Tuzigoot

Tuzigoot National Monument is a pueblo style, ancient ruins located in central Arizona.  You might remember a post I did two years ago about Montezuma's Castle, a cliff dwelling located in northern Arizona.  It is believed that the Tuzigoot pueblo was built around the same time and by the same Sinagua peoples.  However, this structure is completely different.  Rather than being built on the side of a cliff, the pueblo was built on the top of a hill.

As you approach Tuzigoot, you can see the stone walls crowning the very top of the hill.  The location offered views in every direction which would give the people living there a sense of security.

And, the Verde River flows through the valley below providing water, the key ingredient for life.  You can see the green area below where the river has made the desert a lush green.

There are paths leading all through the ruin with lots of descriptive signs to explain the building and farming methods.
The site gets it's name from an Apache worker on the excavation team after the site was discovered.  Tuzigoot translates to "crooked water" in the Apache language and since the river makes a turn in the valley, it seemed an appropriate name.

The site was excavated in the 1930's by out of work miners and WPA workers.  The men did most of the digging and women were employed to put the pieces of pottery shards together.  It was like working a puzzle and in the end they had numerous vessels that were used to store grain and carry water.

The visitor's center for this National Monument contains a museum full of artifacts found in the area. On some days, like the day I was there, an archeologist gives talks to explain the living conditions at the site and the the cultural differences between this group of people and the people living many miles to the north of them.  I love how the visitor's center is built of the same stones found in the area so it blends in well with the historic walls just a few feet away.