SAGUARO

High in the cliffs above Cholla Canyon, near Roosevelt Dam, are Tonto Ruins, one of best preserved cliff dwellings to be found in southern Arizona. These ruins have told a story of prehistoric people.

The Salado People lived here hundreds of years ago. They were peaceful, industrious, and because they were constantly victims of attack they lived in high cliffs where they were able to ward off the attackers.

When public-minded conservationists achieved the proclamation in 1907 of Tonto National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt their feelings were fairly simple-they had saved from vandalism two of the most accessible and best-preserved cliff-dwellings of southern Arizona. But in reality they had saved far more, for implicit in the crumbling walls and rubbish heaps long abandoned by their Indian makers is an un-written story of human sorrow. It deserves the attention of some future narrator who will have available the facts of archeological research now barely begun. In the lives of the prehistoric Indian dwellers in the beautiful central Arizona valley there was certainly plenty of trouble. Before 1300 A.D. Indian farmers, whom archeologists call the Salado People because they lived on the upper reaches of the Rio Salado or Salt River, had grown their maize, squash, and beans in apparent peace along the limpid stream winding in its broad valley between the precipitous and gashed Superstition and Sierra Ancha Mountains. They scattered their little brush dams and small pueblo houses up and down the river terraces with scant regard for defensive security. But after that they ran into the old problem that "have" peoples face when "have not" peoples go on the move. This time the "have not" tribes, away up in northern Arizona and New Mexico, were motivated by something other than false and malignant political ideas a catastrophic drouth which for almost a quarter-century seared their crops and forced them to abandon their home-land and move south to valleys which, although affected by the general southwestern

A Story of TONTO

calamity, must have afforded more permanent and plentiful supplies of water. Thus the great pueblos and cliff dwellings of the Mesa Verde National Park region and the settlements in the Kayenta district of northeastern Arizona, fell one after the other, into ruin. Their citizens pushed south into the drainages of the Little Colorado and Puerco Rivers, and even east to the Rio Grande. The invasion, probably augumented by troubles with nomadic tribes also, dis-placed local inhabitants of those valleys and the cumulative pressure must have pulsed like a wave down the populated valleys between the rugged plateaus and mountains of the Southwest. When it hit our peaceful Salado farmers, they hung grimly onto their tribal territory, grouped themselves into larger towns, and, where possible, took to the cliffs. On the northeast declivities of the rough Superstition Mountains, Nature had prepared them a refuge. Here, high at the elevated base of a contorted basalt caprock, weathering forces had eroded two large, shallow caves more than 300 feet above the bottom of picturesque little Cholla Canyon which pitches steeply down to the valley floor. Rock overhangs gave protection not only from rains but also from enemy attack from above, and the loose slide rocks and cactus of the precipitous slope below discouraged marauders. Lookouts could spot an enemy coming from miles away in the Salt River Valley, over terrain now covered by the blue waters of Roosevelt Lake. So, in the shelters they began their new and arduous life. Living 300 feet up in the air without an elevator has its disadvantages.

It was no fun to carry enough water to puddle the adobe for their masonry walls. Even now a seep of water dampens the floor of the Upper Ruin and a small spring flows near the Lower dwelling, but there is no assurance these were larger then. Roof timbers had to be cut and carried in; firewood probably was an increasing problem. And the farmers had to jog a mile and a half to their little irrigated fields, and then plow back up the steep trail after a hard day's work. One thing they had in abundance-wild plants to gather. The place is, and undoubtedly was, a desert paradise, paradoxical as that combination of words may sound to someone who is not familiar with the arboreal Lower Sonoran deserts. Giant saguaros jut up all over the slopes of the canyon, as well as a mixture of the desert and foothill trees, mesquites and palo verdes plus junipers and mountain laurels. Cottonwood, hackberry, sycamore, walnut and elder grow in the canyon bottom. And the hills are clothed with ocotillo jojobe, wild buckwheat, and species of yucca, sotol, and agave. Many of these yielded food, or material for tools and weapons, and the cover they furnished must have supported then as it does now a fairly large wildlife population, quail, doves, rabbits, foxes even deer and peccary. Living in such picturesque surroundings they probably came to love their new homes, inconvenient as they were. A beautiful view from your front doorsteps sells you on a house, and the old people were human too. In any case they stayed in the caves for years, enlarging their original houses, tearing down, remodeling, and erecting second stories of rooms. Here, indeed, was a thriving community.

The Lower Dwelling, if all of it were used at one time, attained 29 rooms, a dozen of which were in the second story. Two or three were small and dark and were used for storage, while another might more properly be called a passageway. The rather shapeless rocks available gave their masonry a rough character compared to the tidy walls of ruins in northern Arizona and New Mexico. You can tell they hated the poor building stone, because they used so much adobe mortar between rocks. Remnants of their ceilings, one of which is completely intact, show rafters of slender juniper poles over which at right angles were laid saguaro ribs bound together with yucca fibers. Five inches of mud tamped on top of this sheathing forms the floor for the room above. One large pine viga provided the main support for rafters, and it is from these vigas that an uncertain tree-ring date was obtained which lends support to the belief of archeologists that the dwellings were occupied in the middle of the 1300's. Hatchways gave an outlet for smoke from the Indians' little floor firepits, and also allowed entrance by means of ladders to the upper floors. You can visit the Lower Dwelling by a half mile hike up a good trail, but to see the larger Upper Dwelling you must scramble another 250 vertical feet over another half mile of practically no trail at all. The Upper Dwelling presents many of the same features, but had 32 ground floor rooms with 14 second story chambers built on them. Because the floor of the shelter slopes steeply, the rooms were constructed on artificial terraces, giving the illusion of a larger building.

The excavations of Tonto Ruins uncovered a wealth of relics. Because of position of ruin, far from water, many perishable materials have been found in good repair. Tonto Ruins is located near Apache Trail.

Careful excavations have opened up much of Tonto Ruins, showing how substantially they were built. It is believed that in 15th century the Salado People moved away. They were excellent craftsman, builders.

Because several of the wall foundations almost gave way in the late 1930's, a National Park Service project using Indian CCC enrollees under the direction of Archeologist Charlie R. Steen stabilized the weak places. Incidental necessary excavation in some of the rooms produced a wealth of sandals, mats, textiles and other perishable materials which occur rarely in open pueblos. Thus we know the Tonto people were excellent craftsmen in weaving, tool and pottery making. They also made attractive ornaments of turquoise and sea-shells, the latter traded from the Gulf of California, several hundred miles to the southwest. We know little of the many facts of their life which left no tangible evidence, for example, their religious, legal, political, or social structure. Unlike their northern cousins, the Anasazi of the San Juan River drainage, they built no kivas, or else conducted their ceremonies in undifferentiated living rooms. Only by inference can we guess that their non-material life was also highly developed. But the course of their history was not to continue uninterrupted. In the 1400's, malignant forces, now only dimly understood, finally forced the Salado people to abandon the home region they had tried so hard to keep. Increasing pressure from hostile nomadic tribes, presumably the Western and Southern Apache, finally must have become intolerable. Down along the Gila and lower Salt where other Salado groups had joined a different tribe, the Hohokam, intensive irrigation may have water-logged their fields and brought up the alkali so that farming became impossible. Whatever the reason or combination of reas ons, the Salado disappeared before 1500 A.D.,

RUINS By Dale S. King

possibly scattering in several directions. Some may have gone north to join the Zuni In dians of New Mexico; some perhaps southeast to Chihuahua, Mexico, to the Casas Grandes people; and others may possibly have retreated up the San Pedro river in Arizona to amalgamate with the group later known as the Sobaipuri Pima. Government funds have not yet been made available to construct a museum building to house the rich collection of objects from the ruins which serve to give us the interesting human details of their life and history. Some objects are on display in a small temporary room at the headquarters parking area below the Lower Ruin. A resident custodian provides guide service to the ruins from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., but there are no facilities for camping and no concessions or accommodations. The small town of Roosevelt is nearby. The famous Apache Trail, an excellent gravel road, turns north from U. S. Highway 60-70 at Apache Junction, 24 miles east of Mesa, Arizona, and passes through the beautiful Superstition Mountains to Roosevelt Danı and on past Tonto National Monument to Globe, Arizona. Heaviest visitor travel to the monument is from October through May, for summer months are hot, although bearable, for a breeze each afternoon starts up from the waters of Roosevelt Lake and wafts up Cholla Canyon. Requests for information should be addressed to The Custodian, Tonto National Monument, Roosevelt, Arizona, or to the Regional Director, Region Three, National Park Service, Box 1728, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

There is nothing more impressive to the eye of the Southern Arizona visitor than the giant saguaro cactus, that raises its arms over mile upon mile of the desert country. These great plants, with the accordion-pleated trunks, have been world-famous since the first white explorers entered the region. If one could picture all of the saguaros, marching toward a central point, gathering for an enormous meeting of the clan, one would have a picture of the Saguaro National Monument, 17 miles east of Tucson. Here the United States government set aside a large area for the preservation of a veritable cactus forest. Here, as nowhere else on earth, the Giant Cactus thrives in most luxurious fashion.

Roadways lead the visitor through this outstanding growth of ten-ton, 30-foot plants that throng the horizon on all sides. There is an observation hill in the center of the monument area where one may look out over the sea of stately green, observing the great variation in the structure of the cactus and gaining a general view of what seems to be a jungle of Saguaros. The desert floor, separating the plants, is rather barren of other growth as though the giants had used up all the sparse water and food. Indeed the saguaros do obtain and store relatively large amounts of water. Although their root systems are quite shallow and the rainfall is certainly very light, the huge growths nevertheless manage to obtain enough moisture during rainy days to tide them over the years.

When the plants are well supplied with water the trunks are noticeably larger and the indentations between the large lateral ridges are swollen and flat. Then, as the cactus uses up the water, during periods of drouth, the ridges commence to appear more prominently, until eventually, as one hot, dry day follows the next, the plant looks shrunken. This important adaptation means the difference between life and death, for like all living things, regardless of where they exist, the saguaro must have water to survive.

The stem of the giant cactus is made up of a circular skeleton of ribs, strong and resilient. These ribs support the heavy mass of spongy plant material. A mature plant may weigh asmuch as ten tons and may absorb, through the root systems, as much as a ton of water during a good rain. It has been estimated that Saguaros live to an age of about 200 years. The maximum height recorded is 53 feet. When storms accompanied by winds of gale force sweep through the monument area the enormous cactus plants sway back and forth. Sometimes they blow over and strike the ground with terrific force, sounding like the boom of a cannon.

Visitors to our southwestern national monuments are fortunate in having excellent guide leaflets prepared by the National Park Service. The literature issued at Saguaro National Monument is no exception. In telling of the area, as it appears in the Spring, the following description could not be improved upon: "Spectacular at any season, the monument is especially beautiful during April when the desert is carpeted with a multi-colored assortment of ephemeral wildflowers; and in May when it sparkles with the blossoms of many varieties of smaller cacti dwarfed by the towering fluted columns of the saguaros, themselves crowned with gleaming tiaras of creamywhite blossoms which later turn to brilliant scarlet, edible fruits."

There is indeed a feeling of magic at Saguaro National Monument, a feeling of strangeness and mystery, especially when one visits the region for the first time. The entire land scape is so totally unfamiliar and different that one learns to expect the unexpected, nor is one disappointed. It is a weird place. Birds pop out of holes in the trunks of the plants and one learns that woodpeckers, tiny owl and even hawks inhabit the cactus holes. At night coyotes wail and the bright moon throws black shadows across the sand as the wind sings through the needles that project fanwise from the saguaro "pleats."

The white blossoms of the plants appear at the extremities of the branches in May and early June. The deep white bloom is the state flower of Arizona. In midsummer the mature fruits split open and add a bright touch of red to the surroundings. Birds like the black seeds contained in the red pulp and the white-winged dove is to be seen perched precariously upon a cactus tip, garnering the harvest. Indians, too, like the saguaro fruit. They make a strong intoxicating beverage from the pulp. Papago and Pima Indians obtain much nourishment from these same fruits, making cakes from the dried substance and storing the syrup that was left from a boiling process.

There are many other plants in the area as well as the lordly cactus structures. The palo verde tree, for example, flourishes in certain areas to lend its beautiful yellow blossoms to the scene in April and May. The mesquite also thrives in spots where the woodcutters have spared it. The bright green leaves of this plant form a haze of color that compliments the hue of the skyscraper plants. Indeed the color green is at a premium in the desert and every plant that is able to produce this miracle of leaf in a hot dry land, certainly enhances the surroundings.

That flame-tipped plant, the ocotillo, also waves its spidery arms over the desert. The long, thin stems, well armed with spines, are an important part of the picture. The red flowers are produced at the tips of the wands and the brilliance of the bloom is not exceeded by any other growth in the region. There are many types of cactus other than the saguaros. The bothersome and sometimes dangerous chollas extend their vicious spines in many places and one who has backed into a healthy plant of this species regrets it for some time, for the cholla has its own peculiar way of holding on, once its needles have penetrated the flesh. One must use a stick or other object to remove the unwelcome hitch-hiker, for if one's hands are employed, the cactus only takes another grip and thus there are two wounds where there was only one before. The roadways through the monument are not in good condition. Nevertheless, if one drives carefully and slowly, (as one should do in any event) there is perfect safety. There is so much to see that the stops will be frequent and so the state of the road is not a handicap to the person who visits the area in order to examine it fully. If one is fortunate one may see peccaries or wild pigs, the mule deer, the fox, or even the retiring badger. There are four species of rabbits that lived in the desert long before any human foot was felt. It is a privilege to visit this monument and this fact becomes apparent as one spends more and more time in this very interesting area.