the ruin, was reserved from
settlement by Executive order. A custodian was also appointed, and,
as this office has been informed, has been continued down to the
present. This action on the part of the legislative and executive
branches of the Government can only be regarded as indicating a
desire and continued intention to preserve the ruin for the benefit
of the people of the United States.

The expenditures thus far authorized for the preservation of Casa
Grande ruin have been made in such manner as to meet the most urgent
needs only, and without them the structure would probably have been,
before this time, beyond the reach of preservation. The preservative
works were undertaken as emergency measures, rather than as steps in
carrying out a well-considered plan. From the outset it has been
understood by architects and archeologists and others familiar with
the structure that preservation can be insured only by throwing a
roof over the entire ruin in such manner as to protect the walls
from the fierce rainstorms which occasionally occur in the Gila
valley. No lesser work will preserve the ruin more than a generation
or two; and unless this work of roofing is contemplated and is
undertaken within a few years, the emergency work will be of little
avail and the money expended therein will be lost. Accordingly,
assuming a desire and continued intention on the part of the
Government to preserve this noteworthy relic, no hesitation is felt
in recommending that a suitable roof be placed over Casa Grande
ruin, at such time as may be expedient; and, in view of the rapidity
with which destruction is now in progress, there is no hesitation in
saying that the work should be undertaken at the earliest
practicable date.

It should be added that neither the Director nor any of the
collaborators in the Bureau of American Ethnology have visited Casa
Grande ruin for some three years, and accordingly that there are no
data in this office to indicate whether there is especially urgent
necessity for undertaking preservative work at this time; but much
confidence is placed in the judgment of the custodian, Reverend
Isaac T. Whittemore, who is known to several collaborators in the
Bureau.

The subject of the preservation of Casa Grande, in many respects the
most noteworthy ruin in the United States, is deemed important; and
if the Secretary of the Interior desire