AROUND THE MESA

Mesa Verde travel is again setting a new record. Sept. 9, 1935, 20,541 visitors had been registered. This is a gain of 2.5 percent over last year.

Visitors who have been caught in the rain while on the ruins tours will be glad to learn that all of the ruins roads are now graveled Within a short time a layer of oiled gravel will be added and all of the annoyance of mud and dust will be over.

Mesa Verde can now boast of campgrounds that are the equal of any in the National Park system. Individual campsites have been constructed, each one screened from the rest by trees and shrubs. Each site has a fireplace, a table with seats, a large area for a tent, and a graveled parking place. Showers, toilets, laundry tubs and cut wood are provided.

The ground has been broken for the museum addition. The excavations for the basement are almost completed and within a few months the museum will be doubled in size.

Mesa Verde is soon to have a radio telephone system that will establish two-way communication between headquarters and any part of the Park. The central set, with an eight hundred feet aerial, will be at headquarters. Two types of field sets will be used; one, a 50 pound set with a range of 20 miles, the other, a 17 pound set with a range of 7 miles. The field sets, easily transportable even on horseback or on feet, will be used in emergencies, such as forest fires, accidents, and in administrative communication with C.C.C. field camps, survey camps, etc.

The Museum Assistant reports that, according to the finger prints and smudges on the glasses of the museum cases, the most popular exhibits are: first, the Pueblo burial case, second, the Basket Maker mummy case, and third, the tree-ring case. The miniatures are, of course, in a class by themselves.

Word has just been received from Washington that Superintendent Ernest P. Leavitt, of Mesa Verde National Park is soon to be transferred to Lassen Volcanic National Park in California. Superintendent Leavitt came to Mesa Verde from Hawaii National Park in December, 1933, and it is with genuine regret that the members of his staff have learned of his impending transfer.

Upon the Superintendent's departure, Park Naturalist Paul R. Franke will become Acting Superintendent, pending the appointment of a new superintendent.