National Monuments - Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot
“It is better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.”
This year is the start of our adventuring to all of the National Parks and National Monuments that we can possibly visit! I have wanted to explore all of these places for many years but, as we all know, something always seems to come up. But this year we started out by learning more about our state and the history that is all around us!
During the kids’ spring break, we had an adventure going to visit two National Monuments. We explored Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot. Both are ancient ruins of the Southern Sinagua people living in the Verde Valley in Central Arizona.
Montezuma Castle
These locations are thought to have been built around 1000 to 1300 A.D. Montezuma Castle is a five-story apartment-style building built on the side of a limestone cliff. This structure had around 45 rooms, Montezuma Castle is nestled into a cliff recess which is around 100 feet from the valley floor, and was accessed by a series of ladders. There is a diorama there that shows what life could have looked like, including one wild child running away from his mother. I can only imagine the panic that a mother would feel with living up high and having a rambunctious child!
We learned that visitors used to be able to access actually going into the castle, which would be seriously amazing, however, that practice thankfully stopped back in 1951 after excessive damage was caused to this landmark. This is a good reminder to keep this type of monument around for future generations to see.
We then drove over to Tuzigoot which was built at the top of a long ridge, raised 120 feet above the Verde Valley, that had around 87 rooms. It was super interesting to not see many entryways, and we wondered how they would enter their houses. After questioning that, we learned that they entered rooms from the roof by ladders. It was super windy when we were there and that made us wonder if that was part of the reason behind them entering from the roof.
We learned a lot about things we had never known before and there was so much more to learn! One of the great things we have learned from going to the different monuments is that they have a junior ranger program and that helps the kids, and us, look for and learn many more specific things! These are just little booklets that encourage us all to go around looking for answers to certain questions. In the end, they earn a junior ranger badge. Just make sure you ask for one when you go, they really are super fun!
