Aztec Ruins Administrative History

FOR USERS
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Interpretation and a Self-Guiding System

Up to the 1950s, all visitors to the monument were conducted through the ruin and the museum by the custodian or park ranger, who, as the party moved along, informally explained features of the site and of Anasazi life as they comprehended them. Groups were limited to about 20 persons. The small size of inner chambers of the ruin and that of the museum made it difficult for the leader to project his remarks to those standing at a little distance. Also, designers meant narrow trails for single-file walking. When there were only two men on duty, one remained at the registration desk to collect required 25¢ fees. While stationed there, he introduced those waiting for the next tour to the history and natural surroundings of the monument as they were outlined in nearby displays.

The success or weakness of personal interaction between the National Park Service personnel and the public depended to a large degree upon the personalities of the guides and their abilities to convey knowledge in an interesting and accurate manner. What they said and how they did it inevitably molded the visitor's conception of the cultural story that unfolded at Aztec Ruins.

Just prior to MISSION 66, a small group of archeologists attached to the regional office in Santa Fe and to the Southwest Archeological Center at Globe were tangled in an imbroglio threatening to contradict the official National Park Service reconstructed history of Aztec Ruins. Erik K. Reed, Harvard educated regional archeologist responsible for interpretation, was convinced through his field work in Mancos Canyon during the 1940s that Morris was incorrect in his proposed sequence of occupation of the West Ruin. In Reed's opinion, there was a continuous, rather than interrupted, occupation of the village and of the general San Juan Basin. Complexes of "Chacoan" and "Mesa Verdian" attributes merely represented temporal phases of a long steady continuum of cultural evolution, not actual successive disruptive movements of people. He expounded upon this theory at a gathering of regional archeologists in the summer of 1953. To substantiate his beliefs, he stated erroneously that excavations then going on at Hubbard Mound failed to expose a sterile stratum demonstrating a break in site utilization. [40] Within a month, his theory became fact for Reed. He issued a dogmatic memorandum ordering Aztec men in the field to cease repeating a story that was "unacceptable" and to replace it with the "true situation." [41]

Upon receiving a copy of this memorandum, Morris responded with a long defense of his interpretation. He cited evidence from Rooms 43, 145, 149, 155, 174, and 189 of clear differentiation between lower Chaco and upper Mesa Verde deposits separated by various floors (see Figure 3.14) and the lack of mixed trash deposits such as one might expect had there been no interruption in utilization of them. "It would be difficult to convince me that there was not an hiatus between the Chaco and Mesa Verde phases," he wrote. [42]

Most National Park Service regional scientists joined in taking exception to what seemed to be Reed's untenable theory and to the ultimatum tone of his instructions to the men working at Aztec Ruins. The passage of time and stepped-up tempo of research warranted a reexamination of old ideas, but Morris's early day efforts were sound. They should remain unchallenged in the absence of any additional National Park Service excavation in the West Ruin, other than the limited Steen work in 1938. Everyone accepted the fact that in the San Juan Basin there had been interaction and overlapping of divergent strains of Anasazi development. To what extent remained a question for future researchers. For the present, the National Park Service archeologists recommended that guides at Aztec Ruins and distributed literature note that further work might lead to alternative explanations of what had transpired at this particular community. Reed withdrew his insistence upon a change in the Aztec Ruins presentation.

Within a few years, the National Park Service adopted a theme for Aztec of the dynamics of the cultural contact between Chacoans and Mesa Verdians, functioning because of the site's intermediate geographical location between the two focal areas and the continuity through time of the fundamental cultural content. This was demonstrated through pottery, architecture, trade, and possibly also through intermarriage and sociological intrusions. [43]

In the early 1950s, greater visitation and financial stringencies forced a change in procedure for introducing visitors to the monument. Because a self-guiding approach had been tried successfully in other Southwestern monuments, in September 1954, this practice was put into effect experimentally at Aztec Ruins. [44] Following a model written by Ranger Robert Hart in 1935, a booklet was prepared to give to each visitor explaining things to be observed at designated stops along a trail. [45] Judged effective, the next season self-guided trips were adopted routinely. With advance arrangements, large parties could request a tour guide. In months of greatest visitation, one or more rangers were on duty in the ruin to answer questions and to provide fuller background than what was presented in the brief printed matter.

A number of information aids made tours more enjoyable. Trailside exhibits and free-standing easels contained additional information. [46] Plate glass sealed into southern openings along the corridor of rooms with ceilings allowed a view of uncleared portions of the site or a piece of reed matting in situ over a doorway. Message-repeating equipment in the Great Kiva provided music such as once reverberated through the hall.

Over the years, other interpretive improvements were made. The trail route occasionally was changed for better or safer circulation or to provide opportunity to see other features. Visitors were not encouraged to walk into the inner East Wing from the court trail, but neither were they barred from doing so. Because getting there meant climbing on walls, most of the northwest corner of the house block was off limits. A new trail was cleared to the Hubbard Mound. As it became apparent that funds to undertake additional excavations along the route would not be budgeted, a more-encompassing path planned around the perimeter of the monument eventually was abandoned. Superintendent Jack R. Williams recommended that it not be built. [47] Trail guide booklets, keyed to 21 numbered stakes that later replaced trailside exhibits, underwent a half dozen revisions, some with colored photographs and some for sale. Committing the Aztec Ruins history to paper emphasized the need for interpretive guidelines so that all parties concerned spoke with one voice. In 1963, John M. Corbett, chief archeologist for the National Park Service, prepared a comprehensive handbook. [48]

At first, the monument staff expressed apprehensions about allowing unaccompanied persons in the ruins. They wondered if the absence of personal contact with a ranger would reduce the value of the visit to those with no background in regional prehistory. They learned, on the contrary, that many people welcomed the chance to roam at will about the tumbled-down settlement, lost in their own thoughts. Would there be careless vandalism or personal accidents? Since ceiling beams generally were out of easy reach for those with an urge to carve initials and delicate patches of engraved or painted plaster were protected with screens, the threat of that kind of vandalism was reduced. Visitors might be tempted to get on to unstable walls. To discourage that, tops of such walls were lined with loose building stones. To insure personal safety, the precarious steps down to the Great Kiva floor from the ground level were replaced by a sturdier wooden staircase with hand rails. [49] Trails were rerouted, leveled, and surfaced. The incidents of harm to the ruin either because of legitimate visitors or trespassers who came after regulation hours proved negligible. Few injuries were reported.