University of Virginia Library

Beginnings of Modern Research 1888-1920[26]

By the close of the 1880's, not only the Smithsonian Institution and
various other research and educational institutions in the United States
had begun to take an active interest in the Chaco ruins, but also the

general public—represented by casual travelers and newspaper men—
had begun to visit and publicize the ruins. Among the first of the latter
group were Charles Lummis, who visited Pueblo Bonito in 1888, and
F. T. Bickford, who spent some eight days exploring the Chaco Canyon
ruins in 1890.[27] Victor Mindeleff, in connection with his comparative
study of Pueblo architecture, had visited the Chaco briefly in 1888.[28]

The first excavation, other than the ignoble and unrecorded diggings
of pot-hunters, in the main Chaco ruin area was that by the Hyde
Expedition for Explorations in the Southwest. Mr. Richard Wetherill,
who homesteaded and built in the canyon near Pueblo Bonito in 1896,
brought an excavation project for Pueblo Bonito to the notice of
Messrs. B. Talbot B. Hyde and Frederick E. Hyde, Jr. These gentlemen
financed the project, which was placed under the direction of
Professor F. W. Putnam, who was at that time Curator of Anthropology
for the American Museum of Natural History. Professor Putnam
had previously been an archaeologist for the Wheeler Surveys, and had
written the volume on archaeology in the report series. As Professor
Putnam was able to be in the Chaco only a small portion of the time
contemplated for excavation, Mr. George H. Pepper was appointed
field director. Actual excavation was commenced in the spring of
1896 and was continued in the summer field seasons of 1897, 1898, and
1899. A road was improved to Pueblo Bonito from a siding on the
Santa Fe railroad (more than sixty miles distant) which became named
Thoreau. At Pueblo Bonito was established a great trading center for
the Navajos, and a post office named Putnam. Between Putnam and
Thoreau wended long wagon trains, taking out Navajo blankets and
wool, and artifacts from the excavations, and bringing in excavation
equipment, supplies, and trade goods.

A large crew of Navajo and Zuñi workmen, supervised by a few
white men, were able to accomplish the excavation of somewhat less
than half the pueblo rooms (198 rooms were excavated, mainly in the
northern central section). About a score of burials, more than fifty
thousand pieces of turquoise, and thousands of artifacts of clay, wood,
stone, bone, shell, and metal were uncovered. Most of this material now
reposes in the American Museum of Natural History. Besides excavation
in Pueblo Bonito, test trenches and pits, and exploratory excavations
were made in other portions of the canyon. Also, geologic, geographic,
somatologic, and ethnologic studies were carried on in the

canyon area. In addition to Director Putnam, and Field Director
Pepper, assisted by the five Wetherill brothers, such men as A. V.
Hrdlicka, W. K. Moorehead, and R. E. Dodge carried on studies at
Pueblo Bonito and throughout the Chaco Canyon during the period
1896 to 1900. Although a few articles by Pepper appeared in 1899,
1905, 1906, and 1909, no comprehensive report on the excavations was
published until Pepper's field notes appeared in 1920.[29]

With the turn of the century, came T. Mitchell Prudden, who for
several summers carried out a general reconnaissance of the upper San
Juan drainage basin, with special attention to small house ruins.[30] In
1902, Dr. E. L. Hewett visited and mapped the ruins of the Chaco
Canyon.[31] During the following eighteen years numerous visits were
made by private individuals and government officials, but no formal
excavations or other detailed studies were carried out.[32] In 1907, the
Chaco Canyon National Monument was organized, but no resident
custodian was employed for some twenty years. Dr. J. Walter Fewkes,
in 1916, explored a number of ruins on the southern periphery of the
Chaco basin in connection with a search for archaeologic mile posts of
a legendary migration of a Hopi clan from Jemez to the eastern Hopi
area.[33] In 1915, N. C. Nelson took rough notes on ruins in the Chaco
area, and in 1916, he, assisted by Earl Morris, excavated refuse mounds
at Pueblo Bonito, collected shards from various ruins, and studied the
Threatening Rock behind Pueblo Bonito.[34] Also, in 1916, Dr. E. L.
Hewett, of the School of American Research, conducted a reconnaissance
of the main Chaco ruin area with a view toward initiating excavation
in the following year. The entrance of the United States into
the World War delayed this project until 1920.