Montezuma Castle National Monument 1

Montezuma Castle National Monument 1

Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

 

Author: Albert H. Schroeder

Homer F. Hastings

 

_Contents_

 

 

Page

FORCES OF EARTH 1

MAN IN THE VERDE VALLEY 4

SINAGUA PUEBLO LIFE 11

MONTEZUMA CASTLE 19

MONTEZUMA WELL 26

HISTORY OF THE MONUMENT 31

THE NATURAL SCENE 33

HOW TO REACH THE MONUMENT 36

ABOUT YOUR VISIT 36

RELATED AREAS 36

ADMINISTRATION 38

GLOSSARY OF SPANISH AND INDIAN WORDS 39

SUGGESTED READINGS 40

 

[Illustration: _Montezuma Castle._]

 

[Illustration: Metate.]

 

 

MONTEZUMA CASTLE, _a pueblo ruin in the Verde River valley of central

Arizona, has no connection with the Aztec emperor whose name it bears.

The name was given by early settlers in the Verde Valley in the belief

that the striking 5-story ruin with its 20 rooms had been built by Aztec

refugees, fleeing from central Mexico at the time of the Spanish

conquest. It follows naturally that the small lake inside a hill 7 miles

away should be named Montezuma Well. While the story of the flight is

known to be false, the names remain._

 

 

The aboriginal builders of the Castle left no records, but they did

leave broken pottery, trash, and other debris of their everyday life.

The analysis of this material tells us that these people, whom we call

Sinagua (see glossary), were peaceful farmers who occupied this area

from the 1100’s until the 1400’s; that they were similar in physical

type to many of today’s Pueblo peoples in northern Arizona and New

Mexico; and that they differed somewhat in their daily life from their

neighbors in the desert to the south and in the mountains and plateaus

to the north.

 

This is their story, and we hope that it can take you back in your

mind’s eye to the time when their fingers left marks as they plastered

the walls of Montezuma Castle, and to the time when their fires left the

smoke deposits you still see on those walls. But this story must begin

with the land itself....

 

 

 

 

_Forces of Earth_

 

 

Montezuma Well and the cave in which Montezuma Castle is built both

exist today because of a series of events that began over 1 million

years ago. A flow of lava coming from the Black Hills at the south end

of the Verde Valley closed the narrow canyon through which the Verde

River then ran. This formed a natural dam and the river backed up

against it to form a lake. Other rivers farther upstream added more

water, and carried in large quantities of dissolved limestone from the

higher elevations which they drained.

 

[Illustration: _Bird’s-eye view of Verde Valley landscape and

geology._]

 

Consequently, in late Pliocene times (perhaps 1 million years ago), the

Verde Valley was covered by a shallow lake or marsh 25 to 40 miles long

and 12 to 15 miles wide. Its extent can be determined by noting the

boundary between the light-colored sedimentary limestone and the dark

basalts or the red sandstone marking the old shoreline.

 

This light-colored rock was redeposited from the original limestone beds

upriver and, therefore, the entire formation is almost devoid of

fossils. Well preserved cougar tracks, however, imbedded in a slab of

limestone, were found a few miles north of Montezuma Castle near

Cornville, Ariz.

 

When the lake was at its maximum size the water reached a height where

it began to flow over the top of the lava dam. During thousands of years

of spilling over, the water gradually wore down through the lava until

the entire lake drained away. The limestone that had been carried in and

deposited on the lake bottom then became the new ground surface.

 

Salts left by the evaporation of water were also deposited on the lake

bottom. A deposit of this type can now be seen near Camp Verde. Although

the formation is principally sodium carbonate, sodium chloride (common

table salt) and sodium sulphate are also found. For many centuries early

Indians mined salt deposits in this locality and a few years ago a

deposit of sodium sulphate near Camp Verde was worked commercially.

 

The same streams which brought lime in solution to the lake were

sometimes turned into torrents by desert cloudbursts. At such times,

they became muddy and left sand and silt among the lime deposits which

were accumulating on the bottom of the lake. When the lake drained away,

these deposits were exposed to erosion—the clay and silt were softer

than the lime and eroded more rapidly leaving irregular cavities and

caves of all sizes. It is in one of these caves that the Indians built

Montezuma Castle.

 

Today the pitted and jagged surface of the cliff appears like crumbling

limestone. In places it is so soft it can be removed by the pressure of

a finger.

 

After the ancient lake drained, rain and melting snows from higher

elevations continued to find their way into the valley where the water

seeped below the ground, dissolving the limestone as it went.

Underground river channels and caves were slowly formed by this water.

 

One such channel, leading from a cave, was eventually cut through from

the surface by the eroding waters of Beaver Creek. This allowed the

water in the underground cave to pour out into the creek. The roof of

the cave, weakened by the removal of this water and by solution cracks

forming from the surface, soon collapsed to form Montezuma Well as it is

seen today. It is due to this action that the Well is technically

referred to as a limestone sink.

 

Thus the slow, but powerful forces of earth shaped the Verde Valley into

a congenial environment for man.

 

 

 

 

_Man in the Verde Valley_

 

 

The first human occupation of central Arizona began several thousand

years ago. Very little is known about these Indians, but there is

archeological evidence which indicates that they were hunters and food

gatherers. These people had no pottery, and probably had no permanent

houses or farms. The only objects recovered from their campsites have

been their crude stone tools. One such site was discovered and

investigated a short distance north of Montezuma Castle National

Monument in 1949.

 

Shortly after A. D. 600, the Verde Valley attracted another group of

people. They were farmers who came from the south, near the vicinity of

modern Phoenix. We call these people of southern Arizona, who were the

first known permanent settlers in the Verde Valley, the “Hohokam.” They

planted their crops in the bottom lands and built their houses on the

adjacent terraces so they could overlook their fields. Their homes of

poles, brush, and mud were individual dwellings large enough to house

one family.

 

Utensils in the home were few, but important. They consisted of plain,

unpolished, gray-brown pottery, used to hold water and food; grinding

stones on which corn, nuts, and berries were ground; and hammerstones

for crushing or mashing food. Also, such objects as scrapers for working

hides, points for arrows, and knives for skinning game have been

recovered by archeologists.

 

The Hohokam built a specialized structure not found among other

prehistoric Indians of the Southwest. It was a prepared court, oval in

shape, which bears a close similarity to the ball courts of Mexico. They

may have played a game of some type on these courts which had some

connection with their ceremonial rites, such as appears to have been the

case in Central America. These people also had another trait which set

them apart from other tribes—they cremated their dead.

 

There is no evidence of Hohokam occupation at Montezuma Castle, but

remains of Hohokam type are found at Montezuma Well. We can imagine that

a party of Indian colonists, about 1200 years ago, was very pleased to

discover the Well and was as startled as we are to find a lake inside a

hill.

 

In looking further, the Hohokam found the outlet on the south side of

the Well through which a steady stream of water flowed, falling into

Beaver Creek a few feet away. Here was a place to live! If this water

could be diverted to the nearby flatlands, they would no longer need to

depend on rain for their crops.

 

The Indians set about their task. They fashioned some stone hoes and dug

a small section of ditch at the base of the cliff between the Well and

Beaver Creek. After reaching the proper depth, a brush dam was made and

the water was diverted from the outlet. Eager eyes watched the water

enter and gradually fill their ditch. Another section was dug and water

was again turned into it. High spots were noted and dug lower so the

water would flow through. Rocky obstructions were broken with stone

picks and river rocks. Sometimes the ground was too hard for their hoes,

and water was allowed to flow in to soften it. Gradually their ditch was

lengthened until it reached the flats which they planned to farm.

 

Their work was not yet complete, for the fields had to be cleared. Brush

was cut, and fires were built at the base of large trees to burn the trunks until they weakened and fell.