We've Crossed the Line

I won't keep you in suspense as to why we finally crossed the line... so here it is... we ran out of New Mexico territory.

I bet you thought we might have finally had enough of traveling, not so. If you look at a map, you will see that Gallup, New Mexico is pretty close to the border, not even an hour before arriving in Arizona.

The first Arizona rest stop was under this formation, to the left of all the structures... and down the road a smidge.

Our next stop is at a small campground called Krazy K, in Camp Verde, Arizona. This is our last stop before landing at our winter getaway in Congress.

The weather guessers said there was a possibility of rain and high winds... we got the winds, the rain stayed at a distance but provided a show.

After awhile the wind even was kind to us. We did have a short period of sprinkles that lasted quite awhile, my guess was about 5 minutes.

We beat the rain to the campground before it found us there. We did have a couple sprinkles while setting up but the temperature was ok.

This is an older park with a lot of "livers" in it. There were only about 30 or 40 spaces, again most of them taken up by full-time residents. The photo of the road going to a wall... the freeway was just on the other side, so there was constant road noise, not as bad as some other campgrounds we've visited.

Fortunately for us there were places to visit. Several of the attractions were national parks, which meant it was free for us (Senior Lifetime Pass) people, the other was a state historic park. So, lets go out and see the sights. All these sights were in close proximity of the campground.

Our first day out we visited a pueblo called Montezuma Castle. Before you say it... NO, Montezuma never visited here. The descendants of the original inhabitants, which are Hopi, had several other names for the place, Sakaytaka ("place where the step ladders are going up") and Wupat'pela ("long high walls"). The Yavapai called the Castle Gkah-ghaah-gkah-nyuwah ("home of the protectors of the Yavapai").

Before we take a closer look, I want to back track to the drive getting into Arizona. Remember I said there was wind... well I didn't say how much... try approximately 35 MPH steady, and higher gusts. This wind was mostly a crosswind that posed several challenges, one being a game of dodge tumbleweed. 

Most of the tumbleweed I was able to dodge, some I broke into tiny pieces, this one however, was caught at the rear axle, riding with us for over a hundred miles.

Back to the castle adventure. The starting point is the visitor center, which talks about the history of the region and its inhabitants. For more information, type in Montezuma Castle, it will bring up the National Park Service website, and play from there.

The Verde Valley provided a corridor for a travel and trade route between the southern, lowland deserts, and the northern high Colorado Plateau. The valley people were able to export salt, textiles, argillite pendants, beads, and carving, while importing shells, pottery, and turquoise.

The Hopi believed that this pueblo was only temporary lodging for those migrating from the south to the north.

Visiting the site may have visitors wondering why someone would live in such a remote place, it really wasn't remote. By the 1300s Montezuma Castle was part of a network of 40 Verde Valley villages, with an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people living in the area. The map provides a little more information about the pueblos throughout the area. If you can zoom in, the triangles are small pueblos, the squares were larger pueblos, and the circles were the largest pueblos. You are probably noticing that most of the pueblos are near water, which was essential for growing their food and providing drinking water.

After its discovery, Montezuma Castle was the third National Monument dedicated to the Native American Indian.

What visitors are looking at is the reconstruction of the original castle.

Here is a photograph of visitors climbing up to see the insides of the castle. In 1951 the National Park Service (NPS) closed the castle to visitors. They knew that they needed a way for visitors to continue to see what the castle may have been like in the 1300s, so the created a diorama. Think about living in one of these apartments,

having to climb several ladders to get to your home, carrying food and water. You may ask yourself, why would they choose to live up in the rocks, I'm guessing it was for protection from animals, and any enemies.

Someone might be wondering how long it took them to carve out the openings... they didn't... that was Mother Nature, they just added walls.

These alcoves and cavates were created by wind and rain, and the people used the larger alcoves for living quarters and storage. When the people dug deeper into them, those were called cavates, most of them extending about ten feet into the cliff.

The stacked stones in the last two photos are the foundation of spaces on the valley floor, possibly for storing harvested food.

The monument itself is not that large, but when you add the surrounding area, its beautiful.

The village was set alongside Beaver Creek, which is beautiful during the fall. Many of the trees along the water are Arizona Sycamore, and Cottonwood. The Arizona Sycamore logs , when seasoned were used in the building of the castle 700 years ago, and many of those logs are still in place.

In the photo you can see the original log supports, and metal ones from the renovation. The teams restoring the Castle made every effort to use modern day materials the same way the original inhabitants did it.

Hopi and other Native consultants explained that these temporary homes were designed to recycle back to Mother Earth after the people left. In 1906 when the Castle was discovered, it was decided that it would become a monument for future generations to learn from.

This last tree is hundreds of years old, and lives across the creek from the Castle.

What I like about a lot of the national parks, is their effort to teach and inform the visitors... so lets learn some today.

This is the Four Wing Saltbush. It is named that because of the four-winged bracts on its fruit, which unfortunately for us, is beyond harvest time. It is a high desert plant used for food, medicine, and ceremonies when burnt. The leaves, young shoots and fruit are all edible. Ashes from the burned suuvi leaves make a form of baking soda, enhance the blue coloring in the Hopi piki bread, and fortify baked goods with calcium and other minerals. Should you be unfortunate to get stung, chew the leaves and apply they to the area of pain.

This one a lot of you may be familiar with, this is the Creosote bush. What many of you may remember it from is railroad ties, its the black resin on the ties to protect them from the elements, preventing the wood from drying out too quickly. These plants have pharmaceutical applications as well, treating infections, toothaches, dandruff, colds, body odor, nausea, chicken pox, and sprains.

Ok you grillers and BBQ'rs, you should recognize this one, these are the leaves of that mesquite wood you have been using to cook with. This bush grows freely throughout most of the high desert, and when the Spanish saw the abundance of the shrub, they named the area around Verde Valley, mesquite bosque, meaning "small forest". The mesquite was a vital part of the inhabitants diet, taking the seeds and pods, and grinding them into a meal for baked goods, which was their a stable source of their protein. Imagine yourself eating candy made from the sap of this bush, keeping in mind that the same sap was used as resin, and adhesive. Parts of the shrub/tree has medicinal properties that treat eye and skin ailments, and treats the common cold.

This is a pretty lookin tree, but one must be cautious, it can be poisonous if the small transparent fruit is eaten, and it may cause skin irritation. With that said. If the fruit is prepared properly, it can be made into soap for laundry, shampoo, and hand washing. Medicinal uses come from the leaves and stems made into an infusion, which can aid in relieving coughs, fevers, and arthritis.

The last tree I will talk about is the Arizona Walnut. It is said that the flavor from the small walnuts is worth the effort of cracking them open, which is apparently harder than cracking a regular walnut. The Western Apache gave the nut the name ch'il nehe (nuts you pound). The thick green husks were ground, producing a golden paint, cloth, and hair dye.

From here we go to Montezuma Well, so take a break, listen too your favorite music, and sip on a tea of choice.

We're here, Montezuma Well. It doesn't look like much until you get away from the edge. This well is called by many names, Yuvukva (sunken spring) and Tawapa (sun spring), by the Hopi, Ah-hah-gkith-gygy-vah (broken water), by the Yavapai, and Tí síí ch' iL (water breaks open), by the Western Apache. Today Montezuma Well is considered a holy place of emergence in some tribal histories.

Class is in session. The water that is bubbling up into the well today is rain and snow that fell atop Mogollon Rim 10,000 years ago. 

Keeping the lesson fairly short, the rain and snow filtered through the surface rock until it got to the red sandstone layer, then flowed to a dike of volcanic basalt, and bubbled upward, creating what is now Montezuma Well.

The traditional stories told by the Yavapai and Apache people say that anything that emerges from the vents at the bottom of the Well, can never return. Science has proved the stories to be true.

Continuing the lesson. Scientists have shown that even through regional droughts, approximately 1.6 million gallons of water flow into the Well through the two main vents at the bottom... this is daily, and the water averages a temperature of roughly 74 degrees. This well is different than most freshwater ponds, there are no fish in this water, only leeches.

At 55 feet the divers reported seeing the fine sand boiling up in swirling, cascading mounds; they believe that the Well floor is another 65 feet further down.

How can I say the stories were proven true? Back in 2006, divers put cameras, sensors, and rovers into the vents... every piece of equipment was pushed back out of the vents.

Well lesson complete, back to talking of the inhabitants of this unique well in the desert.

Again visitors can find evidence of people living in the area, and again in the crevices of the rocks. Here at the Well is an opportunity to visit one of the ruins... if one doesn't mind climbing down and up many steps... so lets head on down.

The scenery is beautiful either way one is traveling. Many people have been to the ruins before me... the walls tell their story.

The signs of previous explorers date back to the late 1800s. I know this is not what you're waiting for, I proved I saw some ruins on this hike.

The last photo gives a perspective as to how far back the crevices went. This particular residence was close to the waters shore. 

By now you may be asking yourself, why doesn't this well overflow it's rim...well, what comes in, goes out.

The way it works is fairly simple. As the water reaches the crest of the well, there is a 150 foot natural tunnel that drains the excess water to the Wet Beaver Creek below. In the ancient times the farmers dug a canal, diverting water for their crops... that canal is still evident today.

Up a ways is the tunnel exit, this is Wet Beaver Creek, and the lower photo is the canal dug by the ancient inhabitants. The one difference with the canal today... concrete to preserve the canal.

Completing the hike around the loop, visitors can get a sense of what the ancient people saw in the land.

On the way out of the site is a pit house, another form of accommodations available to the inhabitants, and would have been seen between 600s to 1400s. This pit house is one of several in the area, but is set up for visitors to view.

It doesn't look like much today, but the NPS has tried to provide a vision as to what it may have looked like many, many, many years ago. The covering over the pit house is simulating what one may have experienced in the 1400s. The two large holes supported the roof, the smaller holes were the outer supports for the structure.

As you might guess, there were no viewing windows... we're talking a mud structure to protect from the elements.

This was a good days outing to both sites, and no need to hurry, just enjoy.

SIT BACK AND RELAX, THERE'S MORE TO COME.

Our next stop was a state park, Fort Verde, in downtown Camp Verde. Visit: https://azstateparks.com/fort-verde.

The tour starts in what was the administrative offices. 

The admin. building is one of the few buildings left standing from the original fort. After visitors pay their tuition, they move into the first room that talks a bit about what was happening in the region about the time the fort came about. The fort was completed in 1873, and served until around 1891.

This story really started a thousand years ago, but we will move on to the 1800s when the Verde Valley supported two groups of people, the Apache, and Yavapai, who primarily subsisted on food-gathering, which was subsidized by hunting. Here is where the story becomes the same as told before... white settlers came in and began using up all the resources of the valley. With the settlers assuming everything was theirs for the taking, the Native Indians fought back, raiding the settlements for food. To make matters worse, gold was discovered near Prescott. Hordes of miner invaded the area creating a bigger issue with food supplies. Guess what... the Indians raided the camps, and the miners returned the favor, raiding their camps.

The miners became a squeaky wheel in Congress, so Congress established a fort, Fort Whipple, in the area of Prescott. The farmers in the Verde River-West Clear Creek apparently were tired of being raided as well, and they requested assistance from the U.S. Army, who sent 20-foot soldiers in1865 to help guard crops. In the early days, before the Army support, the settlers used ruins as their fort.

Lets talk fort, circa 1873:

For reference: the circled building is the administration office.

The few other buildings still standing are officer quarters (three of the five houses at the bottom of the above photo.

Moving past the issues the miners and farmers called the Army out for, this fort did have other missions. Originally it was designed to house two companies of cavalry, and two companies of soldiers, but the reality was it housed one company of each, serving as a staging base for military operations around the countryside. One of the groups stationed at Fort Verde was the Signal Corp.

The Signal Corp was established and funded during the Civil War, and its future was unclear after the war. When it became uncertain what the Corp's mission was going to be, General Albert J. Meyers went looking for a mission. When the national weather service was established, it was put in the hands of the War Department, then down to Meyers and the Signal Corp. The Signal functioned as part of the Army from 1870 to 1891, until transferred to the Department of Agriculture.

The renovation process uncovered some interesting artifacts.

Some folks may recognize what these are... they are shell casings that could not be reloaded, or were blanks. The interesting part of this discovery, was where they were found... in the privy. I guess they figured that throwing shell casings in the "john" was easier than melting them down and using them for something else.

Another discovery were the remnants of soldiers shoes. Before the 1870s the soles of their shoes were stitched, but they wore out quickly in the harsh western environment. Around 1872 screws replaced the stitching. The screws had their problems though, like wearing through the insole, to the foot. With this issue was the transfer of heat or cold to the soldiers feet. I would think that it would eventually be a pain in the feet after awhile.

A section of the museum was dedicated to the Indian Scouts. Something that is/was mistaken was the assumption that all Indians are "one people", that was the farthest from the truth. Many Indian nations had a tendency to fight each other, sometimes as vicious enemies. The Army thought that having Indian scouts would make their job easier fighting the rebellious Indians; the Army was also hoping that hiring the Indians would adjust them to the "American" lifestyle... which it didn't. 

After the Civil War, General Sheridan, now the Commanding General of the Army, did not approve of the use of Scouts, believing that the Army regulars could do the job of finding Indian hide outs. The commanding officer of Fort Verde did not agree with General Sheridan's views, he, General G. Crook was having success using scouts. The differences was severe enough that General Crook requested that he be relieved of command at Fort Verde. His successor, General Miles, discharged all the scout, hiring a few back later.

Thanks to the use of scouts, Geronimo surrendered.

Leaving the administrative offices, we headed over to the remaining structures of the fort, all officer quarters.

COMMANDING OFFICER'S QUARTERS

SINGLE OFFICER'S QUARTERS

SURGEON'S QUARTERS

You may notice that the last to quarters look the same in design, they were, along with two others that didn't pass the test of time unfortunately.

The single officers quarters housed 4-6 officers, one of which was probably used to house the senior officers. The surgeon's quarters also served as his office, surgery, and sick call.

Before we leave the fort, I will share a little more about the administrative building. If you remember, the fort was not used in the 20th century... but the admin. building was. In 1905 it became an Indian Boarding School for ten years. From 1915 to 1961, it was used as apartment housing. 1965 to 1970 saw it under the care of the Camp Verde Museum Association, and after 1970 it was turned over to the state of Arizona, and is cared for by them to this day.

IN THE CAR, WHICH MEANS A BREAK YOU FOLKS.

Our stop here is the ruins at Tuzigoot Pueblo.

impressive, yes? That's ok, that is what it looked like in 1933. I find it amazing how archeologists can see the hidden treasure under the rubble.

The trip begins in the museum/gift shop. 

The archeologists Caywood and Spicer, graduates from the University of Arizona were the leads on this excavation. You see, the Archeological Committee of Yavapai County of Chamber of Commerce, who wanted to show off pre-history artifacts, chose the Verde Valley for their next dig. 

After the excavation was completed, the local community built the museum in 1936, as a tribute to public archeology. Shall we walk through the small museum first... of course.

During the excavation, several styles of pottery were discovered. The pottery common to the early years of Tuzigoot was non-descript, made more for function, than beauty. The fancier pottery was what we call "imported".

The indigenous resident were well versed in using natural materials in their daily lives. On exhibit are sandals made from yucca fiber, and split twig figurines. The figurines range in age from 2,000 to 4000 years old.

This area was rich in several minerals, salt being one of them, the others were ores mined by the indigenous groups. In fact, the Yavapai had already dug a shaft 18 feet deep, and were mining ore before the Spaniards arrived in 1583.

Once we made our way through the museum, we headed outside to the ruins.

Back to 1932, which was a tough time for the people that lived in the area. 1932 saw the copper mines close, putting thousands of people out of work. The excavation was not the miracle answer for the thousands unemployed, but it did eventually help 48 people, thanks to the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration. This is what their efforts achieved:

As the archeological team excavated, they were able to estimate the dates as to when Tuzigoot was built. The pueblo was actually built over centuries as people moved from other areas.

This picture provides the visitor with an idea of when Tuzigoot Pueblo was created. The BLUE rooms are estimated to be from 1050 to 1180; the OLIVE GREEN dates from 1180 to 1220; the ORANGE from 1220 to 1350; the PURPLE is approximately 1350 to 1380.

It is a 1/4 mile loop through the ruins, entering them at the purple section. The open area between the purple and other colors would have likely been their plaza, or common area for gathering to share food, clothing, or participate in ceremonies.

My shadow and I are standing in the plaza looking at the purple rooms. The walk took us around the side of the ruins
past what appears to be their drain to divert rain from the pueblo. Continuing along the path visitors (us) climb stairs to enter two covered rooms, with a set of stairs leading to the roof.

Here my lovely assistant provides an insight as to size of the room, and heading up the stairs to the roof visitors get a grand picture of their surroundings.

In the beginning it appeared that many of the rooms served specific functions, but as the pueblo grew, many rooms became multi-functional, which was evident by fire/cooking rings many rooms. A lot of the walls and floors were preserved over time, thanks to erosion and deterioration. You ask, how did erosion and deterioration help... the answer... they protected the lower walls and floors from deterioration. Modern techniques were applied to preserve the pueblo, unfortunately not all preservation techniques were good for the structures. for example, concrete mortar was used to shore up the walls, the problem with that... concrete retains moisture, which caused the walls to deteriorate. The solution to the problem was to replicate the soil cement that was originally used, this of course requires a bit more periodic maintenance.

This is a look up to the structure that provided all the wonderful views of the pueblo and surrounding valley.

Even though concrete walkways were added for visitor convenience, the hike to the lower section was a bit of a cardio workout, and I can only imagine what it was like for the residents traversing it on a daily basis... piece of cake, I'm sure.

ARTIST CONCEPT

Evidence found in some of the rooms also indicated that the rooms provided storage below the floor, this was noted with the discovery of large clay pots buried in the floor. If anyone is wondering how much space these families lived in, we are a rich couple, with almost 400 sq. ft. of living space, they were living comfortably in roughly 200 sq. ft.

This ends our stays in Camp Verde, we will now travel to our winter haven in Congress, Arizona.