients but it seems to me most of them are looking for horseback riding in the area.”

Since 2000, Montezuma County’s population has grown about 8 percent, jobs are up 10 percent and personal income is up about 20 percent, according to research by the nonpartisan Headwaters Economics group. That’s not that much different from the growth seen across rural Colorado.

While it’s hard to pin the county’s growth since 2000 directly to the creation of the national monument, “there’s no evidence that the Canyons of the Ancients is hurting the economy in any way,” said Chris Mehl with research group Headwaters Economics.

Headwaters Economics in 2011 and 2014 studied the economic vitality of communities hosting 17 national monuments in the West, including Montezuma County. The overarching conclusion: national monuments are consistent with economic growth.

“On average, rural counties across the West with more federal lands do better than counties with less federal lands,” Mehl said.

Growth around the most recent national monuments in Colorado — including the Upper Arkansas River Valley’s Browns Canyon and Chimney Rock near Pagosa Springs — is masked by a statewide surge in tourism and real estate value. But national monuments help spur communities toward a more diverse economy, where recreation draws new residents, businesses and investment, Mehl said.

And Canyons of the Ancients is a big tourism draw for the Four Corners region, which includes Mesa Verde National Park.

“This monument is pivotal to our visitor experience,” said Kelly Kirkpatrick, the head of the Mesa Verde Country Visitor Bureau. “The monument is a huge part of the overall story of the Ancestral Puebloans, and we rely heavily on its importance to our tourism economy.”

Headwaters Economics’ Economic Profile System merges data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of the Census, the Department of Commerce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Labor.

That system shows Montezuma County’s population has doubled since 1970, compared to a 90 percent increase across rural Colorado. Personal income has grown 375 percent, compared to 320 percent in rural Colorado. The county’s unemployment rate is 5.6 percent, higher than rural Colorado’s 4.1 percent. About 23.5 percent of the jobs in the country are tied to tourism and travel, compared to 33 percent in rural Colorado.

Property values in the country fell hard in the recession and the climb back has been steady, said Carol Click, who owns RE/MAX Mesa Verde Realty and has sold real estate in the Four Corners region for 35 years.

“People love to be right next to the monument but I don’t think (the designation) necessarily increased the market as a whole,” Click said. “We are the last frontier in southwest Colorado. Maybe it will make a difference in the future.”