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Crowning a desert hilltop is an ancient pueblo. Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted of 110 rooms including second and third story structures. The first buildings were built around A.D. 1000. The Sinagua were agriculturalists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles. The people left the area around 1400.
Total size: 42 acres
Location:
Tuzigoot National Monument is located about 50 miles south of Flagstaff in Clarkdale, Arizona.
Historical Facts:
Resembling a castle or fort, Tuzigoot (Apache for "crooked water") is considered perhaps the most beautiful site of the Sinagua people. This particular Sinaguan village was built between 1125 and 1400 A.D. on a 120-foot-high ridge rising above the Verde Valley. Made of river cobbles, the ancient structure was topped with a two-story watchtower (later rebuilt by the NPS). The original pueblo was two stories high in places, with 77 ground-floor rooms and few doors; entry was by ladders through openings in the roof. The ceilings were about six-feet-high (the average Sinaguan male was 5 foot, 4 inches tall). Tuzigoot began as small cluster of 50 people who lived there for 100 years. In the 1200s, the population doubled twice as farmers fleeing the drought moved here. The Hohokam lived in Verde Valley area first-after 600 A.D. The Sinagua came later, adopting the Hohokam's irrigation system and building above-ground dwellings, influenced by Anasazi to the north. The Sinagua were fine artisans, but marginal potters. They abandoned the valley in the 1400s, probably moving to the Hopi mesas.
Designation Date: July 25, 1939, by President Franklin Roosevelt.
Watch the clip
The Verde Valley was a Sinagua stronghold-a valley with ample water. But even as idyllic as the landscape is, this 110-room pueblo, called Tuzigoot, was abandoned in the 1400's.
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Learn More:
Tuzigoot Nearby Attractions/NPS
Managing Agency:
National Park Service
Tuzigoot National Monument
Tuzigoot Road
Clarkdale, AZ 86324
Visitor Information
928-634-5564
