Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10658.jpg
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  • OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS 3 Owing to the fact that but limited funds4 are available for the administration of the national monuments it has been impracticable in many cases for the National Park Service to give the desired protection to some of the monuments. As funds have permitted, however, custodians have been appointed who reside either within the monument boundaries or in near-by communities. The important southwestern national monuments, many of which have custodians, have been grouped under the general field supervision of Frank Pinkley, superintendent of southwestern monuments, who is also custodian of the Casa Grande National Monument. His address is Blackwater, Ariz. Wherever possible, with the funds available, repair and restoration work has been carried on in the ruined structures within the monuments, and in some cases camp grounds for motorists have been installed and roads and trails improved. In the following short descriptions of the national monuments administered by the National Park Service information regarding rail and automobile approaches to the monuments and the names and addresses of the custodians are given. AZTEC RUIN NATIONAL MONUMENT The Aztec Ruin National Monument, situated near the town of Aztec, N. Mex., contains the remarkable Aztec Ruin, a large E-shaped structure of the well-known pueblo type, containing approximately 500 rooms. The first story of the building is standing, and in 24 of the rooms original ceilings are intact. Many of the second- story rooms are standing and in some cases also parts of third- story rooms. The ceilings, where standing, are supported by large beams, cut and dressed with stone tools, and are interesting exhibits of work done in the Stone Age. The sandstone walls, reasonably plumb and with dressed faces, take high rank as examples of prehistoric masonry. The plot of land bearing the ruin was presented to the United States by deed of gift from the American Museum of Natural History through the generosity of one of its trustees, Mr. Archer M. Huntington, and was made a national monument by presidential proclamation January 24, 1923. The American Museum has been engaged in systematically excavating the ruin during the past six years, clearing out the rooms that have been covered by debris and sand for hundreds of years, capping the standing walls to prevent further disintegration, and studying it in an effort to throw light upon its antiquity and place its builders in the aboriginal history of our countrv. «The annual appropriations made for the administration of the national monuments by the Interior Department are listed on p. 70.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).