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Tuzigoot National Monument
PO Box 219
Camp Verde, AZ 86322
Phone: (928) 634-5564
Tuzigoot National
Monument is 52 miles south of Flagstaff, Arizona via U.S. You have
an alternate Highway 89A, or 90 miles north of Phoenix. Travel
Interstate Highway 17, take Exit 287 and travel west on Highway 260
to Cottonwood. In Cottonwood, take Main Street north towards
Clarkdale.
Crowning a desert
hilltop is an ancient pueblo. Tuzigoot is an ancient village or
pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted
of 110 rooms including second and third story structures. The
Sinagua built the first buildings around A.D. 1000. The Sinagua were
agriculturalists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of
miles. The people left the area around 1400. The site is currently
comprised of 42 acres.
Tuzigoot National
Monument is an 834 acre unit located just below the Mogollon Rim in
Central Arizona. Currently, only 58 acres of the legislated amount
are in National Park Service ownership. Although the climate is
arid, with less than 12 inches of rainfall annually, several
perennial streams thread their way from upland headwaters to the
Verde Valley below, creating lush riparian ribbons of green against
an otherwise parched landscape of juniper-dotted hills.
From the
mineral-rich Black Hills to the south, to the red and white
sandstone country of Sedona and the basalt-capped palisades of the
Mogollon Rim to the north, to the limestone hills of the Verde
Valley, the dynamic nature of the Earth's geologic processes is
evident in the landforms surrounding the monument.
The monument
contains numerous species of plants, such as mesquite, catclaw, and
saltbush, which have adapted to life in an arid environment, but,
due to the micro-habitats provided by the riparian corridors, also
hosts populations of moisture-loving plants. The tall, large-leaved
mesic species of trees, such as sycamore and cottonwood, found only
in the riparian corridors, stand in stark contrast to the xeric
species found on the neighboring lands.
Nearby Tavasci
Marsh, with it's slow-moving water, provides yet another habitat for
the great diversity of plant and animal life found within and
adjacent to the monument.
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