Aztec Ruins Administrative History

1956-1969

National Park Service experts judged 20 years of concerted stabilization at Aztec Ruins National Monument to have been sufficient at last to place the structures in such a state of repair that future work could be devoted to routine care. This was what was called "maintenance status." Also, by that time the Mobile Unit was renamed the Ruins Stabilization Unit, with headquarters in the recently formed Southwest Archeological Center in Globe, Arizona. Gordon Vivian remained its director.

During the summer of 1956, a Ruins Stabilization Unit crew, supervised by Vivian and directed in the field by Richert, corrected problems on walls of nine rooms and Kiva E and sealed leaks in concrete slab roofs over four rooms and the shed roof above Room 117. Stone masons used tinted cement mortar, sometimes concealed on wall faces by mud grouting. Other accomplishments in the West Ruin in 1956 included modifying the surface drainage north of the ruin so that water flowing on to the monument from adjoining private lands was diverted by earthen dikes to the southeast and out of the area. The drainage line laid in 1946 along the north boundary was cleared and repaired. A dry well was sunk at the northwest monument corner, and various drain systems within the ruin proper were reconstructed. It was at this time that a burial found in a nearby field was placed as an exhibit in Room 141. [116]

Richert also spent several weeks during the summer of 1956 making repairs to the East Ruin, where previous preservation dealt with rooms with original ceilings. This time the crew worked in seven excavated or partly excavated roofless rooms, most of which were dug by Morris in the 1920s. Convinced that Earl Morris's interpretation of the East Ruin as a Mesa Verdian construction was correct, Richert is thought to have modeled his repairs after the style of masonry used in that area. The men replaced or reset loose cobbles and capped tops of some walls. In both instances, they used colored cement mortar. Because of their poor condition, it was necessary later to backfill Rooms 15, 16, and 17. [117]

At the end of the field work in 1956, it was time to take stock once again of what had been accomplished and what remained to be done in the foreseeable future. The principal problem in the East Ruin was the large amount of heavy debris over aboriginal roofs causing beams to split. In the West Ruin, the continual stoppage of the deep north drainage line, promoting periodic flooding of the northern tier of rooms, was listed as a high priority problem. With self-guided viewing a possibility, stabilizers were concerned that tops of walls did not become walkways. Comprehensive stabilization of the Hubbard Mound was considered complete. [118]

Attention to the East Ruin was renewed during the summer of 1957, when Richert placed shielding roofs over seven more rooms having intact prehistoric ceilings. That put 11 such superstructures in the East Ruin, with four ceilings still lacking protective cover. Workers scraped away mounded wall rubble and dirt, nine feet in places, before roofs of reinforced concrete covered with pitch and obscured by dirt were secured in place. As usual, workers capped and repointed standing walls of rooms cleared for repair with tinted cement mortar. They carefully removed the fill that accumulated within the open chambers, varying in depth from 15 inches to five feet eight inches, so that room walls could be worked. They replaced beam supports in some cleared rooms by steel cradle braces suspended from the new concrete roofs. [119]

Maintenance stabilization was resumed in the West Ruin on a large scale during the fall of 1959 and the summer of 1960 by Joel L. Shiner, supervised by Richert. Shiner's crew consisted of eight Navajo Indians. During the first phase of this major effort, the Indians worked over 14 rooms, four kivas, and parts of the northern sector of the courtyard. In 1960, they attended to another 51 rooms, nine kivas, and other parts of the courtyard. During these campaigns, masons used tinted cement mortar, frequently pointed over with local mud, to recap certain walls and reset sandstone blocks in kiva and wall veneers and basal courses. Laborers replaced some wooden lintels over doorways and ventilator openings. Using waterproofed concrete, the men poured foundations under a few walls and took down and rebuilt sections of walls whose veneers separated from cores and expanded outward. They dug dry wells to improve interior room drainage. They made repairs to wood-and-tar paper roofs over concrete slab coverings of seven rooms. [120]

Because the modern shed roof covering Room 117, which contained some designs scratched in the plaster, was damaged by seepage from higher construction in the North Wing, laborers dug along the exterior of the north room wall. They plastered the wall surface with a cement and Hydropel mixture. When dry, they then coated that surface with tar before they graded the ground around to drain away from the room. [121]

In the on-going search for a mortar that would approximate Anasazi mud in appearance but be more long lasting, by 1960 Vivian decided that bitumens and soil-cement were unsatisfactory. Consequently, Shiner and a Navajo crew set about reworking walls in the Hubbard Mound. They stripped the failing soil-cement off stone block and cobblestone walls and recapped them with unadulterated tinted cement. They reset missing and decaying stones with the same building material. After nailing poultry wire to wall surfaces, they spread tinted cement plaster over them. They elected to leave stones protruding through the plaster to emphasize the fact that the walls were built primarily of stone. The finished product was ugly and failed to resemble the work of the Anasazi. [122]

For three months during the summer and fall of 1961, Shiner returned with a Ruins Stabilization Unit crew varying from five to 14 Navajos. One more time, they recapped and repointed walls of the North and West wings of the West Ruin. In all, they treated 38 rooms and one kiva. [123]

Cracks developing in the walls of the Great Kiva prompted a professional examination of its foundation in relation to the conditions of water table, precipitation, and irrigation. Hydrological experts drilled five test holes near the structure. The holes went down to 5,617 feet above mean sea level, or what was presumed to have been the surface at the time of construction. Next, the team bored 24 hand auger test holes in and around the exterior of the Great Kiva. The consultants concluded that natural precipitation and poor roof drainage were more to blame for moisture and cracking within this particular building than was irrigation seepage. Unless function of the kiva changed, the experts considered the building to be safe, although standing water was observed at nine feet below the surface. [124]

Upon an inspection in 1962 of the deep north drain line, Richert discovered that, apparently without knowledge of its existence, workers at some time graded the land on the north side of the West Ruin and buried at least three manholes. They could not be located or opened for examination. The line was perennially plugged, and the outfall was silted up and overgrown with dense brush. Overflow of the Hubbard pond was creating an adjacent bog and threatening the East Ruin. Remedial action by the Ruins Stabilization Unit group was carried out the following year. [126]

A 10-man Navajo Ruins Stabilization Unit crew, led in the field during the summer of 1965 by Charles B. Voll and Martin T. Mayer, continued replacing bitumen mortar with colored cement. Part of the group reworked 22 rooms and three kivas of the West Ruin. Another group repaired roofs and treated all exposed prehistoric wood in 16 ceilinged chambers with a wood preservative. In the West Ruin, masons regrouted the walls of 19 rooms with colored cement. They treated six rooms and one kiva of the Hubbard Mound in a similar manner.

A stabilization inventory prepared in 1965 stated that further repair work at Aztec Ruins could be done at five-year intervals. This should be accompanied by frequent preventive measures, such as cleaning out the metal trough drains over protective roofs, the sump located outside North Wing Room 193 that collected drainage from the four north-south chambers through which the visitors' path led into the courtyard, and the tile room drains. Weeds and brush that could interrupt the drainage should be kept at a minimum. The north side drain should be flushed out with water under pressure at least once a year.

Following an unusually heavy series of rains during the spring of 1967, which caused parts of both ruins to give way abruptly, the Ruins Stabilization Unit again was called to the rescue. Mayer and five Navajos spent a week in September undoing the wreckage. They administered stabilization first aid to cobblestone walls of two rooms in the East Ruin and similar walls of almost all rooms of the South Wing of the West Ruin. [127]

Sanders Construction Company, of Farmington, was awarded a contract in February 1968 totalling $11,371.50 to redo two roof drains at the Great Kiva and install new pipe, concrete drop inlets, and associated earthworks in the courtyard. [128]