The Wetherill brothers have been given credit for discovering the ancient Puebloan ruins and cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park. As a young boy, my grandfather Nathaniel Corneilius Decker worked for them herding horses and cattle on the mesa.
The Wetherills saw the financial potential of their discovery, excavating and selling many of the ancient artifacts from the ruins. They also saw the tourist potential and soon organized paid tours into the mesa. These early tourists had to ride horses or mules in escorted pack trains. It was a long, hard ride.
Access from the north, south and west was either impossible or impracticable. The east side of Point Lookout was also hazardous, except for a series of wooded foothills that rose steeply from the Mud Creek area up the eastern flank. The National Park Service advertised for bids to build a wagon road into the Park. The successful bidder was my great-grandfather Nathaniel Alvin Decker. For a number of years, he had served the County building and maintaining roads in the vicinity of Mancos, Webber, Wattles and Mud Creek.
Very little is known about the actual contract, how many miles of road it required or the amount of the bid. A fairly close estimate can be made by looking at the County records dated July 6, 1909. It stated "a road of a mile long to start from a point south of the Mancos-Cortez Road and running west to connect with the road now being constructed by the government going to the Cliff Dweller ruins in Mancos Canyon."
My great-grandfather accomplished the task with help from his five sons, Morris, William, Nathaniel, Carl and Earl.
Trees and brush were cut by hand and dragged away by horse teams to clear the right of way. Walking plows and handheld scrapers were used to cut grades, move rocks and dirt to form the road bed. The steepness of the mountainside made it necessary to route the roads back and forth until it reached the ridge at the pass, where the present highway cuts through at the Morefield Cut.
The switchbacks of the old Decker road were plainly visible from Mancos and Webber long after it was discontinued. Today, hardly and sign of it can be discerned due to the overgrowth of trees and brush.
The road is a proud legacy of my Decker ancestors.
Darrell Ellis is a historian and longtime resident of Mancos.