SALINAS "In the Midst of a Loneliness": The Architectural History of the Salinas Missions

STABILIZATION OF QUARAI (continued)

Stabilization as a State Monument, 1940 to 1972

The State conducted occasional inspections of the ruins through the years from 1940 to 1972, but performed no further stabilization. In 1956, when sudden concern for the condition of Abó triggered a flurry of stabilization activity, Quarai was inspected and found to need only patching and a little maintenance. It was showing no major areas of deterioration.

Because of the part-time arrangement for a local custodian, Quarai went unprotected for days at a time during these 32 years. As a result, in May, 1963, treasure hunters again cut a hole into the north wall of the apse. The hole, 2 1/2 feet deep, 5 feet wide and 3 feet high, removed a portion of new masonry rebuilt by Ely in 1934-35, filling a similar hole that had been present since at least 1890. [18] The hole remained open, and in fact was cut deeper into the wall over the next few years, until by 1972 it had been punched entirely through the north wall of the apse.

The Stabilization of 1972

Finally, in 1972 the State was able to put together funding for a major stabilization effort at Quarai. The field work began on March 17, 1972, and continued to September 7 of the same year under the direction of Tim Valder, with his wife Linda making notes and keeping the records of the archeological work carried out in association with the stabilization. The work was stopped on September 7 more or less in the middle of the project, leaving a number of tasks unfinished. [19]

During this stabilization the workmen used "pencapsula" as the stabilizing agent mixed with local soil for most of the work. In some areas a mixture of soil and soil cement was used. Pencapsula was a "polyresin combined with mineral spirits." Within two years most of the pencapsula pointing washed out of the newly stabilized areas.

During the stabilization, the crew removed all the flagstone from the floor of the church, the porteria, and the front terrace. The project stopped before the flagging could be reset on the levelled floors. A planned drainage system for the church was not built.

Figure 62. Quarai in 1956, and generally as it appears today. Courtesy Museum of New Mexico, # 6669.

In the church, local sandstone and pencapsula-stabilized mortar were used to cap about fifty percent of the church walls. Only the west nave, west transept, and east nave walls were capped. The wooden lintel beams of the west window, front door and choir window, choir door and sacristy door were coated with pencapsula, as was the surviving white wall plaster high on the inner face of the west transept wall. The treasure-hunter's pit through the apse wall was not repaired.

The small chapel excavated by Stubbs in 1959, southwest of the church, was cleared of blown fill. About sixty percent of the wall top was capped, using local sandstone and pencapsula mortar.

In the convento, about half of the walls were capped and repaired. Four rooms were stabilized using soil cement, and the rest with pencapsula mortar. Most walls were not grouted, nor was the planned drainage installed in the square kiva.

Three rooms of the "east ruin," along the east side of the second courtyard, were capped with local sandstone and pencapsula mortar. Blown fill was removed from two rooms, and one undercut wall was repaired, but most rooms were left uncleaned, uncapped and ungrouted. In the "southeast convento," about one quarter of the rooms were capped and grouted, and emptied of fill. The drainage systems intended for these areas were not constructed.

In 1973 Charlie Steen reported that all the stabilization work of 1972 using pencapsula had completely failed and the work using soil cement was in bad shape. He attributed the failure to the severe winter. Worse, sections of four walls in the "southeast convento," completely stabilized with pencapsula, had collapsed. Steen stated that the entire stabilization project would have to be redone, using a better stabilization agent. [20]

The Stabilization of 1978

In 1978 the office of New Mexico State Monuments of the Museum of New Mexico carried out a complete stabilization of the ruins of Quarai. All wall surfaces of the church, convento, and associated ruins were pointed and capped. Within the church, the flagstone floor was rest with a slight slope to encourage drainage. The stabilization crew found only enough flagstone to cover the nave of the church, and left the transept as bare dirt. [21]

In the convento, the flagstone floor of the porteria (room 22) was not replaced. However, the crew removed blown fill that had accumulated, and found a few stones remained in place. In the sacristy storeroom, room 24, the original flagstone floor was found still in place after accumulated blown fill was removed. [22]

The crew removed accumulated dirt from the square kiva (room 27) and relocated its original floor surface, marked by a charcoal stain on an earthen floor. In the process the crew found the last traces of the fire pit in the floor, with a few small slabs of sandstone edging still in place. They replaced the sandstone slabs and rebuilt the tops of the walls back to the level of the grade in the patio. This made the walls a little more than seven feet high. [23]

In the southeastern rooms, room 52 was pointed and capped. Rooms 53 and 54 were backfilled to the same level as the surrounding grade, but their walls were not stabilized in any way. Four mixes of mortar were used for all the stabilization work at the mission, but its components were never specified in the stabilization notes. [24] However, the mortar had largely washed out by the time the National Park Service made its first inspection in 1983. The mortar may have been strengthened with soil cement, or it may have been unfortified adobe mortar.