Adolph Bandelier

Adolph Bandelier and his pet dog.

NPS

Adolph Bandelier was born in Bern, Switzerland on August 6, 1840. His family emigrated to the United States in 1848 and settled in Highland, Illinois. Bandelier grew up training to go into the family banking business. A friendship with the famous American Anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan led to an interest in ethnography and archaeology.

At forty years old, unhappy in his work in the banking business, Bandelier decided it was time for a change. He set out for the New Mexico Territory in 1880, sponsored by the Archeological Institute of America with the ambitious goal to trace the social organization, customs, and movements of southwestern and Mexican peoples. He traveled and studied throughout the region, tramping canyons and mesas, living and working among many American Indian groups, and delving into document archives. Looking back on his first 18 months in the field, Bandelier tallied visits to 166 archeological sites in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. "I am dirty, ragged, and sunburnt, but of best cheer. My life's work has at last begun."

Men from Cochiti Pueblo guided Bandelier to their ancestral homes in Frijoles Canyon on October 23, 1880. Its sheer cliffs, year-round stream, and distinctive cave-room architecture, captured his imagination. In 1890 he made the canyon and dwellings the scene of his fictional novel, The Delight Makers, depicting Pueblo life in pre-Spanish times. Bandelier left New Mexico in 1892 and went on to studies in Peru and Bolivia. In his 70s, he went to Seville, Spain, to study early Spanish records of the Americas. He died there on March 18, 1914 and was buried in Seville, Spain.

Bandelier National Monument was established by President Woodrow Wilson two years later on February 11, 1916. Adolph Bandelier's remains were exhumed in 1977 and his ashes spread in Bandelier National Monument in 1980.