THE BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT 



BY WILL C. BARNES 



HERE'S a story in the paper about a New National 

 Park, let's go and see it." 



The lady across the dinner table pushed the 

 evening paper under my eyes. I glanced at the head- 

 lines to which she pointed. "The Bandelier National 



THE OLD 



"PALACE" AT SANT.\ FE, NEW MEXICO, RECONSTRUCTED ACCORDING TO THE 

 LINES OF A VERY OLD SKETCH RECENTLY DISCOVERED 



the flags of four different 



From the more than three centuries old Governors Palace at Santa Fe, 

 nations have at different times been flown. 



Monument," it said. "Pish-tush," I remarked, using 

 the most up-to-date explosive known to the literary 

 fraternity, "that's not a National Park, that's a National 

 Monument." The ignorance of some people is astonishing. 



"And what's a national monument?" she blandly in- 

 quired. 



"A national monument," rather 

 hesitatingly, I'll admit, "a nation- 

 al monument is is well it's 

 a" 



"I'm listening," was the only 

 comment. 



"Well, a national monument," 

 I began more slowly, "is a cross 

 between a national forest and a 

 national park. It has all the at- 

 tributes of both ; it may be a 

 national curiosity like the Ari- 

 zona petrified forest, a huge 

 playground like the Muir Woods 

 at San FrancLsco or a group of 

 these old pre-historic ruins that 

 abound through the southwest." 

 I stopped, fearing to tread 

 further on dangerous ground. 



Her womanly curiosity was fully aroused. "Ruins in 

 America; real ruins and in the west at that. I thought 

 the west was new?" 



"New nothing," sarcastically, for here I felt on fairly 

 safe footing, "why, the descendants of the ruin builders 

 were found living among the 

 ancient habitations of their an- 

 cestors half a century before the 

 English set foot at Jamestown. 

 Perhaps they were even planting 

 their corn fields and performing 

 their strange ceremonial rites 

 when the Norsemen were build- 

 ing the old mill at Newport. (?)" 

 I could have overwhelmed her 

 with other information but she 

 cut me short. "Lets' go and in- 

 vestigate the Bandelier National 

 Monument this summer." 



So we went, and this shall be 

 a record of where we found it 

 and what we saw there. 



As all stories must have a 

 beginning somewhere, this may 

 well begin at lovely, incompara- 

 ble Santa Fe, than which there 

 is no more interesting spot in 

 the United States. About her 

 little "plaza" there clusters more of historic interest than 

 about any other acre of ground in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere. Over the three-centuries-old Governors "Palace" 

 that faces it, the flags of four different nations have at 

 various times been flung to the breeze. Viceroys of 



VIEW OF TUFA CLIFFS AT FRIJOLES 

 A side canon of the Frijoles region. Note the countless holes in the rock, some natural, many artiflcial. 



