144 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Dam. The ruins of this district are reached from the 

 Southern Pacific at Casa Grande Station, which is about 

 twelve or fifteen miles from the Reservation, but the 

 most interesting and complete trip is along the Phoenix 

 to Globe auto road which traverses the old Apache trail. 

 This trip is particularly attractive, as it is only a link 

 en route, for the tourist 

 traveling west can go to 

 Globe on the Southern 

 Pacific & Arizona East- 

 ern Railroad and travel 

 from there to Phoenix, 

 Arizona, by auto- 

 mobile, covering the 

 Apache Trail, the 

 Roosevelt D a m, the 

 Cliff Dwellings, and 

 view the famous Super- 

 stition Mountains. 



There are two groups 

 of Cliff Dwellings near 

 the Dam, one of which 

 is about four and a half 

 miles from the Dam. 

 Farther up on the 

 mountainside is a more 

 extensive group, the 

 walls and structures ot 

 which are in a remark- 

 able condition of pres- 

 ervation. The ruins of 

 Casa Grande are mostly 

 of the form of founda- 

 tions showing the loca- 

 tions where the walls 

 were once placed, while 

 those of the Roosevelt 

 Dam country are better 

 preserved. 



As a mecca for the 

 American tourist whose 

 avenues of escape to 

 the land of the upturn- 

 ed palm have been 

 closed the country of 

 the Cliff Dwellers ex- 

 tends unprecedented at- 

 tractions. Primarily, 

 the climate of the Great Alesa is, in so far as my knowl- 

 edge extends, the most attractive and invigorating that 

 can be found. The skies are cloudless from May until 

 November. The atmosphere is as dry as can be imagined. 

 The temperature is such that one is comfortable with or 

 without a coat, and the scenery in general is of an exotic 

 character that fascinates beyond description. Couple 

 with this the wonderful experience of climbing in and 

 out through the ruined structures of an ancient people 

 and the possibility of discovering some small article that 

 may prove to be a missing link which has escaped the 

 trained eye of scientists, and you have a tourist's paradise. 



Lithograph pencil sketch by Mark Daniels, 



THE SPEAKER CHIEF'S TOWER 



From the second floor terrace the chief is presumed to have addressed his people 

 from time to time. The terrace is about 15 feet square, and commands a view 

 of the entire village. The lower portion is semicircular on one side. The 

 upper is rectangular and provided with loopholes, at which guards were sta- 

 tioned, no doubt, to protect their chief from any little interruption by stones or 

 arrows projected by a disrespectful auditor. The pencil seemed to be the only 

 instrument that would show the details in these deep shadows. 



Why our Federal Government has neglected to secure 

 better facilities or to even adequately preserve the relics 

 of these ruins has been a question frequently discussed. 

 Baron Nordenskjold, the great Swedish anthropologist, 

 visited Mesa Verde in the later eighties or early nineties 

 and took therefrom not only the impressions for which 



he came, but also most 

 of the loose imple- 

 ments, bits of pottery, 

 feather cloth and other 

 evidences of that form 

 of civilization which 

 obtained amongst the 

 Cliff Dwellers. What 

 little he left has since 

 been scattered amongst 

 the residents of the dis- 

 trict so that by the time 

 the National Park was 

 created, there was little 

 left for the tourist to 

 study. If a museum 

 consisting of small 

 structures containing a 

 few glass cases which 

 might cost, perhaps, so 

 much as $3,000, could 

 be squeezed from an 

 annual billion-d o 1 1 a r 

 liudget, the residents 

 of the district who have 

 collected these curios 

 would willingly lend 

 them for exhibition, 

 but to date the plea of 

 this wonderful Park 

 for some means of pre- 

 serving its relics has 

 gone unheeded. 



Why the district has 

 not received more at- 

 tention on the part of 

 tourists and the lovers 

 of antiquity has been 

 a mystery that is only 

 second to the mystery 

 of the ruins. Thousands 

 of people annually 

 spend their money in pursuit of the lure of antiquity. 

 Most of them are not familiar with the fact that the old- 

 est living thing on earth and the oldest ruins in the world 

 are on this continent. Time, in its backward stretch, 

 seems to reach the limit of human appreciation along 

 about the time the pyramids were built in Egypt, yet if 

 those who travel, looking for the relics of antiquity, but 

 knew this wonderful country, I feel certain that more 

 of their time would be spent at home. 



Much has been written of the romance of the desert, 

 and as a result tourists visit Egypt and the barren wastes 

 of Northern .Africa with their eves blinded to the fact that 



