GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS Administrative History

Decline

After 1942, the limitations of small, wartime budgets and a staff depleted by military enlistments [41] as well as the termination of the Civilian Conservation Corps program forced the Southwestern National Monuments office to scale back its management activities throughout the region to mere protection and maintenance. After the Second World War, the backlog of work at the larger, more visited national monuments further delayed the next official visit to Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Finally, in 1948, Steen was again dispatched to assess the condition of those ruins. Unfortunately, he reported substantial deterioration of the prehistoric architecture, noting that most of the damage had been caused by visitors. [42] Although he recommended excavation as well as another round of stabilization activities, no funds were allocated for this work.

As the most remote unit in the system of Southwestern National Monuments, with few visitors, no permanent staff, and only a reserve status, the prehistoric site in the Gila Wilderness suffered the kind of administrative desuetude that is occasionally the product of limited budgets, competing projects, and a long list of priorities. [43]

In June 1954, Marjorie Lambert, the curator of archaeology for the Museum of New Mexico, drew professional attention to the monument. Writing to Erik Reed, she complained about the condition of the ruins, which she had recently visited with members of the Grant County Archaeological Society. [44] Specifically concerned about damage caused by visitors walking on the walls, an activity she had apparently witnessed, she also lamented the amount of graffiti inscribed on walls, beams and pictographs, noting that "[t]hese ruins are one of the saddest examples, in the Southwest, of this sort of vandalism."

Lambert's letter triggered an inquiry from Southwestern National Monuments that led, in the following year, to the hiring of "Doc" Campbell as the first seasonal ranger at the monument and shortly afterwards to a six-week visit by the Mobile Stabilization Unit to remediate damage inflicted on the prehistoric site. [45]