doubled during the past five years. Of the 52,166 visitors to the park during the year, 51,600 came in 17,200 private cars. Thirteen thousand nine hundred and eleven people made the trip through the cave.

With but three exceptions every State in the Union was represented this season, as well as South America, Cuba, China, England, Denmark, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Russia, and Hawaii, but the bulk of our visitors came from this and near-by States. More than 96 per cent of our visitors came to the park in private autos, and as a very large proportion of these were carrying camp duffel, our camp sites were inadequate to handle the increased numbers. Rail and autobus travel to the park continues to show a decrease.

RAILROADS AND BUS FACILITIES

The park may be reached by rail over the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Chicago & North Western Railroads to Hot Springs, which is but an overnight ride from Omaha, Denver, or Billings. Larson & Dean, operating an autobus line from Hot Springs to the park, have provided new and up-to-date equipment and are giving excellent service.

ROADS

The one road extending across the park from north to south has been in abominable condition all season. The failure of the general road budget was a severe blow to this park, as our one most imperative need is a good rood. Our meager appropriations have been insufficient for even the proper maintenance of our narrow, rocky, dirt road which is a link in the main highway through the Black Hills, and its condition has elicited a lot of unfavorable comment from visitors who contrast it with the miles of wide, gravelsurfaced roads leading to the park.

CONSTRUCTION

It was necessary to build a small ranger cabin to house the additional employees, and to construct additional water-storage facilities. These items were taken care of from our regular budget, though other maintenance features had to be neglected to accomplish this.

BIRDS AND ANIMALS

Game birds are increasing and becoming very tame. It is estimated that there are 14 flocks of grouse, 8 coveys of quail, and about 15 ruffed grouse on the park, in addition to the smaller birds.

Aobut 4,000 acres of the park are fenced for a game preserve and contain 130 buffalo, 7 antelope, 2 deer, and approximately 300 elk. Buffalo and elk are in good condition and increasing rapidly.

REVENUES

The revenues of the park, from all sources, for the fiscal year 1924 were $4,015.50.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The administration, protection, and maintenance appropriation should be increased so that at least two more men could be employed permanently for clerical and general utility duties, and also to provide funds for maintenance features that we have been forced to neglect.

2. In addition to a proper maintenance fund, a most imperative need of this park is a good road comparable to those leading to the park.

3. The present system of lighting the cave, viz, candles and lanterns, is far from satisfactory, and an adequate electric-lighting system should be installed at the earliest practicable date.

4. The park has outgrown its water system, even with the additional storage capacity provided last year, and the present supply should be augmented by the construction of a big dam on the creek about 3 miles from headquarters.

5. An administration building, combined machine shed and workshop. ice house, and a shelter for camping visitors are needed and should be provided in the near future. 6. A good draft team, harness. and wagon should be purchased: also an automobile and some much-needed road machinery and tools, and some additional office equipment should be provided.

SULLYS HILL NATIONAL PARK

W. R. BEYER, Acting Superintendent, Fort Totten, N. Dak.

The summer season in Sullys Hill National Park was quite cool, with considerable rain during the early part of summer. The rains were responsible for putting the poor roads in bad shape, and this fact, together with the cool weather, made a reduction in the number of visitors at the park.

The following improvements have been made: New entrance drive graded and surfecd; new entrance piers completed and stone tablets inserted in piers; walk around Sweet Water Lake made and half graveled four more lunch tables and two fireplaces installed; parking grounds marked off with large stones; barbed wire placed on picnic ground fence; corral built for stacking hay and capturing elk and buffalo; Hostess House furnished and all buildings painted; water piped into lower picnic grounds; nesting boxes for tree ducks and song birds put in trees; and many other improvements.

The 14 buffalo at this preserve are doing very well. The Minot City park is getting a fine buffalo bull from Sullys Hill. Two more buffalo bulls will be sold from this preserve for exhibit purposes or meat this fall. One small buffalo calf was lost this spring.

At Sullys Hill there are by count 40 grown elk. It is estimated that there are at least 15 or more elk calves. Öne old bull and one calf elk were lost during the last year. At least 10 bull elk will be sold for meat this fall.

Preparations are being made for a hard winter, and a good supply of hay is being purchased. Deer at Sullys Hill are not increasing. The deer started with were of southern stock and have not done well. Only one deer has been counted recently. None have been found lost. Plans are made to secure a new start of northern white-tail deer in the future.

The pheasant is doing well in this locality. I should judge there are at least 300 pheasants in the vicinity of Sullys Hill. In captivity there are 7 old birds and 5 young ones. Plans are now made to build more extensive bird inclosures. The wild mallard and Canada goose are at home on Sweet Water Lake. The geese and ducks come to the shore for feed from the visitors. Many geese are beginning to stop, when the flights are on, at Sweet Water Lake. A start of wood ducks and goldeneyes has been secured. Wild wood ducks and golden-eyes are coming into Sweet Water Lake for feed and protection.

Visiting tourists up to September 30, 1924, were counted as follows:

Sullys Hill National Park is popular with both tourists and local visitors. The most important need at present is a good road leading to the park, as the present approach roads are exceedingly poor; they are hard on autos and discourge visitors from making another trip over the same road. It is hoped by the time another annual report is due that Federal-Aid Highway No. 249, leading to this park, will be completed.

MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

JESSE L. NUSBAUM, Superintendent, Mancos, Colo.
GENERAL STATEMENT

Mesa Verde National Park, as created by act of Congress approved June 29, 1906 (34 Stat., 616), embraced an area of 66.2 square miles. By act of Congress approved June 30, 1913, the boundaries of the park were so changed as to include an aggregate area of 76.51 square miles or 49,966.4 acres. The park is situated in the extreme southwestern part of Colorado in Montezuma County.

ADMINISTRATION

The park is administered by a superintendent, with permanent headquarters within the park, who is assisted by a very limited number of rangers, mostly temporary, who conduct visitors to and through the ruins, care for permits, regulate traffic, patrol the park area, and protect the game. The clerk-disbursing officer was moved to the new administration building at park headquarters from the Mancos office for the park season, but must return to the rail, mail, and telegraph headquarters of Mancos for the winter before the roads are blocked with snow, and contact with him will be by park telephone as in the past. Only in this way can I personally carry on and direct the winter work here and keep in close contact with the Washington office. The establishment of a summer post office here made possible the moving of the clerk to the park for the

summer.

TRAVEL

Mesa Verde can never hope to compete with other national parks in volume of travel because of its comparative isolation. It is located over 175 miles from the nearest broad-gauge standard Pullman railroad, equally distant from the nearest great eastand-west transcontinental highway, and separated by nearly 400 miles of the very backbone of the Rocky Mountains from the great tourist centers about Denver. Rail service to within 26 miles of the park is by the D. & R. G. Southern, a narrow-gauge non-Pullman line, which entails an overnight stop en route in reaching Mancos.

Approach roads to the park over the high mountain passes are closed till a month after the park season opens, and closed again previous to the closing of the season. Notwithstanding the fact that automobile stage service is maintained during the season from the Santa Fe main line at Gallup and from the D. & R. G. S. line at Mancos, less than one-half of 1 per cent of all visitors are rail passengers. Over 90 per cent of the total travel is by privately owned automobiles.

The wonderful scenic State highways of Colorado over the great mountain passes and particularly the Durango-Silverton-Ouray Road, have been a great asset in bringing visitors to this park. The improvement about to be started on the GallupShiprock Road, the southern entrance road to the park, will make it possible to intercept the heavy travel over the National Old Trails Highway, at Gallup. The interest in Mesa Verde is more than nation-wide, as visitors have registred from six foreign countries this season. Individual registration shows representatives from every State in the Union, and private automobiles bearing State license plates from nearly every State in the Union have been recorded this season.

All park operators have been rendering excellent service to the public during the present season. But for the relocation, rearrangement, and enlargement of the Spruce Tree Camp Hotel last season and the additional cottages and tents erected this season, this operator could not have cared for the 50 per cent increase in visitors this season. The Mesa Verde Pack & Saddle Co. made expenses this season and in another year will have a fair return on its investment. The Gallup-Mesa Verde stage line, connecting with the Santa Fe System main line at Gallup, 178 miles south, can not expect a large business until the improvement of the Gallup-Shiprock Road across the Navajo Reservation is accomplished. The Mesa Verde Transportation Co., operating an automobile stage line from Mancos to the park, although rendering excellent service, had fewer passengers than during last season. This company has the mail contract for the park during the present season.

ADMINISTRATIVE HEADQUARTERS

Administrative headquarters were again maintained at Spruce Tree Camp during the past year, and the lone clerk in the park office in Mancos was moved to the new administration building in the park as soon as the summer post office of Mesa Verde National Park, Colo., was established.

Plans and sketches prepared by Mrs. Nusbaum were submitted and approved, covering the construction of the clerk's quarters, public comfort station, and the ranger station. Two of the buildings have been completed and placed in use. The ranger station will be started as soon as water is available for construction. All these buildings follow the Pueblo Indian type of architecture adopted for use in the administrative group in this park and will be furnished in conformity with the superintendent's home, which has received so much favorable comment. The industrial plot was cleared and the shop building and warehouse erected thereon early this spring. The employees' mess hall and employees' dormitory will be completed late this fall. Slowly but surely the administrative group is taking form along the prearranged and approved plan, and with

comfortable housing facilities for employees, which have never been provided before, Mesa Verde will be prepared for an even more efficient and economical period of administration.

MUSEUM

Interest in the archeological collections of the Mesa Verde has been greatly accentuated by the appointment of a museum assistant who is constantly on duty in the museum and gives informative talks on the collections therein. The museum is still located in the old inflammable log cabin, as water has not been available since before June 1 to complete the new museum, and this work will have to be accomplished this fall and winter. Much new material has been added to our collection during the past season.

PUBLIC CAMP GROUNDS

Over 55 per cent of the total number of visitors during the season made their home on the public camp grounds during their stay in the park. Due to extreme drought the grounds have been somewhat dusty this season. Water is piped to convenient outlets thereon, firewood is supplied and toilet facilities provided for campers.

TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Much work has been necessary on the telephone system this season to keep it functioning regularly, and until the park constructs its own line from Mancos to the park boundary, the maintenance of that section where our lines are attached to the local toll line will not be satisfactory.

LIGHT PLANT

A new 14 kilowatt 110-volt storage-battery type light plant has been installed to replace the small worn-out plant used heretofore.

ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK

No excavation work in the ruins was contemplated during the season, funds being available only for the repair, preservation, and protection of ruins previously excavated. WATER SITUATION DESPERATE

Once again this season, as in the past three seasons, the lack of an adequate water supply has all but closed this park. Heroic work on the part of the park forces, and the realization of the desperate situation by visitors and operators, alone made it possible to keep the park open during the season.

The situation is extremely desperate and acute. Many nights during August there was less than 2 gallons of water available per visitor and employee for the following 24-hour period. Stock was watered as far as 8 miles from camp, the hotel bathhouse closed in early June, construction work entailing use of water stopped July 1 and water for laundry purposes was not available for protracted periods after June 30. Large signs were placed at each public outlet, personal appeals signed by me were posted over the camp, and during very critical periods, I personally appealed to visitors at the evening camp fire to help us keep the park open by using water most sparingly. Dams constructed this season increase the flood waters impounded by tenfold. The upper cistern now holds seven times the volume of water. A new pumping plant has been installed to replace the worn-out one.

Appropriations for water development have not been sufficient to keep ahead of the increase in attendance, and sufficient water for the conservative uses of visitors and park employees must be developed if Mesa Verde is to continue as a national park. August visitors alone amounted to over 50 per cent of the total registration during the past season, and each year the percentage of increase grows.

CAMP-FIRE TALKS, VOCAL CONCERTS, AND INDIAN DANCES

Camp-fire talks by park officers on the archeology, history, geology, flora, and fauna of the park are conducted regularly each favorable evening during the major part of the season for the enlightenment of all visitors. Noted scientists, educators, travelers, etc., often add to the success of the evening. Occasionally noted singers delight our visitors with impromptu concerts given from Spruce Tree House ruins, the cave acting as a great amplifying sound board which makes even the softest notes audible in camp. Six of the best dancers and singers of the Navajo Indians employed in camp conclude the evening's entertainment with several parts of the famous "Yeibachai Ceremony."

"THE EAGLE WOMAN

Both in the mythology of the Navajo, as well as that of the Zuni Pueblo Indians, the "Eagle Woman " is a most important and sacred character. Mrs. Nusbaum wrote a ceremonial play based on this mythology, designed for enactment in the ruins of Spruce Tree House, across the canyon from headquarters. After gaining the confidence of the leading Navajos and a medicine man employed here she gradually unfolded her plans to them, and they agreed to enact the various parts of the drama, including the songs and dances in costume within the ruins which normally they will not even enter. Costumes were designed and executed and 18 Indians trained for their various parts. The cave and various parts of the ruins were lighted by red and green railroad flares, which were set and shielded to produce the striking lighting effects. The ceremonial drama was given twice during the season before large crowds seated on the opposite rim of Spruce Tree Canyon.

FLOWERS

Mesa Verde was a vast garden of flowers and blooming shrubbery above the timbered area previous to the period of protracted drought and abnormally warm weather. Lack of moisture literally killed this wonderful display.

WILD ANIMALS

Again, because of drought, water is not available for the park deer, and they are feeding well down in the timber on the north slope and watering in the valley. Several groups were seen in the early spring and occasionally single bucks since that time. One only of the three big mountain lions, known to be killing deer on the park, was treed by dogs and shot down. Coyotes are abundant, bobcats numerous, and kit fox and swifts and porcupines are often seen.

CONSTRUCTION OF TRAILS

The construction of the Rock Springs Trail, stopped last season because of excessive rains, was completed early this season. This trail opens to the visitors dozens of hitherto practically unknown ruins on the west side of the park, one of which, Long House, is second only in size to the famous Cliff Palace regularly visited by park guests. None of the ruins on this trail have been excavated and repaired.

A short foot trail was constructed from Square Tower House to the unexcavated ruins of Little Long House, and another from Cedar Tree Tower road to a series of approximately 100 prehistoric dams found during the past season. A third trail was roughed out to the elaborate pictographs on a point now called Pictograph_Point." All trails have been maintained in excellent shape, and the damage to the Rock Springs Trail by reason of the cloudburst of August 3 was immediately repaired.

ROADS

The damage to roads, particularly the Knife Edge section, by cloudbursts of the previous season, which was ended by a final deluge late in December, was barely repaired this season when we were confronted by an equally serious problem by reason of protracted drought, which started the loose and disintegrated shale to sluffing and sliding under the Knife Edge Road. Heavy dry desert winds and lack of binding moisture started an extensive movement which increased gradually in intensity until at one time one 1,100-foot section of the road, nearly 1,800 feet directly above the valley, was reduced to less than 9 feet in travel width, even after the ditch line was filled. Cribs of 60-foot logs, and hundreds of loads of scrub-oak brush in the leaf were necessary to stop this movement. Seventy-five per cent of the total fund for the maintenance of all roads for the year was expended in checking the movement and widening the road for safe passage of park visitors, nearly all of which could have been saved by one good soaking rain at the opportune time.

Mesa Verde has excellent dry weather roads, as far as surface is concerned, as they are composed of admixtures of clay, red soil, soft disintegrated shale and gumbo. Wet, they are very treacherous, and during long soaking rains become utterly impassable. Grades up to 20 per cent still obtain, the switchbacks and hairpin turns need correction, and the whole road demands widening and hard-surfacing to withstand the traffic imposed, which during the present season has been over 42 per cent greater than last season. Park roads must be improved to compare favorably with approach roads, which during the coming season will be hard-surfaced past the park entrance. The time for improve

ment is now.

RUINS AND NEW DISCOVERIES

The number of ruins accessible by trail within the park has been more than doubled by the construction of the Rock Spring Trail. Due to excessive rains of the past season, much damage was done to exposed ruins on the mesa tops, and to exposed walls under the caves and the cliffs. All ruins are maintained in the best possible condition with the limited funds available, but the increasing thousands who visit them yearly proportionally increase the cost of preservation.

A fine series of pictographs has been found on a spur of Navajo Canyon, not far from camp, and the point has been named Pictograph Point. A beautifully preserved watch tower, 25 feet high, was located last winter on the west side of the park, and in Step House Cave remains were found of the very early post basket maker culture.

GIFTS

The new museum building, I regret to say, has not been completed, because of the water shortage, but conditions may so improve as to make the completion possible this fall. Mrs. Leviston has very generously added $2,000 to her previous gift of $3,000 for the park museum.

Mr. Alvah Davidson, of Brooklyn, N. Y., is having a fine relief map made of the park area as his gift to the new park museum.

Numerous friends of the Mesa Verde National Park, whose names I am not at liberty to mention, have most generously and voluntarily pledged and contributed to one or another of the various park activities, for which the Government makes no provision, sums ranging from $1 to $3,500, and the total of all amounts pledged and contributed this season approximate $7,000.

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE NATIONAL PARK DEVELOPMENT TOUR

Secretary Work, of the Interior Department, in a letter to H. V. Kaltenborn, leader of the annual tour, suggested that the national parks should again be visited this year, and called particular attention to the Mesa Verde National Park. I followed up his letter with a personal invitation to visit this area and outlined additional scenic and other features which they might well include in their tour. Communities for 200 miles to the east, 100 miles to the north, and 200 miles to the south united with the park in making their tour a most successful and never-to-be-forgotten one. This party dedicated the Knife Edge Road in the park, and later at Shiprock, N. Mex., the southern entrance road to the park. Never has a national park been host to a finer, more intelligent, and more congenial group of visitors than that of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle party under the leadership of Mr. Kaltenborn.