Mesa Verde Country includes ancestral Puebloan villages, archaeological sites, museums, scenic byways, tribal lands, and mountain landscapes that preserve and interpret the region’s past. At Hovenweep National Monument, six ancestral Puebloan villages dating to around A.D. 1200 can be visited, although only Square Tower Sites are easily reached and the other sites are more remote and not accessible by car. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, formed in 1984, offers visitors an opportunity to assist professional scientists through an innovative program of hands-on archaeology. The Trail of the Ancients Scenic and Historic Byway runs through land once inhabited by ancestral Puebloan peoples, and its 114-mile route across arid terrain contains clues to that former civilization. Before the Dolores River was dammed to create McPhee Reservoir, archaeologists worked for eight years to record places and artifacts that would be lost under water, and many of those artifacts are displayed at the Anasazi Heritage Center near Dolores. The San Juan Skyway Scenic and Historic Byway passes through the San Juan Mountains, scene of a bustling silver rush in the 1880s, and along its route are national historic districts, Mesa Verde National Park, and national forests. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a restored nineteenth-century narrow-gauge train, travels through the scenery of the San Juan Mountains. The Southern Ute Cultural Center in Ignacio is a gallery and museum featuring the history, art, and culture of the Southern Ute people. Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park, covering 125,000 acres and centered along 20 miles of the Mancos River, preserves numerous ancestral Puebloan sites that visitors may explore with Ute Mountain guides. In downtown Cortez, the Cortez Cultural Center contains ancestral Puebloan artifacts, turn-of-the-century Ute beadwork, and hands-on exhibits, and it also presents Native American dances during the summer. The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park have long inspired wonder and amazement, and although the park is open year round, several sites are closed during the winter.