A Search for the Sinaguan People

Eons ago while touring the Four Corners' area, we went to Canyon de Chelly and thought it was pretty spectacular, but little did we know, we had something similar just a couple of hours away from our own house. We've gone north to Sedona, Flagstaff, and beyond many times and yet had never given a second thought to the road signs telling us of Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, and the Tuzigoot National Monument. Thanks to a tip from a friend and reader, we decided to take a road trip yesterday. Normally we would not head north in the winter (it's cold enough to ski up there), but we took our time on the drive up, counting on the sun eventually warming us up from 44 degrees, 34 at our destination (brr). First up, we encountered some hot air balloons which were participating in Glendale Glitters.

Two hours later, we arrived at Tuzigoot National Monument. There's actually a lot to do in that area, from the Out of Africa park to several wineries. It's a bit much to do in one day, but could easily be taken in over a weekend, especially if you're overnighting close by.

We arrived around 11:30am and were quite relieved to see the temps now up to the mid-50s.

What is really weird about this site is that back in the early 1900s, someone saw a hillside covered in rocks/boulders and thought it might have archeological worth. I'm sorry, but that rocky hillside originally looked like thousands of others in the neighborhood. And yet...

What it looks like now.



Okay, here comes a dissertation by Ranger Renee. If you don't care, just skim down and look at the pictures. The rest of you might actually find this info interesting.

During the Great Depression, and after the bottom fell out of the area's copper industry, the University of Arizona received the site for $1 and recruited a number of unemployed miners to do the excavation. The former miners dug, and the women in the area put the pieces of what was found back together.

The site seems to have been part of a larger trading zone. Most of the people in today's nearby Indian nations believe they are descendants of these early inhabitants, from the Hopis, Tonto-Apaches, to Yavapai. Archeologists call the prior occupants Sinaguan, for lack of a better term. Amazingly, arrowheads have proven human life in the area existed as long as 13,000 years ago. Think about it - this is what was going on back then.

But most of the human activity nearby seems to have started around 1000AD (about the time that agriculture took hold). You'll note that it looks like the Vikings made a quick visit to North America (Newfoundland) during that time too. By the mid-1400s, this area was mostly deserted, but the Hopi believe this was natural. People were meant to move on so as not to create a burden on their surroundings. No one really knows why the place was vacated though.

In case you need a history brush-up, early Europeans made their way here around the 1500s but were unimpressed and moved on. A barely populated Arizona belonged to Mexico until becoming a part of the U.S. in 1848. This is when things started to get ugly for the then-current inhabitants, but it was the construction of railroads in 1888 that would forever change the ethnic and physical landscape (a visit to Fort Verde will give you the low-down on exactly how).




We got to go inside a recreated room and it was cold!



You can see Jerome in the distance, and since it's only 11 miles away, you could always go there for lunch (Cottonwood is cute too, if you're headed in the other direction). You'll note that there are white patches on the mountains. I'm assuming it's snow, but there was salt mining in the area, which came in handy during the trading efforts back in the early 1000s.

You can also see the trailings left from the copper mining that ended over 100 years ago. It wasn't until 8 years ago though (2006) that Phelps Dodge finally revegetated and capped the main site to stop the orange and presumably toxic dust storms that had been inconveniencing  and presumably contaminating the current residents all this time. Let's move on, shall we?

Next up, Montezuma Castle. 

With a name like Montezema, you'd think that there'd be some kind of connection to the Aztecs in Mexico, but early white settlers usually assumed any Indian ruins they ran across were Aztec, so threw the emperor's name around pretty loosely. In fact, the same people that populated Tuzigoot lived here and around the same time period. Several thousand people are believed to have inhabited this area during those 400 years, so it would have been quite bustling at that time. Trading involved travelers from surprising distances, and many imported items have been found here. About 50 people lived in Montezuma Castle, utilizing the already existing infrastructure of the dome/inset so they had less structural elements to build. Like in Tuzigoot, ladders were the means to get up and into the various rooms.

More recent visitors were allowed to actually climb up and around the site, using the original ladders, until 1951 when someone finally decided that wasn't such a great idea for preservation. Here's what it looks like behind the walls (old photos).

There were actually two "castles." One (on the left) has sort of melted away already, while the other one is crumbling, but hanging on (thanks to restoration efforts). It's quite humbling to see a once vibrant community become almost invisible, as if it never existed.



Both Tuzigoot and Montezuma have nearby water sources. This one can turn nasty sometimes. Pretty now though.

And finally, we headed 11 miles north, off the next exit, to Montezuma Well (it was now exactly 60 degrees, thank you). This has a short, but pretty steep trail. Then you're looking down into a not so appetizing well (that's invasive pond weed in there, and the ducks like it, but the rangers have to shovel it out weekly).



You'll note the well has its own cliff dwellings.



You can hike down and get right up to the water.

There are some old structures here too, but the best part is the petroglyphs graffiti from the 1800s.



There are some really cool things about this well:

• Over a million gallons a day flow into the well every day (and has for thousands of years, even in drought situations).
• The water temp is a steady 74 degrees year round.
• The pressure from below is so strong that if you shove something into a vent 55' below, it will immediately be sent back up.
• At the bottom, fine sand bubbles into artistic. swirling white mounds.
• There's too much CO2 for fish, but leeches do just fine - and they eat creatures only found in this one place on the planet.

A sad thing about the well is that it has very high levels of arsenic in it. It's unknown whether this is a more recent manmade development, or a natural phenomenon that may have existed back when the early inhabitants were drinking from it. What they thought was giving them life might have been actually shortening it. Did they figure it out and that's why they moved on? We'll likely never know.

The whole day cost us $16 + 1/2 tank of gas. We each got $2 off our tickets because we bundled Tuzigoot and Montezuma's Castle together. The well was free. Nope, not a bad way to spend the day at all.

There are free tours or talks if staffing is available, and if you time it right. We didn't, but there were plenty of resources for information on-site (obviously). There are an amazing number of things we can do with the various bushes and cactus that surround us, and yet we don't seem to utilize any of them anymore. Why is that?

BTW, this really is the time to go (barring a snow storm). From spring to fall you'll be up against crowds, traffic, and heat.