Mesa Verde Administrative History

A. Joint undertaking

As part of the Mission 66 program, one of the most significant research under-takings in the history of Mesa Verde National Park was begun late in 1958. This research program, known as the Wetherill Mesa Archeological Project, was a joint effort of the National Park Service and the National Geographic Society. It was to be completed in six years.

Wetherill Mesa is one of the several finger-like mesas characteristic of the area. Many cliff dwellings are situated in the bordering canyon walls; the mesa top is dotted with ruins of earlier structures. During the 1934 fire that swept the mesa it was necessary to bulldoze a trail across the north rim to supply the fire-fighting crews. When it became obvious years later that another area of the park would have to be developed to handle steadily increasing travel, Wetherill Mesa was chosen for development for two reasons. First, the 1934 access road, though primitive, existed. Secondly, the Wetherill Mesa cliff dwellings were as spectacular as those on already developed Chapin Mesa. The attractions of the two areas would balance each other and achieve an even distribution of traffic.

During the 1959 fiscal year, Congress appropriated $63,700 to begin the project. National Geographic Society officials became interested in the research program soon after its inception on June 1958. In September, a party consisting of Melville B. Grosvenor, President; Melvin Payne, Vice-President and Assistant Secretary; Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, Chairman, Research Committee; and Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Director, Bureau of American Ethnology, spent a week in the park looking over the proposed work. After their return to Washington, the Board of Directors of the society voted to collaborate with the National Park Service and to make substantial monetary contributions. The society's initial donation was $50,000, followed by three additional research grants of $50,000 each in 1960, 1961, and 1962. These grants would be devoted to research activities that could not be financed by federal funds, such as excavation, stabilization, laboratory work, and writing of the archeological reports. As of 1964, the project was envisioned as expending some $795,000 from the National Park Service, supplemented by $250,000 from the National Geographic Society. Superintendent Chester A. Thomas, who saw the project through, said the National Geographic's donation provided "the cream for making Wetherill a meaningful archeological undertaking." It provided the extras in scientists, equipment, all sorts of items and services the Park Service could not purchase with its appropriation. [1]

B. Scope of the program

Wetherill Mesa Project was a two-phase operation. First, excavation and stabilization of a series of prehistoric cliff and mesa-top ruins would be performed for use in the interpretive program as exhibits-in-place. In the second phase, the construction of roads, trails, overlooks, museum, indoor and outdoor exhibits, picnic areas and concession-operated lunch facilities, utilities, and the like would be undertaken.

According to the prospectus for the research and development program prepared by Park Archeologist Carroll Burroughs in June 1958, the program would encompass the following:

1. A complete archeological survey of Wetherill Mesa.

2. Excavation of a series of mesa-top ruins representative of all cultural periods present on the mesa top.

3. Complete excavation of two major cliff ruins and partial excavation of a third.

Excavations of the mesa-top ruins would include representative examples of house and village types (pithouse, jacal, slab, and single- and double-coursed masonry), farming terraces and isolated special-purpose structures. This aeries should show a continuous cultural development from Basket Maker III (A. D. 500) through early Pueblo III (A. D. 1200). Excavation of the cliff ruins, which seemed to have been built and occupied during A. D. 1200-1300, would complete the series.

Besides the advantage of opening up a whole new segment of the park for visitation, and the anticipated increase of the interpretive resources, the project would result in far-reaching scientific accomplishment. It could be anticipated, wrote Park Archeologist Burroughs,

that these excavations will produce a cohesive body of scientific information on all of the temporal phases within a single geographic unit. They possibly will discover Basketmaker II material of which we now know nothing in this area. They will certainly confirm and augment our knowledge of the Basketmaker III—through early Pueblo III mesa-top sites. They will provide a wealth of material and scientific data, now completely lacking, on the Classic Pueblo III cliff ruins.

Inherent in a program of such scope are the unlimited possibilities for continuing research into every facet of life of a people of a single geographic area, including their contacts and relationships with people of other areas. Analysis of the material recovered will give an integrated picture of the prehistoric Mesa Verde. Excavation of representative sites of each cultural phase, besides delineating cultural trends and transitions, may well produce the needed clues for understanding the peculiar and apparently rapid population shifts which seem to have started in this northern San Juan area in the Pueblo II times and climaxed with the complete abandonment of the Mesa Verde by the end of Classic Pueblo III. Through the excavation of the cliff ruins it may be possible for the first time to determine something of the hardships, pressures and other conditions of the 1200's which resulted in this final exodus. Understanding what took place in the Northern San Juan or Mesa Verde area prior to A. D. 1300, will be of immeasurable value in defining lines of future research in the area south of San Juan for the period A. D. 1300 to the coming of the Spanish in A. D. 1540. [2]

Only three cliff dwellings were to be excavated in the program: Long House, Step House and Mug House.

Long House, a huge and spectacular cliff ruin, is second only to Cliff Palace in size. Although early looters ransacked most of the rear rooms "the depth and extent of the rubble along the front give promise of relatively undisturbed trash areas and house blocks," wrote archeologist Burroughs. It was hoped a series of deeper rooms buried under the fill at the east end of the ruin would be found. Complete excavation of this ruin was contemplated.

Step House Is a large overhang which contains some unique cultural elements: three Basket Maker III pithouses (ca. A. D. 600) and a late Pueblo III cliff ruin (A. D. 1200-1300). These elements illustrate the "earliest and latest in the Mesa Verde architectural series." The early portions of Step House were partially excavated by Nordenskiold in 1891, and Nusbaum in 1926. Only partial excavation of the late structures were planned in the research program.

Mug House is a medium-sized cliff ruin. Although excavated and ransacked by pot-hunters in the 1800s, "the upper levels are largely intact, the trash mound appears to be untouched, and there are indications of rubble-filled rooms in certain sections which. may have been overlooked earlier." Complete excavation of this ruin was considered. [3]

C. General plan of work

During 1957 and 1958 Park Archeologist Burroughs was in charge of the initial phases of the Wetherill Mesa Project connected with preparation of financial estimates, staffing requirements and organization of general facilities. In the spring of 1958 Archeologist Douglas Osborne was selected to supervise the project.

Of the regular staff members selected, Archeologist Alden C. Hayes was the first to arrive, in August 1958. Osborne arrived early in September, followed by Archeologist George C. Cattanach who came late in the same month. Hays' task was the survey of the mesa, and Cattanach's the excavation of Long House. The winter of 1958-59 was spent organizing and shaping the project, and planning the camp and the excavation program on the ground. Gretchen G. Hays, Richard P. Wheeler, and Arthur H. Rohn, Jr., were hired in 1959 as secretary, laboratory chief, and archeologist, respectively.

The project's office and laboratory was a prefabricated steel building, 120 feet long and 50 feet wide, occupied early in September 1959. Besides Wheeler as laboratory chief, the laboratory was staffed with five museum aids. Lucy P. Wheeler was hired as a secretary in November 1961.

"Fieldwork started early in the spring of 1959," wrote Supervisor Osborne,

with two major objectives: the excavation of Long House, and the establishment of the camp and its facilities. Work went on concurrently in the two, and the camp, above and slightly west of Long House, was well established by autumn...

During this summer Cattanach was in overall charge of the fieldwork and camp building. Rohn assisted in the excavation of Long House, and James A. Lancaster was transferred from the park's maintenance staff to take charge of the stabilization program. Rays and his survey crew were busy on the talus slopes and cliffs of the mesa. The winter of 1959-60 began the laboratory work in earnest... The spring of 1960 saw the laboratory staff caught up with the previous year's fieldwork and ready to embark on current material.

During this year the field staff was reorganized to put Hayes, who now had the survey work moving well, in charge of the field operation. Lancaster, made available to the project throughout the entire field season, took over direction of the excavations. Cattanach was able to put in full time at Long House; Rohn was assigned to the new excavation of Mug House. J. Anthony Pomeroy served as seasonal archeologist during the summer, taking series of pollen samples and partially excavating Sites 1205 (a small rock shelter) and 1539 (a terrace and check-dam site. [4]

Director Wirth enlisted the help of four of the country's outstanding archeologists to act as an advisory group for the Wetherill Mesa Project. These men were: Dr. John Otis Brew, Director, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., Director, Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution; Dr. Emil W. Haury, Director, Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona; Dr. Robert Lister, Chairman, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado. [5]

The archeological survey of the Wetherill Mesa was completed in the spring of 1960, having recorded 800 sites. In the following spring Hayes completed excavation of Site 1205 and started work on Site 1452, a Pueblo II—Pueblo III ruin. This last ruin was known as Badger House.

In January 1961 the laboratory staff was increased with the addition of Carolyn M. Osborne, textile analyst, cataloger, and professional assistant. Fred E. Mang, Jr., came late in the year as project photographer.

By the end of the 1961 season the excavation and stabilization of Long House and Mug House were completed. That same year Jack R. Rudy, Assistant Park Archeologist of Mesa Verde, made an interpretive survey and prepared a prospectus of the Wetherill Mesa. "Rudy examined," wrote Osborne,

the areas which appeared to offer the beat interpretive possibilities, as recommended by Hayes on the basis of the archeological survey, and submitted alternative suggestions for the interpretive loop. Sites have been chosen which will follow one another along the road and will lead the visitor on a logical trip from the earlier into the later archeological manifestations. [6]

Work during the summer of 1962 included continuation and completion of the Badger House excavation; excavation of Basket Maker III pithouses, Site 1644, by Hayes; excavation and stabilization of Step House by Robert F. Nichols; and excavation of two mesa-top sites, 1595 (Pueblo II—III) and 1645 (Pueblo II) by Jervis D. Swannack, Jr. [7] It was Lancaster's main responsibility to plan and control excavations and to stabilize all the ruins. In the season of 1963 an early mesa-top (Site 1676) pueblo was excavated. This was the last archeological field season; the next two years were spent by archeologists in final analysis of the material recovered and in writing reports.

In connection with publications, Osborne stated in 1964:

The publication program contemplated by the project is a large one. We plan monographic treatment of the survey and of each site excavated, followed by specialized studies of certain aspects of the archeological recovery. These reports will be published in essentially the same manner and format as [Hayes' Survey].

Each of the special aspects of ancillary research supported by the National Geographic Society program—about 32 in all—will either contribute to the site monographs or be published independently. The soil, ecological, and dendrochronological-climatic studies will obviously all require separate treatment; the dendrochronological itself and others will appear with the site reports. [8]

During the course of the Wetherill Mesa Project the archeological work was enhanced by having long-range studies and detailed analysis conducted by scientists of other disciplines. Geologists, palynologists, dendrochronologists, physicists, chemists, pathologists, botanists, mammalogists, climatologists and many others assisted the staff archeologists in gaining a clearer insight of life in prehistoric times. [9]

D. Status of Wetherill mesa development

In the early planning stages of the Mission 66 program, Wetherill Mesa would be developed equally to Chapin Mesa in the number of ruins open to the public, the method of interpretation, the number of people it would accommodate, and the physical facilities available to the public. In 1967, however, the Director determined that the approach to Wetherill Mesa be a comparatively low standard road. A method of circulation was proposed that would not require large parking terraces; a minitrain or mini-bus was suggested for traffic control around the archeological areas. [10]

What happened to the concept of equality between Chapin and Wetherill Mesa was summarized by Superintendent Guillet in a letter to the Director on March 24, 1967. After Director Wirth approved the research and development program of 1958 wrote Guillet,

all planning and programming in the park, Regional Office and Washington, centered on the concept that Wetherill Mesa would be developed as an area comparable to Chapin Mesa. Its function would be to provide additional attractions in the park in order to disperse visitation and to relieve the overcrowding of the Chapin Mesa ruins. The Navajo Hill Visitor Center area was a key feature in this development plan in that it was ideally located to affect the more or less equal distribution of visitors to the two mesas.

On July 11, 1958, Director Wirth presented to the National Geographic Society a proposal inviting them to participate in the scientific aspects of the Wetherill Mesa excavations. As you know, they accepted and generously contributed to the project.

On September 13, 1961, a joint meeting of the Scientific Board of the National Geographic Society and the Wetherill Mesa Advisory Group (several prominent non-Service archeologists asked to act as advisors to the project by the Director in 1960) met in the park to review the progress of the archeological program. It was only a few months after this meeting that the idea of retaining Wetherill Mesa more or less as a "primitive area" and thus reversing all the original concepts behind the program came to the foreground. Unfortunately, a search of the park's files has failed to turn up any correspondence relative to this change in the intent of the project, and none of the park staff who might have personal knowledge of the events at this critical time are now with us.

During the May 8-10, 1962 Advisory Group meeting held in the park, this change in the approach to the utilization of Wetherill Mesa was one of the foremost topics discussed. In their report to the Director, the Advisory Group recommended that the original concept for the development end use of Wetherill Mesa be adhered to (Enclosure 5). A statement reaffirming the purpose of the Wetherill Mesa Project was prepared and submitted with the Advisory Group report (Enclosure 6).

On July 20, 1962, Superintendent Thomas wrote the Regional Director requesting that serious consideration be given to early programming of construction funds to construct the necessary roads and other facilities to implement the opening of Wetherill Mesa in the immediate future (Enclosure 7).

This letter evidently prompted some serious thinking and review of the planning and programming of the project in the Washington Office. In a memorandum of October 8, 1962 to the Southwest Regional Director, Director Wirth reaffirmed his intention to continue the development and use of Wetherill Mesa as originally conceived (Enclosure 8). (We do not have a copy of the Regional Director's memorandum of August 8, 1962, referred to in Director Wirth's memorandum.)

It has been on the strength of the Director's memorandum of October 8, 1962, that we have continued to plan and program for the unlimited use of Wetherill Mesa. This is why we are now at a loss in understanding the recent events which seem to be leading us to plan and program for only limited use of the area. If Mesa Verde is to survive the constant increase in visitation and to provide for the fullest use and enjoyment of the public, Wetherill Mesa must be accessible and usable on an equal basis with Chapin Mesa. The Chapin Mesa ruins, although having received the brunt of all park visitation during the past 50 years, have been protected and preserved and are still prime exhibits that can be saved for many generations. However, this will not be the case, if we cannot disperse the foreseeable visitor load and demand. [11]

After several years of changes, proposals and counterproposals, the Mission 66 program still lags behind. Some elements of the program have been completed, others are in the process of completion, while some others are still on the drawing boards.

Morfield Campground-Village complex has become an important activity center. Located about five miles from the park entrance, the Village contains almost 500 individual and group campsites, a 1500-seat amphitheater for campfire programs, horseback, hiking trails, and a shopping center. During the first 29 days of August 1967, a total of 4,577 persons used the facilities of Morfield Campground. [12]

At Navajo Hill, Far View Motor Lodge was opened in 1964, including a cafeteria, a room-rental office, a handcraft shop and newstand, a small beverage lounge, and a service station. In 1968 the National Park Service opened the Navajo Hill Visitor Center, an interpretive and information facility. It will be from Navajo Hill, located at the crossroads leading to Wetherill Mesa, where visitors' flow for both mesas will be controlled. [13]

The already famous Wetherill Mesa ruins have yet to be opened to the public, although their excavation and stabilization were completed several years ago. Delays in construction of about 21 miles of road to the ruins have occurred for one reason or another. It is still a question when the physical development of the mesa will be completed. [14]

Meanwhile, the ruins of Chapin Mesa long ago reached the saturation point.

Former Superintendent Nusbaum predicted in 1930 that when travel reached 50,000 a year, the park would reach the saturation point. In 1969 the park had 533,771 visitors, of which 167,375 were campers. During the first 25 days of August 1970, a total of 1,222 cars, representing 4,644 persons, were turned away from the campground at the park entrance. During this same period 19 cars representing 72 persons were turned away from lodging in the park, due to facilities being full. [15]

During the 1964 fiscal year, rapidly increasing travel resulting from the opening of the Navajo Trail across the spectacular reservation area of northern Arizona, and publicity resulting from the Wetherill Mesa Project, pointed out the critical need for increased interpretive staffing to handle ruins visitation and protection. In 1963 a maximum of 20 seasonal and 3 permanent interpreters handled 1,361,000 interpretive contacts and yet the services offered fell far short of meeting the demand. Guided trips through the cliff dwellings were dangerously large both for visitor safety and for protection of the fragile and unstable ruins. [16]

In his annual report of 1965 Superintendent Thomas wrote:

All facilities are showing the effects of the strain, the ruins most of all. Very likely it will be mandatory next summer to limit the trips into Balcony House as this prehistoric gem has more than reached its breaking point. A system for use next summer was discussed with Regional Chief of Interpretation Barrel. We are of the opinion the matter can be handled with little or no difficulty, just as trips are handled in the caves in France and "turns" are handled in barbershops and many other places. Americans, being in the rush they are to get to the next place, probably will not wait long for trips and thus the system itself will be an effective tool in limiting the size and number of parties into the ruin.

The problem at Cliff Palace was also discussed. With hundreds of people per hour and rangers being forced to yell above the racket, interpretation at this site is rapidly becoming a farce. The cave acts as a sounding board for scuffling feet, wails of crying kids, the rangers' voices; bedlam is the rule of the day all summer long. We may be forced to limit interpretation to what can be accomplished at the "viewpoint," station men at intervals across the front of the ruin, and allow people to visit the site without having to wait for guided trips. We have learned from Spruce Tree House that few people will pay any attention to the numbered "stations" in the site or refer to their guidebooks, so making Cliff Palace self-guiding is out. Self-guiding is not a device for use in ruins unless forced into it as we were at Spruce Tree House to try and give the short-term visitor something. Also, the same situation prevailed at Spruce Tree House as now prevails at Cliff Palace but was even worse due to the low cave overhang. [17 ]

To alleviate crowding and to protect Cliff Palace and Balcony House from the seasonal impact, a limitation on tour size was instituted in 1967 and is still in effect. Visitors are required to secure and present a ticket in order to take a tour to Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Parties are now restricted to 75 persons on trips through Cliff Palace and about 45 on the Balcony House tour. With this system, as Superintendent Thomas predicted, the greatest number of visitors go away without seeing two of the three principal ruins of the park. [18]

As an experiment to determine if they could get more visitors through Cliff Palace in a given day, the interpretive personnel operated this ruin on a self-guided basis on August 5, 1970. A one-page mimeographed information sheet was prepared. Several numbered stations were set up and three rangers were assigned to duty in the ruin at all times. They were able to get 3,160 visitors through the ruin—about 600 more than the normal of 1450. One related problem was a massive traffic jam in parking lot with extremely heavy visitation the first two hours—about 600. Although the park personnel were not satisfied that the experiment was a good test, wrote Archeologist Wenger,

We found the trouble areas and with minor changes could make the system operable if it should become necessary to resort to such system at a later date. Nearly everyone agrees that self-guiding operations are not as desirable but may become a necessity if we are to keep visitors under control and to get them through the cliff dwellings.

If there were a large auditorium where visitors could be preoriented and given the story of the cliff dwellers then the self-guiding method would be acceptable and perhaps just what we need to provide the most visitors with the best experience. [19]