From 1916 until 1932, the entire area was under the administration of the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. At this time it was transferred to the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Thousands of visitors go to Bandelier every year chiefly just to look at this magnificent Valley of the Frijoles. A new modern highway replaces the old trail from the north cliff. The visitor now drives down to the valley floor to spend an hour or so on a tour conducted by the National Park Service, to hear the story of how Indians lived in the cliff homes and in pueblos long before Columbus discovered America. They wonder about cliff dwellers while ravens soar above the valley floor and caw just as they did four hundred years ago. They see the visible remains of the great kiva on the Canyon floor and stroll on to Puwige, the big community house. They view over two hundred excavated rooms, four hundred years old. They see the narrow passage through the east side and the remains of obstructions used to slow down the attackers of old. And then they climb to the base of the weathered and sun-drenched cliffs where many an Indian woman swept rubbish from her kitchen out on to the steep slope and ground many an ear of corn on crude metate. Visitors climb into caves, the floors covered with dust and ceilings still blackened with smoke. They push the hands of the clock back to the Stone Age, while the Keres to the south go on living on the banks of the muddy Rio Grande, apparently forgetting that there ever was a Tyuonyi, war or trouble; and while the Tewas to the north, having settled themselves, seem to have forgotten their ancestral home—the “Frijoles,” the National Park Service strives to protect, preserve, and make the ruins in Hidden Valley live again. SOURCE MATERIAL