The Wilderness Warrior - Douglas Brinkley [330]
Although he was in Santa Fe for only three or four hours, Roosevelt made it a point to visit the New Mexico Historical Society’s museum, probably with the idea of writing another volume of The Winning of the West, about Kit Carson, during his postpresidential years. Santa Fe intrigued Roosevelt because it had been permanently settled in 1610, before either the founding of Jamestown or the Pilgrims’ landing in Plymouth. Roosevelt knew he would have to move quickly to save New Mexico’s earth-toned adobe buildings. That safeguard task would indeed become a priority following the 1904 election. Wearing a white Stetson, he was playing Pat Garrett in the land of Billy the Kid. Speaking to some 10,000 people in front of the territorial capitol, Roosevelt proclaimed the benefits of “forest preservation.” Having huge reserves, he said, would be a prerequisite to New Mexican statehood.73
In the old town of Albuquerque Roosevelt, with Governor Miguel Otero at his side, inquired about the various southwest Indian ruins in the territory that Congressman Lacey had been pestering him to preserve, such as Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The tireless Hewett, in a series of fine articles, had proposed establishing national cultural history parks in the Southwest. Hewett warned that vandals were looting pottery and old cooking utensils from the sites, sometimes using dynamite to blow holes in archaic dwellings. Without federal protection soon, there would be nothing left of these antiquities and their sites. In Utah, reports were coming out about petroglyphs 4,000 years old.74 Hewett, whose nickname in archaeological circles was “El Torro,” had legions of friends—and enemies. Roosevelt was squarely in the camp of his friends. Even though Hewett was disliked by governors, ranchers, and landowners in New Mexico, Roosevelt saw him as a territorial treasure in his own right. All of Roosevelt’s communication with Hewett was through Lacey. Generally speaking, Roosevelt supported saving all the prehistoric ruins in the Southwest as quickly as possible.
New Mexico’s current motto, “Land of Enchantment,” is not its first. An earlier motto was “The Land of Sunshine,” which Roosevelt found appealing and true.75 The mild, dry weather of New Mexico served as a balm. Little girls dressed in wedding-dress white made sweet appeals to Roosevelt for New Mexico’s statehood, singing patriotic ballads for his pleasure. All the president could do was beam. He gave a spectacular speech in the Old Town followed by luminaries at sunset around the plaza casting everything in a golden glow.
Then, leaving Albuquerque at dusk, the Pacific Coast Special headed for the Grand Canyon. A quick stopover was made in the Painted Desert during the early morning. Roosevelt had time for nothing more than a few inhales and a surveyor-like scan of the flatness. Congressman Lacey had been telling Roosevelt about the Petrified Forest of Arizona and the president now got a feel for the topography under the entrancing moonlight. (A few years later Muir would come to the Petrified Forest to study fossils and draw up a map for upholding the area as a national park.) Arriving in Flagstaff at nine o’clock on the morning of May 6, waking up to the light of the sun, Roosevelt felt well rested. Surrounding him were Merriam’s San Francisco Peaks (where Merriam, as head of the Biological Survey, had first discovered this stratification of life zone in 1898). In Flagstaff, the world was full of geological possibilities. Roosevelt had clearly left the hysteria of national politics back in Washington, D.C., 1,900 miles away. He felt isolated and happy. Glory to the West! Glory to John Wesley Powell! Glory to the Arizona Territory! Glory to the Grand Canyon, which at long last he was going to see! Roosevelt was in a glorious frame of mind.
Roosevelt standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon with Governor Brodie of the Arizona Territory.
T.R. standing at the Grand