Hi, my name is Donnell Huffer,
I'm the Vanishing Treasures Archaeologist at Grand Canyon National Park.
Today, we're at Tusayan Pueblo
with our Vanishing Treasures Preservation Crew.
The Vanishing Treasures program is a National Park Service program
dedicated to the preservation of traditionally built architecture.
It also provides for training opportunities for National Park Service employees,
and other federal agency employees.
In addition, the program supports the perpetuation of
traditional skills and supports connections between
culturally associated peoples and the places of their heritage.
The Grand Canyon Vanishing Treasures Preservation Crew
works to protect historic and pre-contact archaeological sites
with intact architecture, that are open to visitation throughout the canyon.
Such as Tusayan Pueblo here at the South Rim,
Walhalla Glades Pueblo on the North Rim,
and Ben Beamer's Cabin on the Little Colorado River, in the Inner Canyon.
[rock hammer tapping]
The primary focus of the Vanishing Treasures Program is on preservation.
Which emphasizes the retention of original architectural fabric,
through conservation, maintenance, and repair.
In 1930, the site was excavated by the Gila Pueblo Archeological Foundation
and stabilization of the pueblo immediately followed the excavation.
The intention was to develop Tusayan Pueblo
as an interpretive site with a museum.
The pueblo walls that you see today, look much like they did after excavation in 1930.
Tusayan Pueblo was never reconstructed.
However, as was common in the early days of stabilization projects,
the 700-year-old, deteriorated, original mud mortar,
was replaced with cement mortar.
Tusayan Pueblo was originally occupied around 1200 AD,
by ancestral Puebloan groups that are the ancestors of modern-day
Puebloan peoples.
the ancestral Pueblo people
built this pueblo using mud mortar and Kaibab limestone rocks
that they could procure locally. They lived with a small community of
people that could upkeep the pueblo on a daily or seasonal basis, as needed.
Today, 150,000 people visit this pueblo annually.
The combination of visitation and the effects of heat and cold,
rain and snow, cause deterioration of the masonry.
This necessitates frequent repairs in order to keep the site in good condition
and safe for visitation.
Today, we use a soil mortar amended with a small amount of cement, at Tusayan Pueblo.
This ensures that our repairs are durable,
yet reversible, and that our materials are compatible
with the predominant appearance of the pueblo.
By preserving archaeological resources like Tusayan Pueblo,
we provide an opportunity for present and future generations to appreciate the
history of native peoples at Grand Canyon National Park.