Cottonwood Arizona in September

	Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well
		Fall, 1999

Ann rests in the shade of a knotted tree trunk near Montezuma Well.

These pictures were taken this fall on our first visit to these parks. Our friend, Ellouese, who lives in Cottonwood gave us a grand tour. My sister Martha, her friend Ann, Les, and I had a full morning of touring, topped by lunch in Jerome, Arizona, at the Jerome Brewery.

We ordered three pizzas to be shared amongst the five of us; roasted vegetable pizza, Greek pizza (also a vegetable pizza), and Italian meat pizza. The unanimous opinion was that all the pizzas were delicious, but the vegetable pizzas were best. The food and service were both wonderful and we'd recommend pizza at the Jerome Brewery.

Both monuments,Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle, have museums associated with them which provide models, settings, and information on the life of these ancient dwellers.		*Ellouese and Ann read an information plaque and survey the valley below the Tuzigoot dwellings.*
		These parks preserve remnants of two distinctive cultures that once flourished in the Verde Valley. The first permanent settlers here were the Hohokam (Pima for "those who have gone"). They were a skillful farming people who moved into the valley shortly after A.D. 600. They grew crops of corn, beans, squash, and cotton and watered them by irrigation. They lived in one-room houses made of poles, sticks, and mud, which they built on terraces overlooking their fields.

The Sinagua (Spanish for "without water") were another people who lived in this general area. They were pithouse dwellers and dry farmers, dependent on rain for their crops. (They did not irrigate crops like the Hohokam.) The Sinagua moved into the valley about 1125, occupying land vacated by the Hohokam who migrated north. The move altered the Sinagua culture in two important ways: they adopted the irrigation system of the Hohokam, and they began to build above-ground masonry dwellings, an idea they may have borrowed from the Anasazi to the north.
*Interesting limestone rock formations and piles of fallen rock were all around Montezuma Well.*		The villages at Montezuma and Tuzigoot reached their present size in the 1300s and were occupied for another century. In the early 1400s, the Sinagua abandoned the entire valley. No one knows why. Whatever the reason, the survivors were probably absorbed into pueblos to the north.

Montezuma Castle

Sinagua farmers began building this five-story, 20-room dwelling early in the 12th century. It stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley. Early settlers marveled at the structure and thought, mistakenly, that it was Aztecan in origin. The Sinaguans probably thought this was a good place to live. The creek was a reliable source of water, and there was fertile land on the nearby terrace.

Below notice the small cave dwellings lower and to the right of the main structure.

		Montezuma Well Montezuma Well has all the surprise of a lake and fairly lush vegetation in the midst of desert. The well is a limestone sink formed long ago by the collapse of an immense underground cavern. The springs that feed it flow continuously.
Both the Hohokam and Sinagua irrigated crops with its waters. Traces of their irrigation ditches, thickly coated with lime can be seen. The Hohokam pithouse on view was built about 1100.

Martha and I hiked down to water level to view the cave dwellings. It was well worth the hike down -- and the climb back to the top to join our group. The water is so still that, as you can see in this picture, there are clear reflections of the rock formations and sky.

The Sinaguan dwellings here vary in size from large pueblos of 55 rooms to one-room houses. Between 1125 and 1400 about 150 to 200 Siaguans lived here.

Tuzigoot Tuzigoot (Apache for "crooked water") is the remnant of a Sinaguan village built between 1125 and 1400 A.D. It crowns the summit of a long ridge that rises 120 feet above the Verde Valley. The original pueblo was two stories high in places and had 77 ground-floor rooms. There were few exterior doors; entry was by way of ladders through opinings in the roofs.
		The village began as a small cluster of rooms that were inhabited by approximately 50 persons for 100 years. In the 1200s the population doubled and doubled gain as refugee farmers, fleeing drought in outlying areas, settled here. Left: View from the top into the dwellings of the Sinagua at Tuzigoot (the dwellings were entered from the roof). They resemble a terraced garden.

The old mining town of Jerome is an artist community on the side of a hill and is visible from the Tuzigoot monument. The view from Jerome in the direction of the Tuzigoot monument is breath-taking. This picture doesn't do justice to the colors of the hills. A motorcycle convention was being held in Jerome while we were visiting.

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		Most of the text here has been taken from the information sheet provided by the National Park Service although the pictures are mine.

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Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well