In 1888, Colorado cowboys Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law Charlie Mason rode into the canyons of Mesa Verde looking for stray cattle. What they found changed the course of American history and led to an explosion in American archaeology. Tucked in some of the canyon cliffs were dozens of stone rooms with artifacts and human remains lying on the floors as if they were left the day before. Collecting what they could carry Wetherill and Mason quickly realized there was money to be made selling these precious artifacts. Thus began an incredible era of looting cultural treasures, the development of a new scientific discipline, and a movement to preserve America’s cultural heritage. Richard Wetherill played a central role in all of this for some 32 years until he was shot to death by a Navajo man in Chaco Canyon in 1910.
This is the story of Weatherill and a colorful cast of characters who discovered and looted magnificent ruins at Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Grand Gulch, and other sites in the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. It is also the story of the development of a new scientific discipline—archaeology—and the search for information about the ancient people who built these impressive settlements. It tells the stories of dedicated people who campaigned to preserve and protect America’s cultural heritage in the face of racial bigotry and Wild West land policies.
The major vehicle author Rachel Morgan, a southwestern archaeologist, uses for telling these stories is the history of the Hyde Exploring Expedition. In 1893, five years after Wetherill’s discoveries in Mesa Verde and a time where he explored, excavated, and sold ancient artifacts with abandon, he joined forces with socialites turned antiquarians Fred and Talbot Hyde in a nine-year, well-funded search for new sites and more artifacts to collect or sell. The Hyde Exploring Expedition soon concentrated on Chaco Canyon, where systematic excavations that made fantastic discoveries were undertaken. But by 1900, the Hydes were ready to move on, encouraged by a growing movement to stop the looting and protect the ruins. By 1906, the preservationists prevailed with the establishment of Mesa Verde National Park and the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which led to new national monuments at Chaco Canyon and other important sites.
The birth of American archaeology in the Southwest is an epic tale with an intriguing cast of characters well told in Sins of the Shovel.
University of Chicago Press, 2023; 328 pgs., illus. $30 cloth or ebook; press.uchicago.edu
