Tuzigoot: Ancient Inspirations

Tuzigoot is an ancient village built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 CE.

- HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN

The location, on top of a desert hill, commands a panoramic view of the entire Verde River Valley below, in northern Arizona. Today the pueblo is part of the Tuzigoot National Monument, which was designated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, and is serviced by the National Park Service.

My husband, Andrew, and I visited Tuzigoot during our recent trip to Sedona this past October 2019. I was invited to speak to the Sedona Gem & Mineral club, and we stayed overnight in nearby Cottonwood. Tuzigoot is close by, on the way from Cottonwood to Clarkdale, where we also made a brief return visit to the fabulous Copper Art Museum, about which I wrote in the August 2019 issue of Rock & Gem.

Visitors at the Tuzigoot ruins can follow a self-guided 1/3 of a mile loop path, up the hill from the Visitor’s Center. There is a total of 110 rooms, including living quarters and storage areas. The Citadel, or tower room, is the only fully multi-level reconstructed room within the ruins.

Tuzigoot was excavated from 1933 to 1935, and the reconstruction, which took place soon thereafter, allows visitors to follow a flight of steps upstairs to the Roof Top. From there, one can see all the land resources that were available to the Puebloan residents, including the farming land, river, mesquite and marsh areas, and the game and wildlife that roamed the grounds.

Although this prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan site is not an Apache location, the name Tuzigoot, or Tu’zighhoot, was suggested by Apache crew chief Ben Lewis during the 1934 excavation, referring to “crooked water,” or the sharp bend of the Verde River to the south.

TUZIGOOT VISITOR CENTER AND MUSEUM EXHIBITS