April 16, 2000
A Look Back
By James Abarr
Of the Journal
FLAGSTAFF — On the outskirts of this vibrant and growing city, snuggled against the foot of the majestic San Francisco Peaks, the distant past encounters the present.
For here, a mere 10 miles east of the center of town, a deep canyon, twisting through the splendor of Coconino National Forest, shelters the remains of an Indian culture that vanished long before Flagstaff became one of Arizona's choice vacation spots.
Nearly 900 years ago, a migrating band of the Sinagua, a prehistoric Indian people, chose the canyon as its new home. Today, the ruins of their more than 100 cliff dwellings and other structures, built between A.D. 1125 and 1250, are preserved in the rugged domain of Walnut Canyon National Monument.
Archaeologists, anthropologists and others in the scientific community have found it difficult to piece together how the Sinagua lived here, for they left no written record or definitive history. The task was complicated by the scores of pothunters and treasure-seekers who descended on the ruins in the 1880s and 1890s. They removed countless artifacts and destroyed a number of the cliff house ruins.
Focusing on what remained, researchers studied ruins of dwellings, ceramic fragments, tools and farming areas to piece together a fragmented story of prehistoric life in Walnut Canyon.
A difficult place
An enduring mystery centers on the question: Why did the Sinagua settle in such a difficult place?
What inspired these prehistoric farmers and hunters to build stone dwellings totalling more than 300 rooms, many of them tucked under rocky overhangs midway between the rim and the narrow floor of the canyon, 350 feet below?
It was at best a marginal area in which to carve out a livelihood, but with skill and resourcefulness, the Sinagua turned this rugged and primitive area into a homeland. Their very name, given to them by archaeologist Harry Colton, is a contraction of the Spanish "sin agua" — without water — and pays tribute to the ingenuity of these ancient dry-land farmers, who persevered in an area short on moisture.
As one investigator wrote: "Many today see this arid and rocky land as inhospitable, but it remains that prehistoric people used what it had to offer to their advantage to survive and leave behind an amazing legacy."
In a canyon whose rim reaches to an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet, the Sinagua had to deal with a growing season that spanned only four months out of the year in a region where rainfall measures less than 20 inches annually.
An additional challenge was the formidable terrain. Torturous trails had to be blazed through ravines in the steep canyon walls to provide tedious links between cliff homes and farming plots along the rim and on the canyon floor.
Some investigators believe a major factor in the choice of Walnut Canyon was the strong growth of population in the 12th century throughout the Sinagua realm of north-central Arizona. As a result, the better sites in the region probably had been settled by other bands.
Protection against invaders also has been suggested. If so, why did the people here — in addition to their cliff dwellings — also build small homes and pithouses in unprotected areas near their farm fields on the canyon rims? Also contradicting the defense theory is the fact that archaeologists have found no evidence of warfare or attacks by other Indian groups.
One scientist expressed a general frustration over the question when he wrote: "Like so many issues in Southwest archaeology, the solution to these riddles is not at all clear."
Farming and hunting
In cleared pockets of deep soil on the relatively flat canyon rim, and in small plots along the banks of the now-vanished stream that carved Walnut Canyon over a period of 60 million years, the ancient farmers planted their fields of corn, beans and squash.
To conserve water from rain and melting snow, they built check dams and terraces. In the bottomlands, they irrigated small fields from the waters of the creek. Crops were supplemented by hunting elk, deer, big horn sheep and smaller game that abounded in the surrounding woodlands.
More than 20 species of plants, most of which still grow in the canyon, provided additional food. These include wild grapes, elderberry and the black walnuts that gave the canyon its name.
In protected alcoves, etched into the canyon walls by centuries of erosion, the Sinagua built their homes of unshaped limestone blocks. These were laid in rows and cemented in generous amounts of clay and mud mortar and then smoothed with coats of plaster. When the front walls were completed, dividing walls were added for each room, and wooden beams reinforced T-shaped doorways. Ceilings were formed by the rock roofs of the alcoves.
Rooms were small — averaging about 80 square feet — but they were probably used only for sleeping, shelter from storms and storage. The Sinagua were a hardy people who spent the majority of their lives outdoors.
Said one archaeologist in paying tribute to the ancient builders:
"It required skill to build a straight, smooth wall that could withstand centuries of weather . . it's a skill almost hidden by the simplicity of the dwellings."
A vast network
Although seemingly isolated, the lives of the Sinagua extended far beyond the narrow confines of Walnut Canyon. They were part of a vast trading network that extended across the Southwest.
In the canyon ruins, investigators have recovered turquoise from New Mexico, cotton cloth from southern Arizona and Mexico, pottery from the Four Corners area and jewelry made of sea shells from the shores of the Pacific and the Gulf of California.
Sinagua culture was enriched, because along with trade goods came new ideas in architecture, farming, tools, clothing and pottery from the Anasazi, Mogollon, Hohokam and other prehistoric Indian cultures.
For 125 years, the Sinagua held sway in their canyon home. Then, in about A.D. 1250, and for reasons that are uncertain, they drifted away. Archaeologists theorize that the Sinagua may have been victims of their own success.
A growing population probably put severe strain on the fragile environment. Forests had been thinned by clearing of farm fields and the constant need for firewood. Game may have become hunted out and continual planting of the same fields would have depleted soil nutrients. Diminished food supplies could have increased social stresses and triggered tribal infighting and unrest.
Rather than deal with all these woes, the Sinagua simply packed up and left.
While some of the canyon dwellers probably drifted south to the Verde River Valley of central Arizona, ethnologists believe that most of the Sinagua were assimilated into the Hopi tribe of northeast Arizona. Modern-day Hopis revere the Sinagua as their ancestors. They call them Hisatsinom, the People of Long Ago.
A treasure vandalized
For more than 600 years, the prehistoric homes in Walnut Canyon were undisturbed, left to the ravages of time and erosion.
In the 1880s, the coming of the railroad, whose right-of-way passed just to the north of the canyon, led to new discovery by scores of souvenir hunters, who descended on the ancient dwellings. Hundreds of artifacts were taken or destroyed. Walls of some cliff dwellings were dynamited by pothunters in an effort to admit more light in their hunt for presumed riches.
All of this didn't set well with citizens of the new town of Flagstaff. They launched a campaign to preserve the canyon and its irreplaceable clues to the lives of an ancient people.
It took more than 30 years for their efforts to bear fruit, but at length, in 1915, Walnut Canyon was set aside as a national monument. In 1934, it was placed under the protection of the National Park Service.
For today's visitor, Walnut Canyon offers an adventure that combines a journey through a forest wonderland with a link to that distant era when the canyon echoed to the sounds of an ancient people.
There is an amazing array of plant communities here, each different depending on temperature and the amount of sunlight it receives. Along the rim, which receives the most sunlight, visitors encounter yucca and prickly pear cactus common to desert climes as well as thick stands of hardy piñon and juniper. In the cooler depths of the canyon are Douglas fir, ponderosa pine and gambel oak.
On the canyon floor, along the dry bed of the stream that carved the canyon, are box elders and the Arizona black walnut. In 1904, a dam built upstream choked off Walnut Creek, and today the canyon floor is thick with trees and tangled vines.
Said one biologist: "These plant life zones are miniature versions of the zones spanning the western part of the continent from Mexico to Canada — all within the canyon's 20-mile length."
Limited access
Two trails allow visitors access to key areas of Walnut Canyon, much of which is restricted.
A paved rim trail, three-quarters of a mile long, leads past ruins of Sinagua surface homes to points which provide broad overviews of the canyon.
A more difficult path dips 185 feet into the canyon and passes remains of 25 cliff dwellings. This is the paved, mile-long Island Trail, so called because it circles Third Fort Island, a formidable rock promontory directly below the Visitor Center.
These "islands" — there are two others — were formed when a long-ago earthquake blocked the course of Walnut Creek, which then cut an alternate, twisting path around the obstruction. Over time, this resulted in sharp pinnacles of limestone and sandstone, rising from spurs connected to the canyon rims and forming rock "islands."
Atop Third Fort Island are ruins of a large compound surrounded by a high wall. Archaeologists once believed this was a defensive site used by the Sinagua in the event of an attack by outsiders. However, investigators now believe the "fort" was a communal gathering place for religious ceremonies and other events.
Through the years, thousands of visitors have sampled the enchantment of Walnut Canyon. One of them was novelist Willa Cather, who visited in 1912, three years before the canyon became a national monument. Perhaps she captured the mood of many of the multitude that would follow her when she wrote, with Walnut Canyon in mind:
"How easy it would be to dream one's life away in some little cleft in the earth."
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