The Wetherills of the Mesa Verde: Autobiography of Benjamin Alfred Wetherill

Description

Author: Wetherill, Benjamin Alfred  (1861-1950)

Editor: Fletcher, Maurine S.

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Pub Date: 1987

Binding: Paperback

Condition:  Fair.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends, folds.  All corners worn.  Spotting to bottom text block.  Edge wear.

Notes:  Reprint edition.  Originally published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press in 1977.   Benjamin “Al” Wetherill was the first to spot the Cliff Palace ruins of Mesa Verde in 1885, but he didn’t enter it.  His brother Richard and brother-in-law Charlie Mason were the first to enter the ruins, and are credited with the discovery.  The Wetherills’ discoveries were later disparaged by both the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, effectively accusing them of being “grave-robbers”.  After an anonymous trip to visit Mesa Verde in 1946, listening to the Park Service employees trash their reputation, Al Wetherill wrote this autobiography to correct the record.  During his lifetime Al Wetherill became an expert on desert and mountain flora.