Tonto National Monument

My first assignment as an administrative assistant was at Tonto National Monument in central Arizona. Tonto was set aside to preserve the ruins of the Indian cliff dwellings found there.

There was a "huge" staff at Tonto: the Superintendent, Park Ranger, Maintenance man, and myself. But we also hired a couple of seasonal employees in the summer.

During the year I worked there, a new visitor center was built (see picture above), and we had a brush fire started by a thunderstorm that burned off almost half of the monument acreage. When the fire was out, I was sent up in a helicopter (first time and scared to death) to take record photographs of the burned areas. The black and white photo in this group of the upper ruins was taken on that airborne journey. I was using a 4 x5 Speed Graflex camera.