Mesa Verde Administrative History

This report was prepared to fulfill the requirements of RSP-H2a which called for the documentation of all available park administrative records for the purpose of guiding "future management, avoid past mistakes, and prevent duplication of effort and experimentation, especially as regards interpretation and protection." As the table of contents suggests, the report covers most of the range of park activities that fall within the scope of an administrative history. The availability of source material is reflected in the extent to which different subject matters are discussed. Most of the research involved selecting, summarizing, and arranging the source material in a topical and chronological form.

The different chapters and sections into which the text is divided make the report a quick source of reference for management. Emphasis has been given to certain crucial problems which have afflicted the different administrations since the park was established in 1906. Some of these problems are water resources, road construction, interpretation, visitors impact on the ruins, general conservation, boundary problems, relations with the Ute Indians, ruins stabilization, protection, and others. In the field of archeology we provide a sort of check list of the most important excavations and discoveries made in the park since 1908.

Many persons contributed to the preparation of this report. In Mesa Verde National Park, Superintendent Meredith M. Guillet and Park Archeolgist Gilbert R. Wenger and their staff provided excellent cooperation during my two-week stay in the park. While in Mesa Verde I met and talked with Don Watson, former park naturalist and archeologist of Mesa Verde for about 30 years; Al Lancaster, connected. with the park as archeologist and in charge of ruin stabilization for almost 40 years; Herrick Carr, of Mancos, who was seasonal ranger in 1916 when Dr. J. Walter Fewkes was excavating Sun Temple.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, I had the pleasure of spending a day with Mr. and Mrs. Jesse L. Nusbaum. Archeologist Nusbaum was superintendent of Mesa Verde on three different occasions—a total of about 17 years. During more than five long hours Nusbaum shared with me his vivid recollections of his park administrations.

Other persons provided also some aid for the completion of the report: George C. Cattanach, Richard P. Wheeler, and Lucy P. Wheeler, gave encouragement and answered many questions about the Wetherill Mesa Project; Anna C. Toogood, during her visit to Mesa Verde, selected and transferred some park records to the History Division on a loan basis; these records are the best source of information for the first 15 years of park history.

Special thanks go to the following persons: David Clary proofread the manuscript and checked many sins of style and grammar. Anne W. Besselman and Mary Rose Moore typed the introduction, chapters one and five, and part A of chapter two; Beatrice B. Libys typed the remainder of the long manuscript.

Plates 9-10 and the front cover are reproduced by courtesy of the National Geographic Society.

For the location of the most important roads, trails, canyons, mesa-top ruins, and cliff dwellings mentioned in this report, the reader can refer to the three maps located, after Plate. 10.