6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.77 



autumn of 1909 when the professor, following explorations which re- 

 sulted in his discovery of important cliff dwellings south of Navajo 

 Mountain ^ and that marvel of erosion, the Rainbow Natural Bridge,^ 

 returned to resume, and conclude, his investigation of this remark- 

 able ruin.^'^ 



Government reservation of Betatakin, Keet Seel, and Inscription 

 House came about in this wise : While at Bluff, Utah, in September, 

 1908, W. B. Douglass, examiner of surveys for the United States 

 General Land Office, learned from Professor Cummings's guide, 

 John Wetherill, and immediately reported to Washington, the exist- 

 ence of certain " fine prehistoric ruins about 90 miles west of Bluff." 

 Douglass asked and received instructions to locate and examine these 

 ruins. It is not to his discredit that he failed in this quest, even 

 when aided by trail maps furnished by Mr. Wetherill and his part- 

 ner, Clyde Colville. The information so gained enabled the sur- 

 veyor to submit, March 8, 1909, the data on which was based the 

 all-inclusive presidential proclamation dated 12 days later creating 

 the Navajo National Monument. It was in mid August, 1909, and 

 at Doctor Cummings's direction, that I accompanied Mr. Douglass 

 from Rainbow Natural Bridge to Keet Seel and pointed out, as we 

 passed it, the south fork in which Betatakin is located. As Doug- 

 lass's earlier and somewhat presumptuous communications to Wash- 

 ington prompted the initial visit and preliminary report of Dr. J. 

 W. Fewkes,^^ so did Douglass's surveys of August-November, 1909, 

 supply the awaited details incorporated in the second presidential 

 proclamation of March 14, 1912, which superseded that of March 

 20, 1909, and reduced the monument to its present area. 



Although he merely anticipated Professor Cummings in so doing, 

 to W. B. Douglass is owing such honor as may be for having first 

 apprised the General Land Office of the existence of important pre- 

 historic ruins west of Bluff and for having urged their reservation 

 and protection in the public interest. Likewise to Professor Cum- 

 mings is due credit for having first recommended a Federal appro- 

 priation to insure repair and preservation of the major Segi Can- 

 yon ruins. Senator Reed Smoot, of Utah, had introduced such a 

 bill in 1915; secured its passage during the next session of Congress. 

 Under date of July 15, 1916, Special Agent W. J. Lewis reported 

 to the General Land Office highly approving the investigations of 

 Doctor Cummings and earnestly recommending that he be placed in 



* Cummings, 1910. 



"Cummings, 1910a; Judd, 1927. 



" Few realize so fully as the present writer that only ceaseless pressure of academic 

 responsibilities has so long, and so unfortunately, delayed publication of Doctor Cum- 

 ming's archeological observations. As pioneer archeologist of the Kayenta district he 

 has accumulated a fund of information eagerly awaited by his younger coworkers. 



a 1911. 



