At that time there was no road and the park could be reached only by a ride of thirty miles on horseback. In spite of this, visitors began to come and it soon became apparent that in time there would be heavy visitation. Equally apparent was the fact that the ruins were in no condition to receive visitors. Weakened by centuries of neglect and further weakened by the careless work of the early explorers many of the ruins were in poor condition. They could not long survive the impact of the thousands of visitors who would begin to arrive as soon as the first road was built. The answer to this problem was excavation and repair of ruins that were to be visited by the public. In 1908, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Smithsonian Institution, excavated Spruce Tree House and the picture below shows the ruin as it looks today. First the ruin was cleaned out. When the work began, the courts, passageways, and ground floor rooms were filled, sometimes to a depth of several feet, with fallen stones, caved roofs and trash. As this debris was removed, only a few articles of value were found for the early excavators had been thorough in their work. The repair work consisted simply of strengthening the weak sections so there would be no further deterioration. Crumbling foundations were strengthened; leaning walls were braced; cracks were filled with adobe mortar. In all the work there was no thought of restoration for too much modern work would destroy the spirit of the ancient ruin. In his report on the work in Spruce Tree House, Dr. Fewkes stated, “The intention of the author has not been the reconstruction but the repair of Spruce Tree House. Walls in danger of falling, especially those that have suffered a thrust from the perpendicular, have been so treated as to prevent their falling. No radical reconstruction of the rooms has been attempted; the walls have not been built up, but the skylines remain practically as they were before the excavations were begun.” [Illustration: Spruce Tree House The view of Spruce Tree House shows the ruin after excavation. In 1908, the debris was cleaned out and necessary repairs were made. At the time of excavation, Dr. Fewkes counted eight kivas and 114 rooms. He estimated, however, that it had once contained at least 140 rooms. Large sections of the ruin still stand at their original height and several rooms have their original roofs.] ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS