NPS Website; Local Website
WHAT IS IT?Remnants of a multiple story southern Sinagua Indian village that contained at least 75 rooms. Archeologists believe that the Sinagua inhabited the village for 300 years, from the years 1100 to 1400.
BEAUTY (7/10)
Tuzigoot NM is larger but not as well preserved as the monument that shares its brochure – Montezuma Castle. If Montezuma Castle is a condo, Tuzigoot is a multi-level sprawling ranch house with extensions. Ruins of this expanded pueblo blends into the red rocky ground that surrounds it.
Like all prime real estate, Tuzigoot is built atop a hill, offering an unobstructed view of the land in all directions, and is not far from water. Builders of Tuzigoot had the right idea. New homes and partly constructed mansions blossom on all of the neighboring hills. As we were taking in the sunshine from Tuzigoot’s open rooftop, we thought this might not be a bad place to live.
HISTORICAL INTEREST (7/10)
Much of the culture that built Tuzigoot and other neighboring structures remains a mystery, at least to us. We do know that up to 250 people inhabited Tuzigoot in the 1300s, the height of the Sinaguan culture. Residents of Tuzigoot and other pueblos in this area abandoned their homes and moved out of the Verde Valley just one century later.
Tuzigoot could have been a trading hub, since artifacts and architectural elements are not limited to one geographical region. Macaws held significance to the people living here – remains of these beautiful birds are buried and preserved as well as their owners. This is about all we can tell you. This is more than we knew when we arrived.
CROWDS (7/10)
Lots of people here. We arrived as a tour was forming outside the Visitor Center. We shared a walk around the monument with about 30 people. All of them respectfully curious, like us, trying to understand a little better the people who once lived here.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Tuzigoot NM is a short 15-mile drive from Montezuma Castle NM and Montezuma Well, both of which lie just off I-17. Sedona and Red Rock State Park are 25 miles northeast of Tuzigoot using ALT 89.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The bookstore is not the crowning gem of Tuzigoot NM. Nothing that separates the selection from those at other Arizona sites, also managed by the Western National Parks Association. No memorable nick-nacks, other than some cool magnets.
COSTS (3/5)
Entrance to the site is $3.00 per adult. Children 16 and under are free, as are those with a National Parks Pass. We were able to join the just-starting tour, as were several other people, first and show our pass or pay admission after it finished. A nice courtesy.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)A Ranger-led tour, Rangers inside the museum and volunteers roaming the ruins checking to see if visitors had any questions. Oh if only the other sites we had visited in the past few days had this! What a difference it makes. We left those sites frustrated and confused, questioning why they were even historical sites. We left Tuzigoot feeling like time here was time well-spent. We left with questions answered and a desire to know more about the people called Sinagua and the Hopi, people who consider this an ancestral site.
TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
By the time we got to Tuzigoot, we were getting pretty sick of the standard “No one really knows who these people were, why they came here and why they left” mantra. We heard it from volunteers, saw it on interpretive signs and in pamphlets and brochures at all of the Sinagua sites, as if this disclaimer should sufficiently quiet all of out questions and make us stop bugging staff. Just look at the ruins and move on.
At Tuzigoot, we were lucky enough to find a Ranger that was willing to share everything he did know and even better, who wasn’t afraid to say he didn’t know when an answer escaped him. Not “no one knows,” but he didn’t know.
Our hour tour ended on the roof of the partly reconstructed pueblo ruin. We spent another hour up there probing Jose for more information. It was clear that Tuzigoot and the Sinagua intrigued him as much as it did us and that he had done considerable research on his own, trying to find the same answers we were. We talked about the other sites, the logistics of reconstructing ruins and the issues around collaborating with not one, but several Indian tribes on archeological projects and interpretation of artifacts.
Tuzigoot is still a sacred site for Hopi, and many disagree with the unearthing of pottery shards and burial items of people they consider to be their ancestors. Jose talked about the fine balance between respecting and researching the site, particularly since remains of Sinagua were found encased in the walls of the central room of the pueblo, which we were standing above. Our conversation with Jose led Gab to finally ask:
“Is it possible that the Hopi know exactly why the Sinagua left and they just don’t want to tell us?”
“Anything is possible.”
There is only one guided tour daily at 11 am. Plan your visit to get there in time for the only tour in all of the Sinagua sites including Motenzuma Castle NM, Wupatki NM, Sunset Crater Volcano NM and Walnut Canyon NM.
FUN (8/10)
Walking in the sunshine, behind a smart and funny tour guide who held the whole crowd captive with his explanations, on a trail that took us right up to and inside the ruins themselves. Maybe we’re nerds, but at a historical site, it doesn’t get much better than this.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
If you can get to only one National Parks historical site around Flagstaff and Sedona, make it this one. What the bookstore lacks is made up for in the array of artifacts at the museum and in the knowledge and availability of the Rangers. Go to Tuzigoot NM then have lunch in the historic town of Jerome, which is perched on the side of a nearby mountain. We wished we were hungry as we drove through its steep winding streets lined with good-smelling restaurants and cafés.
TOTAL 57/80
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