Letters from Wupatki

When David and Courtney Jones moved into two rooms reached by ladder in a northern Arizona Indian ruin, they had been married only two weeks. Except for the ruin's cement floors, which were originally hardened mud, and skylights instead of smoke-holes, the rooms were exactly as they had been 800 years before. The year was 1938, and the newlyweds had come to Wupatki National Monument as full-time National Park Service caretakers for the ruin. Vivid and engaging, Courtney's letters home spill over with a sense of adventure: her friendships with local Navajo families, their sings and celebrations, and her good luck in being a part of it all. Letters from Wupatki captures a more innocent era in southwestern archaeology and the history of the National Park Service before the postwar years brought paved roads, expanded park facilities, and ever-increasing crowds of visitors. Courtney's letters to her family and friends reflect all the charm of the earlier time as they convey the sense of rapid transition that came after the war, and subsequent changes in the development of Wupatki National Monument and the National Park Service. The letters also reveal changes in the Joneses themselves and offer readers captivating glimpses of a partnership between two people who only grew stronger for the struggles they shared.