ANCIENT ARIZONA
There are many places in Arizona where you see piles of rocks while hiking. Some of these piles are actually the remains of ancient pueblos- villages of prehistoric cultures. We visited a couple of these sites while exploring the area around Sedona. One such site was Tuzigoot National Monument. It is located on a hill along the Verde River near Cottonwood. The original pueblo was excavated and partially reconstructed in the 1930's. There is a small visitor that has artifacts uncovered during that excavation.
Tuzigoot is an Apache word that means "crooked water". The village is a remnant of a group of Southern Sinagua people who lived and farmed this valley between 1000 and 1400. The original Pueblo was two stories high in places and entry was through ladders in the roof. It's thought that the village started with about 50 people but grew to about 200 before it was abandoned. Since the valley was on a trade route- feathers, sea shells and pottery from other areas were found during the excavation.
Montezuma Well
Montezuma Well is a limestone sinkhole formed long ago and still fed by springs. Between 1125 and 1400 about 100-150 Southern Singua people lived and farmed there. Fields were irrigated with the water and you can still see traces of lime coated ditches in places surrounding the well.
The ruin became somewhat of a tourist attraction for settlers in the late 1800's-complete with this graffiti.