The 1888 discover)' of Cliff Palace by Bjchard VVetherill transformed Mesa Verde from a scientific curiosity into a major tourist attraction. Bjchard spent the next two winters mining the cliff dwellings for salable relics; his ranch filled up with axes and yucca-leaf sandals in addition to crateloads of potter)'.
Following mixed reviews from local audiences, he took his road show to Denver and included a new discover)', the mummy of an infant. The display became an overnight sensation, and he sold the collection to the Colorado Historical Society for $3,000.
The Wetherill family’s willingness to mrn a profit from the artifacts they amassed changed forever with the 1891 arrival of the young Swedish aristocrat Gustav Norden-skiold, who had seen the exhibit in Denver. He spent the summer at
Mesa Verde introducing them to sciendfic mediods, teaching them to use trowels and whisk brooms and to catalog their finds.
As Nordenskiold prepared to leave, a group of Durango cidzens sued to stop him from ffeighdng his large relic collection to Europe, but the case was dismissed. Back home, he authored the first major book about Mesa Verde prehistory before he died of tuberculosis at 26.
Two cf the five Wetherill brothers, John (left) and Richard, take a luneh break while sorting through artifacts at Spruce Tree House. Richard discovered the ruin (named for a tree growing through an outer wall) on the same December day that he and his brother-in-law Charlie Mason first spied the Cliff Palace ruin.
Gustav Nordenskibld (left), whose photo appears against a background image cf Cliff Palace in 1891, came to the Southwest in hopes cf alleviating Isis tuberculosis. His father had been a noted Arctic e. xplorer and mineralogist. The young Swede was scientifically trained but not an archaeologist. Fascinated by the ruins, he sent home for his camera and spent the entire summer at Mesa Verde.
Groups of tourists like this hardy crew rode horseback to Mesa Verde mi the can-yonside Crinkley Edge Trail. Guide Richard Wcthcrill (third from right) and his brothers advised visitors that they need not fear “danger or discomfort,” though one woman complained that the water at the Wetherills’ Alamo Ranch
Was so alkaline that it “takes eff what little skin the pihons leave.” This 1889 party included the Sumners, a distinguished Washington, D. C., family.
World History
