NO. I ARCHITECTURE OF PUEBLO BONITO — JUDD 5 



Military expeditions against the Navaho were recurrent in the 

 middle 19th century and more than one camped in Chaco Canyon. 

 On October 30, 1858, several members of Company E, Regiment of 

 Mounted Rifles, carved their names on the cliff back of Chettro 

 Kettle (Vivian, 1948, p. 16), and it is reasonable to believe that 

 these or other troopers were responsible at least for some of the 

 holes Jackson and Mindeleff saw in the north wall of Pueblo Bonito. 

 Years later, during military service at Fort Wingate, May 10, 1909, 

 to February 4, 1911, Privates Otto Wolford and John G. Bushman 

 of the 1st Troop, 3d Cavalry, successor to the Mounted Rifles, 

 carved their surnames at the top of the Pueblo Bonito stairway. 



Mindeleff's 1887 photographs, earliest pictorial record of Pueblo 

 Bonito, provide visible evidence that seekers after treasure had pre- 

 ceded him with pick and shovel. They had forced every sealed door in 

 search of open rooms and had breached the high north wall at 3- to 

 5-foot intervals throughout its full length (Mindeleff Neg. 3022). 

 "Relic hunting" was both a pastime and a vocation prior to passage of 

 the Antiquities Act of 1906. 



The Wetherill brothers from their ranch near Mancos, Colo., had 

 discovered the famous cliff-dwellings of the Mesa Verde; had 

 gathered and sold several collections from these and other prehistoric 

 ruins. It was the hope of finding new ruins for exploitation that led 

 Richard Wetherill to Chaco Canyon in October, 1895, accompanied 

 by S. L. Palmer, his future father-in-law, and family. During the 

 next few weeks the two men amused themselves by digging for 

 curios, and both were successful. Palmer retained his share and 

 later lent it for display in the public library, Hutchinson, Kans. 

 (personal letter of June 8, 1921, to the National Geographic Society). 



From Albuquerque after leaving Chaco Canyon, Wetherill wrote 

 so enthusiastically of collecting possibilities at Pueblo Bonito that 

 B. Talbot B. Hyde, of New York City, agreed to substitute a season 

 there for one previously planned for the Marsh Pass region, north- 

 eastern Arizona (McNitt, 1957, pp. 109-113). This proved to be 

 the first of four expeditions, 1896-1899, financed by the Hyde broth- 

 ers, B. Talbot B. and Frederick E., Jr., and directed from New York 

 by Prof. F. W. Putnam, then curator of anthropology at the American 

 Museum of Natural History. Although the Hyde brothers had 

 previously purchased one or more archeological collections from 

 Wetherill, they stipulated that, this time, excavations should be pur- 

 sued under supervision of a recognized authority. The annual reports 

 of the Museum do not state that Professor Putnam visited the scene 



