Aztec Ruins Administrative History

1943-1947

Leakage of the Great Kiva roof became so substantial during spring thaws in 1943 that the Southwest Monuments administration was able to secure emergency monies for a reroofing job. Miller submitted a job justification amounting to $250, but the final bill came to $328. [74] Miller and his helpers followed a process of filling larger cracks with cotton membrane and painting lesser cracks with a heavy-duty coating called Zone. They then spread asbestos felt around the circumference of the roof up on the parapet wall. Flashing material held in place with hot asphalt sealed the juncture of roof and parapet. Workers laid asbestos roofing over the entire roof and covered it with a hot asphalt layer. When this surface dried for several days, they applied a final coat of Zone to make the roof leak-free. [75] Or so they hoped.

Other unending difficulties besetting Aztec Ruins worsened until, in September, Miller again called for help. He and the rangers were regularly bailing out subsurface water percolating into Kivas E and I. This amounted to 200 gallons daily in Kiva I and 350 gallons daily in Kiva E. Some interior walls of Kiva I gave way, making the support of a later house wall that crossed it very uncertain. Damp spots appeared on the floors of the vaults of the Great Kiva. The men feared that it was just a matter of time until the primary flow of water worked its way southward into that structure. Bases of room walls along the North Wing, where dry ground conditions earlier were typical, were disintegrating from moisture. After an inspection by Steen, the staff decided that electric pumps placed in pits in the floors or ventilator shafts of the waterlogged kivas might be the answer. Unfortunately, the pumps failed to draw out sufficient water standing next to the lower courses of weakened masonry walls. Next, the determined rangers repaired a leaky flume on the Hubbard farm just below the Farmers Ditch. That did nothing to halt seepage within the compound. This was followed by their digging three six-foot-square pits outside the north exterior village wall, which were sunk to depths from 13 to 21 feet. A secondary hole in the easternmost pit went down 42 feet before hitting hardpan. [76] Pumps lowered into two of the pits operated around the clock. Working together over a two-month period, the pumps, helped by cessation of the irrigation season, caused a slight drop in the water table level. Kiva I began to dry, but Kiva E remained flooded. Its walls were saturated. Salts formed a deposit on the roof timbers. An emergency sum of $900 was expended without beneficial results. [77]

In 1944, several studies were done by various National Park Service officials and drainage and soil experts from the Soil Conservation Service in Albuquerque to determine the exact nature and scope of the environmental problems afflicting Aztec Ruins and how best to resolve them. The volumes of data produced merely confirmed earlier beliefs: the source of the distressing subsurface water was from the north and northeast of the ruin, where a major unlined canal and irrigated fields existed. Topography and soil conditions contributed to the difficulties. [78]

According to Jesse Nusbaum, one of those studying the matter, there were two natural and two man-caused reasons for the adverse conditions, which seemed to have suddenly become so much worse. The year 1942 was one of drought in the Southwest, with Aztec Ruins recording a low precipitation of slightly over six and a half inches. This followed an unusual high in 1941 of 23.59 inches. With the local aquifer having its source in the high elevations of the San Juan Mountains to the north, Nusbaum theorized that the greatly increased volume of moisture in 1941 took 12 to 18 months to descend 50 miles of intervening, uptilted, sedimentary formation to abruptly reach the 5,600 foot elevation of the monument about August 1943. Coincidentally, during the spring of 1943, the Farmers Ditch was more thoroughly cleaned than at any time in years. This cut out the lining of water-deposited clays and silts that inhibited seepage. Natural loss of water through the earthen canal walls and floor, added to irrigation during the summer growing season and a plethora of rodent burrows, spelled trouble for the ruins situated downslope at a point where the soils became less porous and interrupted the general southeastward flow of underground water. [79]

The most practical long-term solution these studies proposed was one to provide an adequate primary drain or cutoff along the northern boundary of the monument. The consultants believed the drain would lower the water table in the preserve below the depth of the floor of Kiva E, its deepest known structure. The proposal (AZ-M-6) was adopted, to be implemented after the war.

Meantime, Miller submitted another job justification calling for an expenditure of $1,324.75 for temporary ruins drainage, stating that the entire monument land was becoming a quagmire and corrective action was needed immediately. [80] It took three months for the Washington office to return a $1,300 allotment. [81]

Miller planned to add eight wells to the three previously dug north of the ruin. The wells, 18 feet deep with a two-foot sump, were to be 20 feet apart and set within four-foot-square wooden boxes. Miller hoped they could be incorporated into the permanent system when it was installed. Rough-sawn wood for some of the cribbing was transferred from Gran Quivira. [82] Other timber was secured from local saw mills. In spite of the urgency for action, work was delayed. One of the Navajo laborers suddenly enlisted in the army, and the second prospective helper was busy herding sheep. But by the end of April, construction of the wells began. Within several weeks, the farmer of the cornfield just to the north turned water into his fields, and all the wells on the north monument boundary promptly began to fill. One that had not yet been timbered was a total loss. [83]

When the wells finally were completed, they were connected by pipe so that flow of ground water was led to a central well. From that well, the water was pumped into an irrigation ditch to the west of the monument. Acting Custodian Mahan reported that the flow into Kiva E had not increased. He was optimistic that the latest effort would be successful. [84] But that was not to be. The wells proved one thing: that the underground water was a very complex phenomenon, which likely would need a different system than the planned permanent drainage line.

When Irving D. Townsend arrived in September to assume the monument's superintendency, he wrote eye-witness accounts of the dire state in which he found the West Ruin. In one, he recounted the well-known troubles at Kiva E and stated that considerable portions of Kiva I were caved in. [85]

Three weeks later Townsend desperately notified the regional director of the danger to Aztec Ruins. A cloudburst and hail storm dealt another severe blow by filling one of the wells with sand and silt. The pumping equipment was flooded out as a wall of water poured down the depression between the West and East ruins. In the house block, rocks fell from walls, the ventilator shaft of Kiva E half filled with water every 24 hours, and the south village wall was undermined. He continued, "Numerous leaks have appeared in the original roofs of the rooms through which tours are conducted, allowing water to seep down the walls, drip from the cross beams and generally to expose considerable roof timber to water seepage." [86]

Townsend also called attention to a problem that was developing in respect to the use of bitumen additives to mud mortar for ruins repair, a practice begun with high hopes in 1938. Although at first effective, after a period of years the asphalt-fortified mortar began to disintegrate. By the late 1950s, its use would be stopped.

Shortly after the flood of October 16, Louis R. Caywood, recently custodian at Tumacacori National Monument in Arizona, made a visit to Aztec to inspect the damage. While there, he repaired or replaced the protective roofs over six North Wing rooms and extended the pipeline from Kiva E, which took water out of the plaza. Complying with Caywood's recommendations, Townsend replaced the roof over mural Room 117 by using four-by-four-inch timbers, new felt, and bitumuls. He began a program of rodent control and saw that all short drains and gutters were cleaned. [87]

In 1944, government officials looked ahead to what would be needed for the preservation of aboriginal ruins within the National Park Service system once the war was over. A call went out for statements showing comprehensive stabilization necessary under a Major Repair and Rehabilitation Program (also called Comprehensive Post-War Stabilization Program) outlined by Acting Director Hillory A. Tolson. The Southwest Regional Office solicited statements concerning interim work necessary to carry regional sites over until the larger endeavor could get started. [88] Mahan estimated $3,900 would be required for work in the East Ruin and northeast corner of the West Ruin and in Kivas I and F. He suggested that the damaged Kiva I be backilled, using some of the dirt left from digging the drainage wells. [89] He further stipulated that $300 should be spent in backfilling the northwest sector of the East Ruin, where exposed walls were disintegrating, and in bracing sagging beams of intact roofs there. [90]

The major project for 1945 was preparatory work for installation of a deep north drainage system as outlined by National Park Service Engineer James R. Lassiter and seconded by Roy S. Decker of the Soil Conservation Service. [91] Crews removed shoring timbers and pumping equipment from some of the temporary wells and located sources of gravel to be used to fill the trench. Townsend sought laborers, who were scarce because of the war. [92]

An archeological crew dug an exploratory ditch parallel to the line of the proposed drainage system to see whether any prehistoric features might be impacted. It extended along the northern boundary of the monument above the West Ruin, as well as to the north of the unexcavated East Ruin. The only evidence of aboriginal occupation the men encountered was what was described by Ranger James A. (Al) Lancaster as an oven-cist approximately three feet below the surface. The dragline bucket cut more than half of it away before Lancaster was notified. The drawing he made at the time provides little information other than cobbles and charcoal in the bottom of a domed structure of burned earth approximately 30 inches high. It is impossible now to know if the cist might have resembled some pits subsequently found at the Hubbard Mound in the same general part of the monument. [93] Lancaster reported the area free of antiquities that might be harmed by the drainage line. [94]

In preparation for the drain, pipe and manholes were stockpiled. [95] A power shovel was borrowed from Mesa Verde National Park and parked at the gravel pit. There, it was used to dig gravel and load it into trucks for hauling to the construction site. When sufficient gravel was accumulated, the shovel was moved to the ruin and modified into a dragline. Another dragline was provided by the Soil Conservation Service. [96]

During the summer and fall, the trench digging, manhole construction, and laying of pipe progressed slowly, hampered by mechanical breakdowns, labor shortages, and cave-ins (see Figure 12.5). As stories circulated of the mishap in the courtyard trench, laborers were reluctant to get into this trench. [97] On occasion, Superintendent Townsend, in such poor health that he resigned prematurely from the Service, was forced to operate some of the heavy equipment. [98]

Figure 12.5. Dragline digging deep north drainage trench, 1946.

Some 17 months after trenching began, the project was finished on May 21, 1946. A Soil Conservation Service bulldozer backfilled the trench. Shortly afterwards, Townsend judged that the drain was functioning. A small stream of water, which increased following irrigation of fields above the ruin, ran from the end of the drain. Kiva E was drier than it had been for two years. Moisture building up on subterranean walls of the Great Kiva disappeared. [99]

Upon completion, the drainage system represented an outlay of $8,000. [100] It stretched 1437.2 feet from west to east between the monument and private land to the north. At the bottom of the trench, varying in depth from seven to 21 feet, a tile drain six inches in diameter intercepted the subflow and conveyed it to the northeast corner of the monument. There, it emptied into a waste ditch, flowed through a culvert under the county road and down a natural drainage channel to the Animas River. A series of nine manholes along the line permitted inspection of the drain and a way of flushing it if necessary.

Two months after being declared operational, the east end of the drain was filled with mud and fine gravel. Crews placed a pump in the last open manhole to keep that part of the line clear. [101] Soon, about 300 feet of the opposite end of the drain also was stopped up. For the remainder of the year and until the spring of 1947, work on the system continued. Additional manholes were built to gain access to the nonfunctioning section of the line. Because heavy equipment to clean out the line was not available, various kinds of probes and reamers were tried. All efforts failed. At last in March and April, a coordinated effort between the monument staff, the Soil Conservation Service, and the Water and Fire Departments of Aztec and Farmington succeeded in getting a traveling nozzle to force water under pressure into the lower end of the blocked pipe. The drain was kept open after that by frequent flushing. By September 1947, the water table beneath the ruins had fallen dramatically by almost four feet. [102]

During April 1945, while one crew was engaged in the drain project, Ranger Lancaster, aided by workers including Sherman Howe, carried out some emergency stabilization of walls of 22 rooms and three kivas and worked on protective roofs over Rooms 112, 59, and 156. Decaying wooden lintels in some doorways were replaced. [103]

Al Lancaster, off a bean farm in southwestern Colorado and without academic training in archeology, had years of practical experience on the excavation crews of Paul Martin, Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, J.O. Brew, Peabody Museum of Harvard University, and the National Park Service at Mesa Verde National Park. At the latter post, he worked for a time under the direction of Earl Morris. A soft-spoken, humble man, Lancaster went on to become a legend in Southwestern archeology for his keen insight and sound excavation and stabilization methods.

The next year, 1946, much needed stabilization of upper portions and tops of walls and around doorways continued in 39 rooms and three kivas. Stabilizers sloped the area outside the north exterior wall of the pueblo to carry surface water away from the wall. [104] Lancaster was field director; Erik K. Reed and Dale S. King were his supervisors. Reed greatly underestimated the dangers facing the site. He informed the regional director that the problems with the West Ruin structure were small. [105] This was an opinion at odds with that of Superintendent Townsend, who noted the continued rotting of wall bases and loss of wall facing.

Even with the deep north drain operating, Kiva E was subjected to moisture-induced erosion. Workers rushed a pump with electrical motor into action. Archeologist Reed objected to an above-ground cable strung across the front of the ruin and a highly visible discharge pipe to the southeast corner of the compound. Then, the men tried other ways to dry the kiva. All were unsuccessful. Finally, there was no alternative: the roof was removed. [106] Not long afterward, improved ventilation and exposure to the sun ended the soggy saga. The roof was in place exactly 30 years and allowed visitors to observe how a clever cribbing without use of nails, tenons, or other fasteners spanned a circular structure. But given the uncontrollable factors, it proved detrimental.

Meanwhile, another maintenance difficulty developed at the Great Kiva. In 1943, the roof was stripped of its old felt sheathing and the roof redone. However, it continued to leak almost every summer through the 1940s.

In 1945, a potentially more dangerous situation at the Great Kiva was reported by Lancaster, who happened to be in the structure with a group of visitors during a high wind storm. He noticed that the velocity of the wind generated so much pressure that the entire hatbox-shaped superstructure was lifted up slightly from the supporting members. When the pressure was released, the roof cap settled back into place with a resounding jar that cracked plaster. Later monitoring indicated that vibration of the building was not uncommon during strong winds. The Anasazi designed their massive roof-supporting columns so they would not be rigid, one must assume with knowledge that some accommodating flexibility was essential to counter movement of the building. However, the inflexible roof itself surely posed problems for them, as it did for modern preservationists. Perhaps their solution was the same as for the National Park Service architect: add more external weight to the roof. For the Anasazi, it was extra basketfuls of earth dumped over it; for stabilizers, it was soil weighted and impregnated with chemical bitumuls. [107] That modern procedure unfortunately did not work.

An architect from the regional office found that the sub-roof was earth, over which the two-by-four-inch framing had spans of too great a length. Nor was it fastened down at enough points. Also, the sheathing had shrunk. As a consequence, the roof structure was shaky. He recommended removal of the sheathing, addition of more two-by-fours of shorter span, and the entire roof be relaid. [108]

With the physical condition of the ruin continuing to decline in 1947, Reed again appraised the stabilization needs of Aztec Ruins to be minimal. A bit of loose veneer, a few wall bases in the southwest corner, the leaks in the Great Kiva roof, and water standing on the floor of Kiva E nevertheless were noted in his report. [109] No repair followed, other than removal of the roof of Kiva E.