Crowning a desert hilltop is an ancient pueblo. From a rooftop, a child scans the desert landscape for the arrival of traders, who are due any day now. What riches will they bring What stories will they tell Will all of them return From the top of the Tuzigoot Pueblo it is easy to imagine such an important moment. Tuzigoot National Monument, one of several sites near Flagstaff where the remains of dwellings of the 12th century Sinagua Indians are preserved, is a small national monument. Unlike the single cliff house of Montezuma Castle to the southeast, Tuzigoot is a cluster of buildings on top of a small ridge close to the Verde River valley, near the towns of Clarkdale and Cottonwood.
Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted of 110 rooms including two and three story structures. The first buildings were built around 1000 A. D. The Sinagua were agriculturalists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles. The people left the area around 1400 A. D.
Introduction
Perched atop a ridge high above Arizona‘s Verde River lies Tuzigoot National Monument, the remnants of one of the largest pueblos built by the Sinagua. Tuzigoot, an Apache word meaning “crooked water,” was built between 1100 and 1400 A. D. and consisted 110 rooms. This structure, along with others whose ruins have been found in the surrounding area, provided shelter for hundreds of Sinagua occupants. Tuzigoot National Monument is an 834 acre unit located just below the Mogollon Rim in Central Arizona. Currently, only 58 acres of the legislated amount are in National Park Service ownership. Although the climate is arid, with less than 12 inches of rainfall annually, several perennial streams thread their way from upland headwaters to the Verde Valley below, creating lush riparian ribbons of green against an otherwise parched landscape of juniper-dotted hills.
From the mineral-rich Black Hills to the south, to the red and white sandstone country of Sedona and the basalt-capped palisades of the Mogollon Rim to the north, to the limestone hills of the Verde Valley, the dynamic nature of the Earth’s geologic processes is evident in the landforms surrounding the monument.
History & Culture
Archeologists regard the Verde Valley as an aboriginal melting pot where at least 4 prehistoric cultures intermingled. Tuzigoot Apache for “crooked water” is the remnant of a Sinagua village erected between 1125 and 1400 A. D. Tuzigoot stands on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge that rises 120 feet above the floodplain on the north side of the Verde River, 25 miles west of Montezuma Castle. The Sinagua Spanish for “without water” lived in Verde Valley foothills and the plateau beyond the since about 600 A. D.. Like the Anasazi, they were pithouse dwellers and dry farmers, who depended on rain for their crops. By 1125 they began to build above ground masonry structures and large pueblos on hilltops or alcoves of cliffs. Tuzigoot represents the vestiges of one of several such towns in the vicinity. The original pueblo had 77 ground floor rooms and at least 15 rooms on the second floor, for a total of 92 excavated rooms. Since there were few exterior doors, residents climbed wood-pole ladders through hatchways in the roofs.
The village began as a small cluster of rooms that were inhabited by about 50 persons for a century or so. In the 1200′s, the population doubled and then doubled again as refugee farmers, fleeing drought in outlying areas, settled here.
Legend holds that a small party of Spanish explorers discovered gold near the Verde Fault in 1583, but it is the copper mineral malachite which is said to have given the Verde Valley its name. The real treasure in the region, though, was chalcopyrite which was mined near Jerome, between 1876 and 1953; Clarkdale was the site of the smelting mill. after white settlement of the area, farmers and ranchers, then prospectors and miners began pothnting the site, but because Tuzigoot was on land owned by the United Verde Company, it was probably better protected than many other sites.
Park History
In 1933, local and federal support helped Louis Caywood and Edward Spicer begin clearing the Tuzigoot site in and by 1935, they had excavated the main block of rooms and numerous small surrounding units. They exposed 86 rooms of an estimated 110 and encountered several hundred burials near the main building.
When excavation stopped, floors and masonry walls were preserved and several rooms were restored for public display. With additional federal funds, a museum was constructed nearby to house and display the collection of artifacts from the ruins.
Finally, public-spirited local citizens managed to have the entire ridge with the site of Tuzigoot, the museum and its collection donated to the federal government. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed it Tuzigoot National Monument in in 1939.
Nature & Science
Tuzigoot National Monument is located in the Verde Valley, which runs between the mountainous highlands the Black Hills of central Arizona to the south and the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau the Mogollon Rim to the north. This valley was created by the Verde Fault, which eventually caused the Black Hills to be uplifted more than 4,000 feet while impounding the Verde River into series of lakes. Tributary streams drained the limestone surface of the Coconino Plateau from the north into these lakes, creating 3,000 feet thick deposits called the Verde Formation.
One branch of the Verde Fault runs through Clarkdale, a mile southwest of Tuzigoot, then Highway 89A climbs 4,000 feet to the top of the Black Hills where lava flows lie atop of Paleozoic and Precambrian strata near Jerome.
Recreation
wo trails are found at Tuzigoot The Ruins Loop trail and the Tavasci Marsh Overlook trail. These two self-guiding trails with wayside exhibits describe the cultural and natural history of the site. The Ruins Loop trail is paved, about 1/3 mile in length. It is steep and not recommended for wheeled devices such as wheelchairs.
The Tavasci Marsh Overlook trail takes the visitor to an overview of Tavaschi Marsh, one of the few freshwater marshes in Arizona. This trail is accessible for wheeled devices such as wheelchairs. Rangers are available on the trail and programs are presented when staffing permits.
Getting There
Tuzigoot National Monument is 65 miles south of Flagstaff, via U. S. Alternate Highway 89, a roadway through scenic Oak Creek Canyon. It is 90 miles north of Phoenix. Take exit 287 and travel west on Highway 260 approximately 14 miles.
Traveler Facts
Contact Information
Tuzigoot National Monument
P. O. Box 219
Camp Verde, AZ 86322
Phone: 928-634-5564
Operating Hours & Seasons
Tuzigoot National Monument is open daily. Summer hours are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Winter hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Closed on Christmas day.
NOTE: Tuzigoot National Monument is on Mountain Standard Time all year.
Weather/Climate
Summers generally hot and dry, with mild winters.
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