Richard Wetherill Anasazi
Anasazi, the Navajos' name for the "Ancient Ones" who preceded them into the Southwest, is the nickname of Richard Wetherill, who devoted his life to a search for remains of these vanished peoples. He discovered the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and Kiet Siel and the Basket Maker sites at Grand Gulch, Utah, and at Chaco Canyon he initiated the excavation of Pueblo Bonito, the largest prehistoric ruin in the United States. His discoveries are among the most important ever made by an American archaeologist.
zzMarietta Wetherill
First published in 1992 and now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, this is a firsthand account of life at a famous archaeological ruin. Married to Richard Wetherill, the rancher and amateur archaeologist who ran a trading post in Chaco Canyon from 1896 until he was murdered by a Navajo in 1910, Marietta Wetherill got to know her Navajo neighbors as intimately as an Anglo could. While Richard was excavating at Pueblo Bonito, Marietta managed the trading post. She befriended a singer who adopted her into his clan and gave her a close-up view of Navajo medicine and religion.
zzWetherills Friends of Mesa Verde
Following in the wake of what one noted scientist called 'transients who neither revered nor cared for the ruins as symbols of the past, ' the Wetherill family became the earliest students of Mesa Verde. Their careful excavations and record-keeping helped preserve key information, leading to a deeper understanding of the people who built and occupied the cliff dwellings. As devout Quakers, they felt they were predestined to protect the historic sites from wanton destruction - a role that would not be assumed by the government or other institutions until years later. Based on decades of meticulous research, author Fred Blackburn sets the record straight on these early protectors of Mesa Verde.