Tuzigoot National Monument

Published on May 5, 2018 | in National Monument By Christopher Maitland |

Tuzigoot National Monument

May 05, 2018

The ancestral Sinagua people built this 110-room pueblo on a commanding site: a ridgeline 120 feet above the Verde River floodplain near modern Clarkdale, Arizona, with vistas appropriate to a culture of farmers and artists who regularly interacted with a distant network of trading partners. Dating from about 1,000 A.D., the pueblo was abandoned in the 1400s along with many others in the region, but the ruins are among the largest and best-preserved examples of Sinagua construction in the southwest. “Sinagua” means “without water,” yet the residents of Tuzigoot (Apache for “cooked water”) were blessed with access to the river, Peck’s Lake, and the Tavisci marsh, the largest freshwater marsh in Arizona not connected to the Colorado River. Tuzigoot National Monument features a historic 1930s visitor center and museum; visitors can follow trails to explore the ruins, enjoy the lofty views, and take a side trip to view the marsh, a wildlife sanctuary.

The original pueblo was two stories high in places with87 ground-floor rooms. There were few exterior doors; entry was by ladders through roof openings.

Some stairs lead you into the first floor of the reconstructed Citadel. The mortar on the bottom half is the original mortar, and you can see the more regulated wall construction above from the New Deal crew who excavated and reconstructed in the 1930s. As you turn around you also see a wall which separated this large room in two. This wall was installed sometime after the room was originally built, showing that the use of this room changed with Sinaguan needs. The roofing material is made to replicate Sinaguan building techniques.

This wall was installed sometime after the room was originally built, showing that the use of this room changed with Sinaguan needs.

The Stairs in the background of the picture above lead to the rooftop offering incredible views and provides a different vantage to see the various excavated rooms.

We enjoyed our visit to Tuzigoot National Monument and learning a little bit about the ancestral Sinagua people who lived in the Verde River floodplain near modern Clarkdale, Arizona over 1000 years ago. If you find yourself near Clarkdale, Arizona, take some time to visit the Tuzigoot National Monument.

Other contemporary habitations of the Sinagua people are preserved in the nearby Montezuma Castle and Walnut Canyon National Monuments.

*******************************************************************************************

This post contains affiliate links, so I make a small commission if you purchase through my links – that support helps to keep this blog running.

Copyright Foodie Made Simple, LLC. All text, recipes and photographs are copyrighted and may not be published elsewhere without express permission. Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Google+ and Facebook users, you are welcome to “pin” photos! re-tweet and “share” links all you like, just don’t copy the recipes themselves. Fellow bloggers are welcome to repost my recipes, just write the recipe in your own words, use your own photograph, then link back to the original recipe on rvcookingmadesimple.com

SaveSave

About Christopher Maitland

Cooking (and eating) great food is my passion. I am a self-taught home cook on a culinary journey where I am constantly discovering new tastes from recipes whilst teaching myself to cook and most recently bake. I created foodiemadesimple.com blog, after encouragement from my friend and web master Jerald, as a means to document and share all my culinary experiences and recipes with everyone. I strive to constantly create great food, simply and provide pleasant memories for friends and family who benefit from this culinary endeavor. Well in early 2017 my wife and I decided to sell our sticks and bricks house and rent one in a neighborhood we thought we wanted to move to to determine if we wanted to purchase a fixer-uper, remodel and make it our own. Several months later my wife said I don’t to set up another house just to pack it up and move again. What do you think about getting an RV and then when we decide where to buy we will have a place to stay while we remodel the new house and not have rent and a mortgage. I thought this was a brilliant idea and thus began the process of looking for the right RV. I found the right RV after months and months of research and looking, a 2018 Open Range Roamer 371MBH. This model has a mid-bunk that I use would use as an office with a door that will shut, wife requirement so she will not have to listen to me on the phone. Then the next challenge my current truck a GMC 2500HD will not tow the new 5er. So a truck shopping I went. Problem solved a 2017 RAM 3500HD Laramie 4X4 Dully with a Cummins Diesel. So bought the truck and 5er, put the house on the market and stated the task of downsizing from a 3600 sqft house to a 410 soft 5er and 2 10X15 climate controlled storage units. The house sold in November 2017 and after running foodiemadesimple.com for 3 1/2 years, Jerald and I decided to start rvcookingmadesimple.com where I will take what I created in a rather large 200 sqft kitchen in my sticks and bricks and recreate it in an RV kitchen breaking it down and making it simple. I hope you enjoy.