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On the Rim:
Eight hundred years ago, the cliffs of Walnut Canyon echoes with the shouts and songs of a thriving Indian community. Archeologists call these people the Sinagua.
They first appeared living in small, pit house villages on the cinder fields east of the San Francisco Peaks. Around AD 1120, they expanded into promising areas like Walnut Canyon.
On the horizon are two landmarks that played important roles in the lives of the Northern Sinagua. The high San Francisco Peaks to the northwest mark their point of origin; flat-topped Anderson Mesa directly south marks where they finally disappeared from the archeological record around 1400.
Even though the Indians left their cliff homes eight centuries ago, we are still guests here, entrusted with preserving this unique place and passing it on to the future. |