Tuzigoot National Monument preserves a 2- to 3-story pueblo ruin on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge just east of Clarkdale, Arizona, 120 feet above the Verde River floodplain. The Tuzigoot Site is an elongated complex of stone masonry rooms that were built along the spine of a natural outcrop in the Verde Valley. The central rooms stand higher than the others and they appear to have served public functions. The pueblo has 110 rooms. The National Park Service currently administers 58 acres,within an authorized boundary of 834 acres.
Tuzigoot is Apache for "crooked water", from nearby Pecks Lake, a cutoff meander of the Verde River. Historically, the pueblo was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400. Tuzigoot is the largest and best-preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley. The ruins at Tuzigoot incorporate very few doors. Instead they use trapdoor type openings in the roofs, and use ladders to enter each room.
By the late 1300s, the people of the Verde Valley began to move. A few families at a time, they left their homes and migrated to new places. By 1425 Tuzigoot's rooms were empty. Many people traveled east and north, following ancient trails to villages where the Hopi and Zuni - some of their descendants - live today.
These people were farmers and it is believed that a 75 year drought hit the area which caused them to migrate away. The next evidence of civilization occupying the valley was when the Spaniards came 75 years later and the valley was lush, green, and fertile again.
The monument is on land once owned by United Verde/Phelps Dodge. The corporation sold the site to Yavapai County for $1, so that the excavation could be completed under the auspices of federal relief projects. The county in turn transferred the land to the federal government.
Tuzigoot was excavated from 1933 to 1935 by Louis Caywood and Edward Spicer of the University of Arizona, with funding from the federal Civil Works Administration and Works Project Administration. In 1935–1936, with additional federal funding, the ruins were prepared for public display, and a Pueblo Revival-style museum and visitor center was constructed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt designated Tuzigoot Ruins as a U.S. National Monument on July 25, 1939.
There are several pueblo ruins in the area. Tuzigoot is the "sacrificial lamb" of the pueblos as it is the only one excavated to satisfy historian archeologists search for information on who lived in the area and also the public's curiosity of the civilization that once occupied the valley.
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| These guys are replacing all the cement that was used to restore this with clay that the Sinagua people used. They used cement in the restoration so that the walls could stand up to all the public visiting. The cement does not allow wicking of the moisture and the moisture is deteriorating the rock. |
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| This is one of their tools used to grind grain and corn. |
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| You can see many of the rooms. |
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| This is one of the rooms under a roof. There was about a 10 degree difference in temperature than outside. |
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| This is not the original roof but it is replicated to look just like their roof. |
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| Looking down from the top, you can see all the rooms. Each family, usually made up of husband/wife and 1 child, lived in a room. |
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| Some of the artifacts found and repieced together. |
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| This guy and the guy below were hanging around Tuzigoot |
Mr. W's cousin use to live in this area and told him that the town of Jerome was a neat town. We had seen Jerome at night because it sits up in the mountains above the other towns and the lights of the city can be seen for miles around. The town sort of reminded me of Eureka Springs, Arkansas because the streets are narrow and the streets keep climbing. So, you park at one level on one street and you walk up the sidewalks til you want to go to the next street and then you either have to walk up to the next street or walk down to the next street. Nothing is level. We had lunch there and when our waiter said, "How are y'all"? I knew he was probably from Texas and sure enough he was.
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| Can you see Jerome up in the hills? |
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| The town of Jerome |
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| Another pic of Jerome |
We did a little shopping in the town. The town looked like it was being revitalized with all kinds of shops and restaurants moving into the old downtown buildings and restoring those buildings. We then decided we would take a different route back and go over Mingus Mountain. It was very scenic. However, we kept following the road even after it turned into a gravel road. There were signs saying that there was a recreational area, a camping area, and a hang glide area up ahead. So, we kept going.
Sure enough, at the top, we found the launching spot for the hang gliders. There was a hang glider tied up next to the launch spot and we were hoping that we were going to see someone take off.
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| This is the rest of the take off ramp. |
Sure enough, as we were leaving, the owner of the glider came to get it. We talked to him for a minute and he said that it was a great day for gliding but he did not have a ground crew so he wasn't going to be able to fly. He was taking it back to his motorhome to pack up. We did see some more beautiful scenery.
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