Arizona’s real-life Indiana Jones: the man who saved Navajo history

John Wetherill’s Three-Decade Guardianship of Navajo National Monument

John Wetherill guarded Navajo National Monument for 30 years on a dollar-a-month salary he rarely got paid.

From 1909 to 1938, he lived in tents each spring, left his trading post, and watched over countless cliff dwellings across the vast monument.

He filed monthly reports and kept artifacts safe while building deep bonds with local Navajo people, who called him “Hosteen John” – a title of great respect.

Even Teddy Roosevelt and Zane Grey sought his guidance through the red rock canyons. At 72, after three decades of unpaid service, he simply stepped aside.

The ancient dwellings of Navajo National Monument still stand today because one man cared enough to protect them.

John offered to guard ruins for free in 1909

John Wetherill wrote to surveyor William Douglass in March 1909 with a simple offer. He would “gladly look out for the ruins without pay” until the government found someone permanent.

His timing couldn’t have been better. John already ran a busy trading post near the old cliff homes and took folks on pack trips through the rough canyon country.

The government needed someone local to watch over these old treasures before they could create a national monument.

President Taft created a monument with fuzzy borders

President William Howard Taft signed papers on March 20, 1909, creating Navajo National Monument. The borders were super vague, just covering “all cliff-dwelling and pueblo ruins” across a huge area.

This made the job nearly impossible. Hundreds of old sites sat scattered across the land, most without proper maps or trails.

The plan aimed to protect amazing cliff homes like Keet Seel, which Wetherill had helped show to the public years earlier.

The Government asked him to watch everything

On April 9, the General Land Office made it official. They sent John papers naming him caretaker for “$1.00 per month. ”

His job included watching the ruins, writing monthly reports, and stopping theft. The government said they’d send notices for John to post at the ruins and on trails.

The problem? Most sites had no trails. Even worse, John rarely saw that dollar during his time as caretaker. The promised pay became something of a running joke.

New ruins kept turning up under his watch

John took Professor Byron Cummings to find Betatakin on August 9, with help from a Navajo guide named Clatsozen Benully.

Just a month earlier, they had found Inscription House, where someone had left strange writing on a wall long ago.

Beyond finding new places, John played peacemaker between William Douglass and Byron Cummings, who fought over digging rights.

Somehow, he kept both men happy enough to allow proper work without harming the fragile sites.

Rainbow Bridge became his second unpaid job

When President Taft named Rainbow Bridge a national monument on June 30, 1910, nobody got picked to watch it.

John simply added it to his duties without being asked. He tracked visitors and kept up the tough trail to the massive stone arch.

Many tourists who came for the cliff homes wanted to see Rainbow Bridge too, which meant week-long horse trips.

John guided famous people like writer Zane Grey and former President Theodore Roosevelt to the bridge in 1913.

The monument shrank to a more manageable size

President Taft signed new papers in March 1912, cutting the monument down to 360 acres around three specific cliff homes.

The new borders included 160 acres each around Keet Seel and Betatakin, plus 40 acres around Inscription House.

To make money, he charged folks fees for guided horse and camping trips to the ruins, since his dollar-a-month pay stayed mostly on paper.

New bosses wanted more paperwork from their unpaid ranger

Congress created the National Park Service in August 1916, moving John from the General Land Office to the new agency. The NPS listed him as one of only thirty-two staff members across the country in their first roster.

When John asked about his missing pay in 1917, officials told him he hadn’t filled out the right forms for his dollar monthly salary.

The office folks started asking for more detailed reports about visitors, wildlife, and any fixes to the sites, all while still not paying him.

Tourists started showing up without guides

In 1922, John reported over 100 visitors had come to the dwellings.

A better wagon road now let cars reach Tsegi Canyon mouth, so people could hike to ruins without John knowing they were there.

Damage jumped, with graffiti showing up on ancient walls and items going missing from the sites. Meanwhile, report rules got more strict.

Officials wanted specific formats and more detailed info from their dollar-a-month man who still wasn’t getting paid.

His boss nicknamed "Boss" brought structure to the desert

The Park Service created the Southwestern National Monuments Office in 1924, putting Frank “Boss” Pinkley in charge of fourteen monuments.

Pinkley became a mentor and friend to John. By 1929, John wrote about his growing worry that ruins were losing artifacts without proper protection.

Monthly reports became required and showed up in Pinkley’s newsletter, where John’s clever complaints about his situation often appeared, making readers laugh.

Depression-era workers followed "Hosteen John" into the canyons

John led twenty-eight unemployed men from Holbrook hired during the Depression in 1934. Their job: fix the crumbling Keet Seel dwelling.

The workers stayed loyal to “Hosteen John” even when their hours dropped from 40 to 15 per week. Over four months, the crew rebuilt fallen walkways that linked different parts of Keet Seel.

The Park Service also hired John’s nephew Milton Wetherill as a seasonal ranger to watch over the busy tourist months.

At 72, he finally called it quits after three decades

In 1938, authorities told 72-year-old John he needed a medical examination to keep his position. His health wasn’t great after nearly thirty years scrambling through canyons.

On May 29, 1938, he wrote a simple note to the Park Service: “Turn my position over to someone who can draw a salary.”

His resignation ended an almost thirty-year run of volunteer service protecting irreplaceable archaeological treasures.

Full-time ranger James Brewer replaced John on December 31, 1938, finally providing the “regular superintendent” originally promised back in 1909.

Visiting Navajo National Monument, Arizona

Navajo National Monument is free and open year-round at P.O. Box 7717 Shonto, AZ 86054, nine miles north of Highway 160 via AZ Route 564.

You can join ranger-guided Betatakin hikes daily from Memorial Day through Labor Day at 8:15 and 10:15 AM MDT.

Sign up in person at the visitor center for these 3-5 hour tours with 700 feet elevation change, limited to 25 people.

Remember the Navajo Nation observes Daylight Saving Time March to November.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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