Colorado’s new specialty license plate will support Mesa Verde National Park.
Drivers who purchase the plate will help the Mesa Verde Foundation raise money to directly benefit the park. Financial assistance is needed to maintain and improve the park for present and future generations, the foundation said in a news release.
Colorado residents may order plates now at www.mesaverdefoundation.org.
Drivers who get a plate make a one-time, tax-deductible $30 donation. Once the donation is processed, drivers will be issued a PIN number to be used when registering a vehicle at a county motor vehicle office. To issue the plate, the state of Colorado will charge additional one-time fees of $50.
Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 19-122 to officially create the Mesa Verde National Park license plate. The bill was the result of more than 3,000 signatures being collected from residents across the state in support of the new plate. The bill was subsequently created and co-sponsored by state Reps. Chris Hansen and Marc Catlin and Sens. Don Coram and Rachel Zenzinger.
Mesa Verde National Park is one of the 12 original UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is home to hundreds of cliff dwellings and thousands of ancient artifacts and remnants of ancestral Puebloans. The park was established in 1906 to preserve and interpret the archaeological heritage of the ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from 600 to 1300. Today, the park protects nearly 5,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.
Mesa Verde National Park hosts about 600,000 visitors annually who spend about $55 million in the surrounding communities.
Mesa Verde Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, philanthropic partner to Mesa Verde National Park. Its mission is to promote understanding and appreciation of the park and to develop financial and other resources to support the park in its mission of protecting its cultural, natural, aesthetic and wilderness values.
