BGuthrie Photos: AZ -- Montezuma Castle Natl Monument -- Well

AZ -- Montezuma Castle Natl Monument -- Well:

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[4] MONTW_120720_005.JPG	[5] MONTW_120720_012.JPG
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[16] MONTW_120720_064.JPG	[17] MONTW_120720_067.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MONTW_120720_005.JPG: The lowered, dirt surface in this enclosure is the flooring of a pithouse, a type of prehistoric dwelling built partially below ground level. Pithouses are of an architectural style associated with the Hohokam Culture. The Hohokam are thought to hav come to the Verde Valley around AD 600 from the Salt and Gila River Valleys (near Phoenix). All that remains of this pithouse is the floor. Wall posts rotted away long ago, but the holes where they stood outline this ancient dwelling. By comparing this conceptual drawing with the actual floor, you can locate the entrance and the firepit. The two large holes near the center held the main roof-support timbers.
2. MONTW_120720_021.JPG: Welcome to Montezuma Well: The 1/3-mile, paved and signed trail ahead of you leads up a short hill and down to the rim of this naturally occurring spring in the desert. Empty cliff houses, caves and ruins of stone pueblos are all that remain of a 14th-century farming community that once flourished here. We invite you to enjoy Montezuma Well in a safe and leisurely manner. Please walk carefully and stay on the trail. Help us preserve this unique spring and surrounding remnants of an earlier civilization.
3. MONTW_120720_026.JPG: A Sacred Place: Prehistoric man in his constant search for water, might have regarded the natural well at the top of this hill as a hallowed place- a seemingly inexhaustible supply of warm water flowing in the midst of the Upper Sonora Desert. From about AD 900 to AD 1400, a group of southern Sinagua Indians built a thriving agricultural community here by channeling the well water to irrigate their food and cotton crops.
4. MONTW_120720_030.JPG: Montezuma Well: A funnel-shaped, limestone sink containing a pool of water 55 feet deep and 368 feet across, Montezuma Well is a limestone sink formed long ago by the collapse of an immense underground cavern. Subterranean springs of warm water replenish the well with over a million and a half gallons of water a day: the amount unvarying, apparently since prehistoric times. The water maintains an even temperature of 76 F degrees (24 C degrees) year around. Water from the well flows out through a side cave in the limestone cliffs to your right. We do not know what the first settlers called this place, but early soldiers attributed the deep pool of water in the desert to the Aztec emperor who lived 2,000 miles south and several years earlier.
5. MONTW_120720_042.JPG: The Forming of Montezuma Well: Scientists speculate that about twelve million years ago, this part of the Verde Valley was covered by a large, shallow lake full of small floating plants. The plants caused dissolved limestone to form minute crystals which slowly sank to the bottom and, eventually, produced thick layers of soft limestone rock. About two million years ago, the lake began drying. Underground streams started dissolving some of the softer limestone under the ground and a cavern began to take shape. The constantly moving water carved the underground cave even larger until, probably, about 11,000 years ago, the roof gradually crumbled -- forming Montezuma Well. Continued erosion formed the outlet in a side cave. When the water enters the well through the bottom vents, limestone falls out of solution and carbon dioxide (CO2) is released as a dissolved gas into the water.
6. MONTW_120720_045.JPG: Underwater Chain of Life: Since water in Montezuma Well is charged with carbon dioxide (CO2), gill-breathing fish can not survive: instead, an aquatic community of several unique species -- each dependent on the other -- has evolved. By day, small floating plants -- algae -- manufacture food from light energy and the rich supply of carbon dioxide. Tiny, shrimplike animals -- amphipods -- feed by combing algae cells through appendages below their mouths. Leeches, living by day in the bottom of the well, rise at night and, searching with the sensory hairs of their bodies, gulp large quantities of the small amphipods. Night-swimming water scorpions also make evening meals of the shrimplike creatures. More familiar turtles and muskrats live around the well, and at dawn and dusk you might see squirrels, foxes, skunks, raccoons and snakes coming to feed. In winter, look for black-headed Canadian geese, green-winged teals and mallards.
7. MONTW_120720_053.JPG: The Beginning of Agriculture: This part of the Verde Valley was first occupied around 700 AD by prehistoric peoples. They hunted wild dear and antelope, gathering native grasses and nuts, and caught turtles and fish in Wet Beaver Creek. The line of green trees you see indicates the course of the creek. Most likely, farming was introduced by the Hohokam people who traveled through the valley, trading with local tribes and teaching them to irrigate the flat lands. By the late 1300s, one tribe, the southern Sinagua, prospered with their corn, squash, beans and cotton crops.
8. MONTW_120720_061.JPG: Cliff Houses: Some southern Sinagua Indians lived in the cliff houses. This one-room homes faced east so the sun could warm them on cold winter mornings. Entry was by way of the narrow ledges or wooden ladders. Homes in cliffs were popular living places throughout the southwest and many examples have been found in the Verde Valley. They were easy to make enclosing natural openings. The stone walls were durable, and rooms could be kept warm and dry.
9. MONTW_120720_064.JPG: Pueblo Living: A busy 20- to 30-room pueblo once stood here; overlooking the irrigated fields. It was built, probably, in the late 1300s during the final phase of settlement at the well. Pueblo rooms were small -- about 12 by 8 feet -- and used by families for sleeping and eating with most activities taking place outdoors. Daily chores would have included farming the nearby fields; building and repairing the limestone pueblos; drying corn and seeds for winter use; weaving baskets and sandals from yucca plants; and forming and firing pottery storage vessels. Generally, a level area near the pueblos was set aside as a plaza where neighboring villagers could trade goods and exchange news. Festivals and religious ceremonies might have taken place here, too.
10. MONTW_120720_067.JPG: Montezuma Well in Arizona
11. MONTW_120720_076.JPG: Wild Riches: Even with new food crops, Sinagua farmers continued eating the wild grasses found around the well and using them for medicinal purposes. Lamb's-quarter, a plant with arrow-shaped leaves, was boiled with saltbush leaves and roasted cholla buds to make a sort of vegetable strew. The four-winged saltbush, pounded or chewed to a pulp, could ease any or bee stings and pinyon pitch salved sore muscles. Agaves, or century plants, were harvested in the spring with new stalks eaten immediately and the trimmed plant then baked in a pit lined with hot stones. Seeds from amaranth were dried and stored for winter use. Chewing gum was made from milkweed and white brittlebush, and a hard candy from ocotillo blossom nectar. Some plants had more than one use, such as the Spanish dagger; its fat, bananalike fruits were good to eat and a lather formed from the roots was used for soap and treating heartburn.
12. MONTW_120720_098.JPG: Cave Homes: Early inhabitants of Montezuma Well took advantage of these overhanging cliffs to use them for the ceilings and walls of their homes. They covered the stones with mud plaster and built small doorways for protection and winter's cold winds. Notice the overhang above you, blackened from the cooking and warming fires. Fragile 800-year-old ruin Please do not go beyond railing
13. MONTW_120720_101.JPG: Photos of this by Rothrock Phoenix 1878 &
14. MONTW_120720_140.JPG: Swallet ... The opening through which a stream disappears underground: Water from Montezuma Well flows through cracks in the limestone opening to your right, traveling underground for about 150 feet (46 meters). It emerges in an outlet which prehistoric farmers channeled into a canal to irrigate their crops. Water takes seven minutes to flow through this swallet and out to the canal. About 600 pounds of dissolved lime flows from the well through this swallet every day.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Montezuma Castle National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Montezuma Castle National Monument, located near Camp Verde, Arizona, in the Southwestern United States, features well-preserved cliff dwellings. They were built and used by the Pre-Columbian Sinagua people around 1400 AD. Several Hopi clans trace their roots to immigrants from the Montezuma Castle/Beaver Creek area. Clan members periodically return to their former homes for religious ceremonies. When European Americans discovered them in the 1850s, they reported native traditions recalling they had been built by a divine hero named Montezuma; whose name may have been connected with the well-known historical Aztec emperor of Mexico, Moctezuma II, and accounts in Spanish as early as 1694 reference them as the "Casas de Montezuma". Some of these accounts have led to a mistaken belief that the Spanish or Americans themselves had named them after the emperor.

Cliff Dwelling:

The last known record of Sinagua occupation for any sites are for Montezuma Castle National Monument around 1425 AD. The reasons for abandonment of their habitation sites are not yet known, but warfare, drought, and clashes with the newly-arrived Yavapai people have been suggested. The five-story stone and mortar dwellings contain 20 rooms and once housed about 50 people. A natural overhang shades the rooms and shelters them from rain. Another part of the cliff wall bears the marks of an even larger dwelling, which has not survived.

The dwellings and the surrounding area were declared a U.S. National Monument on December 8, 1906. The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

This is an easy monument to visit, a short distance off Interstate 17, exit 287. There is a paved trail of 1/4 mile from the visitor center along the base of the cliff containing the ruins. Access to the ruins has not been allowed since 1950.

Montezuma Well:

Montezuma Well is a separate part of the monument, located 11 miles northeast, near Rimrock, Arizona. The Well is a natural limestone sinkhole through which some 1,400,000 gallons of water flow each day. The water is highly carbonated and contains high levels of arsenic. At least five endemic species live only in the Well: a diatom, a springtail, a water scorpion, an amphipod, and a leech -- the most endemic species in any spring in the Southwest US .

Montezuma Well's outflow has been used for irrigation since the 8th century. Part of a prehistoric canal is preserved at the picnic ground, and portions of the original Hohokam(?) canal are still in use today. In 1968, Montezuma Well was the subject of the first ever underwater archaeological survey to take place in a National Park, lead by archaeologist George R Fischer.
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