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[THE TELLURIDE BLANKET]
A near-perfect cotton blanket from the Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) culture arrived in Telluride during the 19th century. But its origins and discovery lay shrouded in mystery until “reverse archeology” scholarship restored its story.

Ranchers Mel and Ed Turner discovered the blanket in a Utah cliff dwelling while chasing stray cattle about 1896. Mel Turner later gave it to Telluride banker W.E. Wheeler, perhaps as payment of a debt. From Wheeler’s death in 1935, until 1970 when it came to the Telluride Historical Society inside a leather trunk, the blanket’s age and importance went unrecognized.
An old photograph (also found in the trunk) showed the remains of an ancient village, while radiocarbon dated the blanket to between AD 1041 and 1272. The photograph was published and its location eventually identified. Subsequent exploration of the site revealed the inscriptions “E. Turner” and “Mel Turner,” suggesting that the Turners had found the blanket there.

[THE MUSEUM GARDENS]
Telluride loves a garden!
The gardens are now under construction as artifact are situated and a programming area to accommodate our classrooms is underway.
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