St. Joseph of the Mountains

Age, but the majority were living quarters. Along one wall of each living room were mealing bins, metates and manos lying where the grinders had left them 650 years ago. In the center of the earth and clay floors were sunk stone fire pits. Axes, pots, and other ancient housekeeping utensils lay scattered about the rooms. The pueblo was evidently a series of one-room apartments, only a single inside doorway being uncovered. There were no windows. Entrance was made by ladder through a hole in the roof of beams covered with earth. Dr. Haury estimates the site was abandoned about 1400 A.D. One skeleton was unearthed near the large communal dwelling. A sufferer from arthritis, the old man had been laid to rest with the body of his dog curled near his head. The highlight in the events of the summer was the dedication ceremony of the permanent camp when Victor Kindelay of the Apache Tribal Council set a cement plaque, inscribed with the field school's name and the year, into the foundation of the newly constructed dining and kitchen building. Close to 100 visitors were present, including members of the Tribal Council, A. E. Stover, Reservation Superintendent, John F. Lasley, William Lynn and Paul Buss, all of the Indian Service, who have been of continuous assistance to the excavators in starting their operations. Dr. Haury spoke to the gathering, outlining the archaeological problem and the plans for the school, and extending his gratitude to Burridge D. Butler, Phoenix and Chicago radio station owner, and to the Viking Fund of New York for financial grants which made the 1946 season possible. The over-all plan for the University's summer school, formally to open next June, calls for a camp of 25 students and a staff and help of approximately ten persons. There will be both men and women participating in each season's two months of work. They will excavate, make laboratory analyses of material from the ruins, restore and classify pottery, clean and prepare specimens for study, and catalogue the material. In addition they will attend lectures given by staff and visiting scientists. University of Arizona students will, of course, have a priority in the selection of enrolees, but the camp will not be exclusively for them. "I hope to draw one or more students from each of several universities with outstanding departments of anthropology," said Dr. Haury. "Requirements for attendance will be stiff; this is to be a work camp, embracing all phases of anthropological field work. Only students who desire to be professionally engaged in anthropology will be accepted. We shall consider their previous formal training in the science. Due to the heavy nature of the work, all students must be perfectly fit physically." The experience will be of outstanding value to the students, for they will have the opportunity to put into practice the theory learned in winter classrooms. Credit towards bachelor and graduate degrees will be granted through the University. The fee for the camp will be all-inclusive, covering tuition, lodging, meals, and training costs. The permanent camp, when completed, will be complete with a well-equipped kitchen and mess hall, electric light plant, pri-vate water supply, bunkhouses, and sanitary facilities. The build-ings face Circle Prairie and the White Mountains and are centrally located to those ruins which are to be excavated. At the-completion of the Point of Pines project some years hence, the buildings will become the property of the Apache Tribe.

Here was once a flourishing village. All that remains on the surface are fallen walls, a few bits of pottery.

Tucked away in a rocky fastness atop Yarnell Mountain is a new symbol of man's devotion to Christ and the Christian way of life. The Shrine of St. Joseph of the Mountains is nearing completion, the work of many loving hands.

In a natural setting of massive boulders, mountain oak and holly is the moss-stoned altar above which stands the statue of Joseph, the Carpenter of Nazareth, holding the Baby Jesus in his arms. Here, under a blue sky, cloud filled, cardinals and blue birds sing; Mass is said.

At the foot of the mount chosen as the setting for the Shrine has been placed a stone table at which Christ sits alone, His hand upraised over the Holy Grail in blessing. It is the scene of the Last Supper. Every line of Jesus' face and figure expresses the tragedy of this last gathering of His Apostles before the Cruci-fixion. The absence of the Apostles intensifies the feeling of loneliness of the Christ at this time.

This is the beginning of the story told in stone of the Way of the Cross, the last days in Jesus' life.

At the start of the trail of rock that winds around the mount, is the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is kneeling under a tree, His hands clasped in supplication. This is the Agony in the Garden when Christ reconciled Himself to His approaching death.

The trail to the top of the mount is marked with rugged wooden crosses bearing plaques which depict the last steps in the journey of the Christ to His crucifixion. At the top, as at Calvary, the crucified Jesus hangs from the Cross.

Down the mount is Jesus in the arms of Mary, His mother, her face transfixed with sorrow; His, in death, with the peace and understanding that passes the knowledge of men.

The final station is Christ in the tomb, the great rock has yet to be rolled in front of the entrance, sealing the Sepulchre.

The Shrine is the inspiration of the Catholic Action League of Arizona, a small group of men and women who organized in 1934 to carry on works of spiritual and corporal mercy, regardless of race or creed. Yarnell Mountain, with the hamlet of Yarnell at its crest, is cool and restful, green and beautiful with the calm and quiet of great heights and breath-taking vistas. The Shrine started here as an altar in an open air chapel. The beauty of the mount with its wild growth of trees, its boulders and rocks forming grottos suggested to the League the theme of the Shrine, the Way of the Cross.

The work has been so inspired that the members started it with a treasury fund of $32.00, which they netted from a box social in 1938. There have been times when the wherewithal was as low as six cents. The work went forward, however, brush was cleared and burned, huge rocks moved, crosses made, steps built. The labor was, for the most part, contributed by League members, and many others who were interested in the project.

An unknown sculptor was found whose story is as unique as the methods he used to build the statues. Felix Lucero of Tucson was washing dishes in a cafe when League members found him. They had heard of him in connection with the statues he used to build in Arizona river beds in fulfillment of a vow he had made twenty years before. Out of sand he had carved the scenes of the Last Supper and Crucifixion. His vow had been completed and the League hired him to build the statuary for the Shrine. He was brought to Yarnell, and together with members of the League evolved a way of making the cement figures that would withstand the rigors of mountain weather.

Around rods and wires rescued from junk yards, the artist put wet cement. He scraped away the undesired material as soon as the cement had begun to set. One part of the figure was built on another, the whole kept wet, or water cured, for three weeks. The finished figures were painted a deep ivory and set in place. Although he is unknown, Felix Lucero created life-like statues of great beauty. The work on the Shrine lacks only the finishing touches. It has the approbation of the Bishop of the diocese in which it is located. It has not yet been dedicated as a shrine, although it has been the goal of two pilgrimages. Little known as yet, to those who have discovered it, it brings the calm of its beauty, the comfort of its story.