Perry Mesa Indian Ruins

separate the rubble mound from its cam-ouflage of desert shrubs and grass. And only when I stood next to the ruin did outlines of rooms take form.

Pueblo Pato is no place to wander about recklessly at night. The Indians built Pueblo Pato as a 150-room fortress against the brink of a sheer cliff of Perry Tank Canyon-the largest site within the national monument. Careful not to misstep, I picked my way across a narrow path to a wide ledge over the canyon, where defenders could mass for defense, and ponder whether combat went unrecorded here centuries ago.

Artists of the day climbed over the cliff crest to chisel elaborate stick men and clan symbols into the canyon wall. At a point southeast of the ruin, we scrambled over walk long distances across some grassy flats spiked with ankle-nipping prickly pear and catclaw acacia. Knowing just where to look for the sites is the real trick because they don't appear on any area maps. But that hasn't pre-vented grave robbers and pot hunters from finding them. Scars from illegal digs pock each of the sites.

Archaeologists hope thieves missed a few things, enough perhaps to reveal more about the people they call the Perry Mesa Traditional, who were neither the valley-dwelling Hohokam nor Hopis, but of a culture some-where in between. They were farmers with an organized society. There's evidence that they maintained an outpost atop the locally named Horseshoe Mountain that could warn the pueblos of approaching danger.

The Perry Mesa people may not have been the best neighbors. They're suspected of being raiders who preyed on the ancient trade route between the Hohokam villages in what is now metropolitan Phoenix and the Hopi pueblos of northern Arizona. Why else would they require such elaborate defenses, scientists theorize, if not to defend against retaliation?

The ruins are now considered national treasures, but getting to them either by foot or by truck involves rough traveling. The mesa has almost no water, but travel becomes even more treacherous when rain transforms the roads into tire-swallowing gumbo.

It wasn't until President Bill Clinton created the Agua Fria National Monument, in January 2000, that the ruins at Perry Mesa received publicity. A slight increase in visitation occurred but soon petered out after people discovered how bad the roads were.

Vasil Evenoff of Phoenix, who hikes Arizona, expressed a common sentiment: "I'd been to the area before, but I didn't know there were so many Indian ruins out there."

Bloody Basin Road, Forest Service Road 269, from Interstate 17 north of Black Canyon City, provides the most direct route to the four accessible ruins. Not surprisingly, they have suffered from litter and severe vandalism, including fire rings constructed of rocks thoughtlessly removed from the tumbledown ruin. But we were able to find well-preserved petroglyphs of art and tribal symbols pecked into lava rimrocks.

Having explored some easy ruins, we now faced a dilemma. We didn't know where to find the ruins in the national monument, so we appealed to Connie L. Stone, a Bureau of Land Management archaeologist, for help in exchange for not revealing their exact locations.

In late March, on another trip to the area, we set off across the savannah on foot for the Pueblo Pato ruin with a dozen volunteer site stewards and with Stone and BLM archaeologist Bill Gibson as guides.

Pueblo Pato was named for a petroglyph resembling a duck at the site, where only a few walls stand. Time and vandalism have pulled down the others.

Not until I was within 70 yards could I find Take the side for a look. The gallery proved magnificent. Depictions of huge stags and bighorn sheep, centipedes, tortoises and people grace the ledges. "The longer you stay," remarked Gibson, "the more petroglyphs you see."

When Jim F. Winsche of Peoria heard about the Pueblo Pato tour, he quickly signed up. "I thought it would be a good opportunity to see the place before they have black-top walks around it," he said with a laugh.

That's not likely to happen soon, but the BLM does plan improvements. For starters, Bloody Basin Road may be graded, the public directed to an easy site, signs posted and more rangers put on patrol.

The BLM acquired the property in 1990 through a land exchange with the state of Arizona. "The hope is that the monument will have its own staff to manage visitors and protect the natural resources," Stone said."

Discovering the full extent of ancient occupation on Perry Mesa will be one of the first goals, she said. "Staff will survey the mesa to find out what's up here and how best to manage and protect the sites. There are

probably more, smaller sites to be discovered." In early May, with Stone once again our guide, Lawsen, Susan Bernhardt of Seattle and I hiked to the Baby Canyon ruin, flushing pronghorn antelope whose rumps flared in fright. After a mile of climbing into and out of a canyon, we spotted the ruin on a bluff overlooking Baby Canyon, where a large boulder backed up a deep pool on Bishop Creek, on its way to the Agua Fria River. From the pool, I followed the only logical path up and, sure enough, broken shards from ancient water jugs blazed the way to the top.

"This is another defensive position," Stone explained. Cliffs, steep approaches and a fortified redoubt constructed of very large boulders protected the ruin on all sides.

The petroglyph field nearly encircled the ruin. I spotted dandy petroglyphs of three big-horn sheep and a magnificent stag. We speculated about the purpose of the drawings. "They could have been ceremonial or magical; some may be clan signs," Stone explained. "Some could be just pure art. Some could tell stories. Others believe they are astronomical measuring devices for keeping track of the seasons."

Which leads to another mystery.

Another stop, Pueblo La Plata, is easiest to reach-and the one most likely to be developed as a representative site for tourists. Perhaps because it's accessible, La Plata has been systematically pilfered. Potsherds in the dump beyond the ruin include bits of black-on-yellow Jeddito Hopi pottery acquired through trade or banditry.

What's missing are petroglyphs, and that puzzles scientists. "Most of the biggest ruins have petroglyphs associated with them," Stone said, "but if they're here we haven't found them."

La Plata tops a mound within a quick run from a defensive position built across a narrow point at the mouth of Silver Canyon. A colossal piece of engineering, rockworks along its flanks extend 15 feet high.

Archaeologist Scott Wood of Phoenix, who works for the Tonto National Forest, studied the ruins left by the Perry Mesa people for 25 years. "They used [the mesa] as a base for a whole complex lifestyle," he said.

In a 1999 article published in the scientific Plateau Journal, Wood collaborated with two other researchers on the theory that Perry Mesa communities kept in touch by using some sort of signals. The other researchers were David R. Wilcox, senior research archaeologist at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, and the late Gerald Robertson Jr. of Sedona, a decorated war veteran and former president of the Verde Valley chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society.

"They seemed very much in some kind of agricultural mode," but probably raided other Indians, Wood said of the Perry Mesa people. "If you go raiding, you might expect to be chased back or meet with retaliation. On the mesa was a good place to protect yourself," especially with signals that would alert them when an enemy approached.

"Las Mujeres, at Squaw Creek, as far as we can tell, is the linchpin in the whole thing [the complex]," he said. "It sits in the most strategic position, and it's the only one that's got a big defensive wall around it. Just about everything points to that place being the center."

Eventually, more people will want to see the monument's ruins, and roads may be improved to accommodate them. BLM spokesperson Kathryn Pedrick said that when money permits, the agency will make things easier for visitors, but the monument is a long way from being ready for heavy visitation.

Meanwhile, Wood advised that, for now, driving on Perry Mesa "is not for the faint-hearted or low-clearanced." AH

Unusual Perspective

London Bridge was moved from England to Lake Havasu City. A developer bought the bridge, took it apart, shipped its 10,200 granite blocks to Arizona and then put it back together again. That makes London Bridge the world's largest Tinkertoy.

GHOST TOWNS

We asked for ghost town jokes. Here are some reader responses: Why are they called ghost towns? Some say it's because they're deserted. Others say it's because their former residents died and their ghosts linger there. Still others say since we already have Tombstone and Skull Valley, we may as well have some other morbid places to spice things up.

I visited a ghost town recently, and the people were so shallow you could see right through them.

Every year ghost towns and I become more alike. We're always A young man at a party was reciting a poem. He had ground out 47 stanzas, and the end wasn't in sight. "What's going on?" whispered the late guest. "Rhymer is letting out his latest poem," said the early guest. "What's the subject? What's the motive?" "I've forgotten the subject," said the old-timer. "But I suspect the motive is revenge."

Battling to keep ourselves in states of arrested decay.

At the ghost town T-shirt shop, all they had was mediums.

That ghost town used to have a slaughterhouse. Now it's haunted by ghosts saying, "Moooooo."

He's not too bright. He tried to panhandle in a ghost town.

VOTING IRREGULARITIES

During a general election some years back, the signs set up at the Sedona South Precinct had their messages both in English and Spanish. This included a sign that said, "Vote Here/Vote Aqui." As I was signing in to cast my ballot, an elderly man came in somewhat upset. He exclaimed, "I thought they didn't allow campaigning at a polling place. That 'Aqui' guy has campaign signs right at the front door."

BITING DOG

Recently, I flew to Indiana for my grandmother's estate auction. My Uncle Max and Aunt Kate were at the auction with their dog, Shadow, a big black lab mix with a huge head, sad eyes and arthritic legs. He followed Max around slowly and plopped down to rest whenever Max stopped. Noticing this large and imposing companion, a nervous woman, who was standing near the dog, asked my uncle, "Does that dog bite?" Max replied, "Only hamburgers, and they have to be cooked just right."

NOW YOU SEE IT...

As I drove out of a small town in Arizona, I noticed six gas stations. A sign in front of the first spelled out this warning: "Last chance to buy gas. The next five stations are mirages."

EGGS IN WAITING

My wife and I were preparing a breakfast of bacon and eggs for four of our grandchildren who had spent the night with us. I was taking orders, and my wife was preparing each child's eggs-to-order breakfast. Some had already received their eggs and were busily eating. Four-year-old Becky was sitting at the table patiently waiting for hers when I asked, "Becky, how do you like your eggs?" She replied, "I don't know. I haven't gotten any yet."

Reader's Corner

The elf owl nests in cavities of saguaros. Shoot, if the housing market gets any tighter, I may start nesting in saguaros, too.

Send us your owl jokes, and we'll pay $50 for each one we publish.