6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I47 



of operations before 1899, but he was personally represented each 

 season by his assistant, George H. Pepper. 



THE HYDE EXPEDITIONS 



Outfitting at the Wetherill ranch the Hyde Expedition's freight 

 wagon, chuckbox at the rear, made open camp close under the north 

 wall of Pueblo Bonito early in the spring of 1896. There were no 

 tents; it was a relic collector's camp (Pepper, 1920, fig. 3). 

 Room I4b, where Lieutenant Simpson had carved his name August 

 28, 1849, was storeroom and kitchen; pipe for the camp stove was 

 raised against the outside wall. As Professor Putnam's representa- 

 tive, Pepper supposedly was in charge of excavations but Wetherill 

 obviously wielded a greater influence. He was a rugged individualist 

 and not accustomed to taking orders, especially from a younger man ; 

 he had recommended the site and previous experience there told him 

 where to dig; he spoke Navaho and Navaho Indians were employed 

 as workmen; his teams did the freighting from Mancos to Chaco 

 Canyon and back again. 



In his biography of Richard Wetherill, Frank McNitt (1957) 

 extols the undeniable capabilities of his subject while belittling 

 Pepper for his lack of western training, for being less experienced 

 than Wetherill in digging relics, and for the meticulousness of his 

 excavation notes. Between the lines, however, one gains the impres- 

 sion that Putnam's instructions to Pepper did not always prevail ; 

 that the random selection of rooms for excavation was sometimes 

 made with a view to their possible contents; that the sums annually 

 available for expenses were never adequate ; and that Wetherill 

 never drew a living wage for his efforts. This last fact prompted 

 various additional undertakings on his part, including another col- 

 lecting campaign to Grand Gulch during the winter of 1896-97. 



At the end of the second season at Pueblo Bonito, Wetherill had 

 a one-room trading post built against the outer north wall, connecting 

 with Room 14b (Pepper, 1920, fig. 4; McNitt, 1957, p. 173) ; the 

 following year, 1898, a larger store with residence adjoining was 

 erected near the southwest corner of the ruin, and the Hyde Explor- 

 ing Expeditions, with Wetherill as manager, were in the Indian trad- 

 ing business on a large scale (Holsinger, MS., p. 70; McNitt, 1957, 

 p. 191). Travelers on various missions came and went; a boarding 

 house for employees at the southeast corner of Pueblo del Arroyo 

 was retitled "the hotel" ; excess guests were quartered in tents or in 

 patched-up rooms in Pueblo Bonito. Among others. Rooms 122-124 



