Monumental Achievement
El Morro to mark 100th anniversary

Edwin Seowtewa, front, and Calvin Chimoni restore mortar on the facade of the original custodian's residence at El Morro National Monument. The building was constructed in the 1930s and Seowtewa and Chimoni have had to determine how to reproduce the original materials used to build it. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Indpendent]

Editor's note: This is the first of two articles on El Morro National Monument celebrating its 100th anniversary as a national monument. Saturday's report will focus on the monument's preservation and future.

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT — On Dec. 8, 2006, the El Morro National Monument celebrates its 100th anniversary.

An open house with events during two days, Dec. 8-9 will be held and entrance fees will be waived, said Superintendent Kayci Collins.

The monument's history of care and preservation begins with the first "caretaker," Ramah sheep rancher Evon Vogt in 1917.

But, that is not the beginning of the story.

In 1891, traveling journalist Charles Lummis wrote a book titled "Some Strange Corners of our Country."

In it he called El Morro the "Stone Autograph Album" after all the inscriptions and petroglyphs that had been inscribed on the soft sandstone since about 1100-1220 A.D.

Vandalism was already taking place at that time, his book noted.

"In his book, Lummis called El Morro the 'most precious historical cliff possessed by any nation on Earth and the most uncared for,' " Collins said.

The Smithsonian Institution became interested in saving what was then named "Inscription Rock," and provided information to the General Land Office as it was then called. Today it is the Department of the Interior.

The land was withdrawn from the public domain in 1901, Collins said.

A new era begins
Five years later the "Antiquities Act" was passed by Congress allowing presidents to establish areas of historical, archeological or scientific value and national monuments.

"The act was passed in June 1906 on and in August of that year President Teddy Roosevelt named the first national monument ever Devil's Tower in central Wyoming," Collins said.

On December 8 President Roosevelt named three more national monuments, El Morro, and Montezuma Castle and the Petrified Forest both in Arizona, Collins said

There was no National Park Service to take care of the monument for another 10 years though.

For the 10 years until the NPS was created, the monument was administered by the land office. The Bureau of Ethnology began documenting the inscriptions during that time.

In 1917, Vogt was hired part-time and was ordered by the park service to protect the inscriptions and allow escorted visitors to the area.

President Woodrow Wilson enlarged the boundaries of the monument to include the ancestral Zuni and Acoma pueblo sites on top of the mesa and the box canyon, now both parts of the monument.

Early improvementsDuring his tenure as custodian (1917-1936), Vogt did many creative and unique improvements, all part-time and often for only $32 a month, Collins said.

The improvements he made included:

• Dammed the pool at the base of the cliff to allow more water
  
  
• Built a three-sided log cabin, footbridges and the first trail to the top of the mesa
  
  
• Made signs translating the inscriptions on the rock
  
  
• Removed graffiti by chipping out small blocks of rock. Unfortunately, some of the historical inscriptions were also removed.
  
  
• In the 1930s New Deal projects included road improvements and new signs as well as construction of a ranger cabin.

The Budlong era
Bud Budlong was named the first full-time custodian in 1936, replacing Vogt. He was the first to live on site, unlike Vogt, who lived on his sheep ranch in Ramah.

During this time, bureaucracy was born, Collins said, as Budlong started making stricter rules. Instead of allowing camping anywhere on El Morro, he designated specific areas where camping was allowed, she said.

Snow often had to be melted in winter for drinking water. Well drilling was not productive.

Today, the stone house and visitor contact area, which were built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration, are still standing today, Collins said.

Budlong began an important part of the preservation of the inscriptions by cleaning them of the clay overwash that frequently coated them when it rained, Collins said.

The original dam at the pool at the base of the cliff was destroyed by a rockfall and a new pool was formed by the construction of a new dam in 1943.

During the war years, not much was done because of lack of funding, and tourism dwindled to next to nothing, Collins said.

With the end of World War II, tourism "exploded" and in 1946 there were 1,574 visitors. That doesn't seem like much, she said, until you look at the number of visitors for 1945 384.

Historic finds
As the next two decades arrived, the 1950s and 1960, more land was appropriated, this time for a visitor's center, and additional archeological excavations were taking place.

The historic finds of 1954 found Professor Richard Woodbury, of Columbia University, uncovering a round kiva and a square kiva and was able to determine pueblo natives occupied the site from about 1100-1200 A.D., Collins said.

The excavated kivas and 13 rooms of the ancient pueblo were left open so the public could view them.

"In 1956, 'Mission 66' was started, a 10-year process of preservation and upgrading the facilities and campgrounds to celebrate the Nation Park Service's 50-year anniversary in 1966," Collins said.

The 1990s and early 21st century efforts at preservations have taken the forefront of the focus and work at El Morro.

Preserving the site, especially the northeast portion where the summer and winter storms severely batter the sandstone cliffs is top priority, Collins said.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.