Tuzigoot National Monument: Ancient Hilltop Village | WNPA

Tuzigoot

National Monument

Welcome!

Water flows under and through the Valley Verde. Snowmelt, summer monsoons, and springs well up from the ancient sedimentary rocks. In the heart of the valley a thousand years ago, people began to build a little hilltop pueblo that would grow into one of the largest villages in the area.

Tuzigoot National Monument

Explore the Park

Located in central Arizona, near the city of Clarkdale, Tuzigoot National Monument was declared a national monument by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 25, 1939. The ancient pueblo at Tuzigoot, consisting of two- and three-story structures with a total of 110 rooms, was built around 1000 CE by the Sinagua, a pre-Columbian people who lived in the pueblo for roughly four hundred years. At its peak, the area that would become Tuzigoot National Monument was home to around 250 people. Tuzigoot is an Apache word that translates to “crooked water,” referring to nearby water now called Pecks Lake. The monument’s two trails, the Ruins Loop Trail and the Tavasci Marsh Overlook Trail, offer visitors views of the pueblo and surrounding lands, as well as encounters with the many species of birds, animals, and plants that thrive there.

Stories from Tuzigoot

Testing the Efficacy of Acoustic Lures on Western Bat Species
Photographic Documentation of Historic Structures in 11 National Parks in Southern Arizona
Passive Audio Monitoring of Federally Threatened Mexican Spotted Owl and Yellow-Billed Cuckoo
Since our founding in 1938

WNPA has provided more than

$136 million

in aid to our partner parks to fund educational programs, initiatives, and scientific research

Kids in Parks

National parks are places where kids can dream up great adventures! Taking in amazing scenery. Testing out new skills. Exploring places kids may have only heard about. But most importantly, creating new memories with friends and family.

Our public lands are our public commons. They belong to all of us as part of our natural and cultural heritage. They remind us of a larger world that has existed long before the arrival of humans and will survive long after we are gone. –Terry Tempest Williams, Author & Conservationist

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