IT'S SPRING AGAIN

From the mound of antiquity that is Tuzigoot, the Verde Valley stretches out like a colorful carpet. Here the centuries linger and one may hear whispering of things and people past. (Photo by John L. Blackford.) Mining operations along Verde expose prehistoric caves (Edgar Weinberg Photo)

The Valley of Long Ago

Cliff forty-six feet above the talus slope, it commands a splendid view of Beaver Creek down to the Verde and beyond. In the shallow recess immediately to the right of the Castle are the fallen walls of a much larger structure. It is assumed that the wooden beams and supports burned and the building fell of its own weight. The Castle is a gem set in rough mounting. Almost no restoration work has been necessary. The over-hanging ledge of limestone has for the centuries protected this wonderful piece of engineering. Every piece of material for the walls was carried on the backs of these ancients who labored that they might feel secure. Every approach to the Castle is covered by a loop-hole in the walls of the building. A high balcony tops the structure and from here the view is unsurpassed. It is thrilling to see the same things that the people who lived here saw. The mountains, the hills are the same. The trees along the creek are new but they came up from the same stock that was here at the time the Castle was occupied. It does not take a profound imagination to see these short stocky people somewhat similar to the present Hopi people carrying water in their pottery ollas from the creek near-by and then up to the dwelling high in the cliff. The climb up the slope to where the ladders were is no little effort. And then they had to ascend the ladders with the jar of water, or the basket of grain, or perhaps it was a new metate for the grinding of the corn. The ladders may have been in the very same places as they are now where daily the modern visitors go up and down to see and to feel that deep-seated something that abides in this, the loveliest of all cliff ruins. Where these people went is not known. We know however, that they lived here between the years 1100 and 1400 A. D. They had irrigated fields up and down the stream. They made tools of stone and bone. They were expert potters and weavers. They traded their home products for things made by other peoples. They lived here and then disappeared as did the people of Tuzigoot. No doubt they knew each other and at times of the great ceremonials they probably visited their neighbors on the low ridges in the Valley of the Verde. Some eight miles below the town of Camp Verde is a mesa that protrudes into the valley from the north. The margin of the mesa on the south side is a series of ragged ledges, with a talus slope below. The ledges are honeycomb-ed with chambers dug into them. These chambers vary in size from cubby holes scarcely large enough to crawl into, to rooms fifteen or more feet in diameter, with incurving more or less dome ceilings high enough to stand beneath. To reach these dwellings, which add a fourth type to the Verde group, it is necessary to leave one's car on the south side of the river and wade across the stream finding the shallow places. Then to reach the ledges the way is made through the usual river brush, with the addition of cat-claw and mesquite. The ledge curves in and out with the canyons that cut into it, but on every face of wall are series of caves. An opening from the outside which seems to be into a single room reveals upon closer inspection to be a number of rooms. The walls are smoked black from the fires of long ago. The first room is usually on the level of the outside entrance but often there is a rise in the back half forming a sort of ledge, this ledge space may be as large as the lower portion of the room. Then leading from the first room almost always are a number of adjoining rooms either to the side or to the rear. Low passageways connect the chambers. About the walls are small niches that may have been sealed up since some of them are not colored Fires of long ago left smoked black walls for the modern traveler to wonder about.

They are sodium sulfate, which is used in the manufacture of paper, and sodium chloride our common table salt. Gypsum is also present in crystal forming lovely rosettes in delicate shades of pink and white.

In this valley that has been the home of so many people it is interesting to note the formations which affected the lives of the ancients, and today these same natural forces are exerting their unseen powers upon the lives of those who dwell here. In the beginning many millions of years before people were here, the valley was formed. It was in two distinct and separate actions. At first there accrued a great fault in the sedimentary formation that makes up the entire north-east quarter of the State of Arizona. This sedimentary block was rising from its place below the seas that had covered it for so long, in an effort to promote earthly balance.

It is not known in exact years how long the valley remained in its first state, draining the mountains to the north, east, and west, the wind and rain eroding the great bluff to the north and east into fantastic design. But at some much later date, many thousands of years, there appeared on the southern side of the valley a fissure from which flowed a molten lava. Down into the valley it poured forming a dam across the lower portion, thus a lake was formed. And now where once a stream rushed along its course a lake took its place. With the complete blocking of the river the lake remained for many more thousands of years, building up a second type of formation in the valley. During this time there was deposited on the valley floor a layer of pink and white limestone that came down in solution in the waters that drained from the great high cliffs. This layer can now be seen in the pink and white ridges that cover the valley. It is upon one of these ridges that the ancients built the village that we call Tuzigoot.

At times the Verde Valley Lake was very large and covered the entire valley to a great depth. But during periods of extended drought the lake dwindled and the salts that were in the lake waters crystalized out forming mounds and hills of concentrated material. Then the lake filled up again and a fine silt-like mud was deposited over the salt beds. This mud formed a natural protective cover and many centuries after the stream has resumed its way, following its old course, through the lava dam, the salts remain in their original state. In the valley about two miles south of the present town of Camp Verde is a deposit of these salts,The Verde Valley is rich in archaeological material and unusual in having had mining as an occupation of the ancients. It is here that the largest salt mining operations in the southwest were carried on. These early peoples were primarily agriculturists. That they traded with distant peoples is also known. One of the common articles of trade was pottery and here on the Verde is found a large quantity of foreign potteries. Many of the pieces came from the region of Tularosa, New Mexico while others came from the district around Jeddito in northern Arizona. The people would naturally trade their native products for materials of another region, and it is assumed that they would mine this salt not only for their own use but as a trade article as well.

In recent years the salt deposits have been commercially mined and during operations, the workings of the prehistorics were unearthed. The aborigines mined their salt by tunneling. They chose a stratum or layer where the salt was relatively plentiful and followed it inward, beating to pieces the face ahead of them, and garnering the precious bits of salt. There has been no evidence that they worked with any degree of system, but instead, burrowed about as chance, or a particularly fine lump of salt, directed them. They did no timbering, nor did they leave pillars to support the always dangerous roof.

Mixed with all the above mentioned articles is much ash, fine charcoal, and many twigs, most of them partially burned, from the fires which seem to have been the principal source of light. Among the woody matter are distinguishable numerous fragments of reed stem, some grass, and a few bits of gourd or squash shell.

The Verde Valley is located in nearly the center of the state. It can be reached by highway alternate 89 which connects the cities of Flagstaff on the northeast and Prescott on the southwest. One of the most beautiful canyons in the world forms the entrance from Flagstaff. Oak Creek Canyon is the delight of the fisherman and a dream in reality for the artist. As one emerges from the canyon to enter the Verde Valley, the massive red and golden walls, through which the canyon has cut its way, stand back in astounding gigantic splendor. Great red buttes of unbelievable design thrust themselves a thousand feet above the juniper and cedar covered land, and mark the place where the walls once were. Then out across the valley over the rolling hills that were once the bottom of the lake. The road then leads out of the valley through the town of Clarkdale which is the smelting center for the large copper mines located at Jerome high up on the side of the mountain.

When the snows of winter crown the topmost rim around the Valley, it is warm and delightfully green along the river. And in the canyons that lead away we find the famous Guest Ranches of the Verde.