Tuzigoot National Monument

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.