Aztec Ruins Administrative History

1916-1922

Once into the clearing process, the American Museum of Natural History realized that many factors posed possible threats to the security of Aztec Ruin. With so many residents of the area being avid collectors of local antiquities, it would not have been surprising if some were tempted to engage in private exploring in unguarded open trenches. Until the National Park Service appointed a full-time custodian 10 years after active exploration began, Morris or one of his associates was in residence in or next to the site. During much of that time, the area was fenced for the purpose of discouraging that sort of activity. Actually, other than initials on beams, evidence for looting or vandalism is relatively minor.

The repair of the huge structure was a more daunting obligation of required protection and would have been of even greater consequence had the museum fulfilled its original pledge to uncover the entire site. Removal of ponderous accumulations of fallen construction stones, water- and wind-deposited earth, and roots of the dense vegetational overgrowth released pressures that long had held components immobile. Once freed, some walls slumped, others fell. Some roof beams crashed downward or snapped at midsection. Their dangling stubs often pried out chunks of supporting masonry. Raw wall tops allowed moisture from rains or snows to work down into unconsolidated rubble cores, where it melted the mud that glued the mass together or froze and pushed off or ballooned the facing. These conditions made working within parts of the house block so hazardous that on many occasions Morris was forced to divert manpower and funds to repair, rather than to excavation. Stone masons became as important as diggers.

There are no records of the repair work undertaken during the period of the American Museum involvement with Aztec Ruin. Although specific chambers are seldom identified beyond notations about which sections of the site were cleared each season, Morris's personal letters, reports, and photographs do hint at the kind of measures taken. [1]

Morris's workers dismantled and relaid portions of the sandstone block veneer of many of the less stable walls using Portland cement for mortar (see Figures 12.1 and 12.2). In one season alone (1918), Morris purchased an entire boxcar of this material. The cement dried to a typical grey color and was very obvious in its contrasting color to that of the brown mud used by the original masons. It readily identified reworked sections. Many persons considered that distinction between old and new work as desirable for the sake of authenticity. In response to a later inquiry from Southwest Monuments Superintendent Pinkley about using colored mortar, Morris replied that the aesthetic effect of colored mortar would be greater than the pronounced contrast of white cement and dark stone. But he added, "If the coloring is made too close to the original earth mortar, many will not be able to distinguish between the work of the aboriginal and that of the modern masons. On the contrary the use of natural colored cement would create a condition that could not fail to be understood by anyone with sufficient intelligence to wonder about it." [2] He went on to suggest recessed mortar for vertical walls and colored cement for flat areas.

Figure 12.1. View over northeast corner of West Ruin showing cement wall capping.

Figure 12.2. Two views of wall repairs, West Ruin,
by American Museum of Natural History crews.

In the effort to make the modern American Museum field house as compatible as possible with the rehabilitated adjacent ruin, Morris turned to the conceit of having some of the upper courses of its new masonry set up in the natural colored concrete so that it, too, would appear to have been repaired (see Figure 4.1).

Troughed cappings of cement, designed to direct water along wall tops to drains from which it would flow away from the walls and into the courtyard, also were constructed of cement. Innovative but unsightly, they were effective in slowing wall decay until better preservation measures could be devised. At the same time, these troughs contributed to a damp plaza. [3] A fundamental flaw to use of cement was that it was not impervious and eventually water found its way through it. After cappings had gone through the first winter's exposure, Morris wrote, "The portions excavated show less deterioration than was to be anticipated, and it seems that a capping of cement will make the walls relatively permanent" (see Figure 12.1). [4]

The American Museum masons spread cement over other exposed portions of the ruin. They covered dirt-filled corners surrounding circular kivas built in rectangular spaces in an attempt to keep moisture from soaking into the soil and then into the kiva walls. After an experiment conducted in 1916 with one room, they poured concrete slab roofs over about 10 rooms, which Morris found to have original ceilings of beams of several sizes, bark, matting, and earth. [5]

Morris's report in 1918 to the American Museum recounted some of the repair activity:

For the most part the walls were in bad condition, hence a considerable proportion of the season's activities consisted of patching those that threatened to collapse, and of rebuilding those that had fallen. As a final protection against the elements, the tops of the walls of the east wing, and those of north wing as far as they have been exposed, were capped with from one to three courses of stone laid in cement, the total area of wall surface so treated amounting approximately to 7500 square feet. By way of summary of the three years' work [1916-1918], the walls of the east wing and one half of the north wing have undergone the ultimate stages of repair. [6]

Records of the American Museum annual budget set aside for repair of the Aztec Ruin are sketchy. Although at the beginning of 1920 Morris requested a sum of $800 for fixing walls, just $100 was used for that purpose. [7] In October of that same year, Morris sent in an estimate of costs to repair 10 rooms at $1,105 and to lay concrete ceiling slabs at $850, but the museum did not respond favorably. In 1921, $350 went to pay for cement slabs over nine roofs. [8]