Lay of the Land

a legendary preservationist

no one has had a greater impact on the preservation of our archaeological heritage in the West than Edgar Lee Hewett, the subject of our Legends of Archaeology feature in this issue of American Archaeology (see “Breaking The Rules,” page 40). Beginning in the last decade of the 19th century, Hewett became increasingly alarmed at the destruction, largely caused by looters, of the Southwest’s archaeological legacy.

In the spring of 1903, he invited Congressman John Fletcher Lacey (R-Iowa), the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Public Lands, to join him on a tour of Southwestern archaeological sites. Hewett and Lacey spent some two weeks together touring the rich archaeology of the Pajarito Plateau west of Santa Fe. The result of this trip was a determination to protect the archaeological sites on public lands through new legislation, and Hewett helped draft what became the Antiquities Act of 1906, one of the nation’s most effective preservation laws.

Antiquities on public lands were declared part of the national patrimony for the first time and protected by law. The president was given the authority to proclaim national monuments, and Hewett lobbied for and got new national monuments and parks at Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, the Pajarito Plateau, and elsewhere. But his forceful campaign for preservation and for new national parks earned him the enmity of Western farmers and ranchers and consequently he lost his job as a college president.

The Antiquities Act has been used by most every president to protect our cultural and natural heritage. Always controversial, Hewett was a person who got things done. His legacy is a system of parks and monuments that protect and interpret our past. There can be no better.

Mark Michel, President