Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona (1977)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
HISTORICAL HANDBOOK NUMBER TWENTY-SEVEN
This publication is one of a series of handbooks describing the historical and archeological areas in the National Park System administered by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. It is printed by the Government Printing Office and may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington 25, D. C.
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock No. 024-005-00176-0 / Catalog No. I 29.58:27
by Albert H. Schroeder and Homer F. Hastings
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 27 Washington, D. C. - 1958 (Reprint 1961)
The National Park System, of which Montezuma Castle National Monument is a unit, is dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoyment of its people.
Montezuma Castle.
MONTEZUMA CASTLE, a pueblo ruin in the Verde River valley of central Arizona, has no connection with the Aztec emperor whose name it bears. The name was given by early settlers in the Verde Valley in the belief that the striking 5-story ruin with its 20 rooms had been built by Aztec refugees, fleeing from central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. It follows naturally that the small lake inside a hill 7 miles away should be named Montezuma Well. While the story of the flight is known to be false, the names remain.
The aboriginal builders of the Castle left no records, but they did leave broken pottery, trash, and other debris of their everyday life. The analysis of this material tells us that these people, whom we call Sinagua (see glossary), were peaceful farmers who occupied this area from the 1100’s until the 1400’s; that they were similar in physical type to many of today’s Pueblo peoples in northern Arizona and New Mexico; and that they differed somewhat in their daily life from their neighbors in the desert to the south and in the mountains and plateaus to the north.