You can see why the early people utilized this vantage point for the construction of a fortified pueblo. Today, we can thank them for a magnificent view of the surrounding country. In the distance can be seen the San Francisco Peaks, O’Leary Peak, Sunset Crater, Painted Desert, Gray Mountain, and numerous volcanic cones, remnants of the San Francisco volcanic field, over 2 million years old.
The structures you see from this point represent only a few of the more than 800 sites found within Wupatki National Monument. The largest ruin in this area is Wupatki ruin, 9 miles (14.5 km) to the southeast. Wupatki, which has been excavated, housed about 250 persons during its period of occupation. A visit to Wupatki is well worth your while.
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We hope you have enjoyed this trail. Please Return This Booklet to the Register Stand Before You Go, or You Can Purchase It by Dropping 15 Cents in the Coin Slot.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Sunset Crater is the most recent volcano among the 400 in the Flagstaff region, and is located 18 miles (29 km) south of here. It is one of the few prehistoric volcanoes in the world that we can accurately date (another being Mt. Mazama, where now is Crater Lake, Oregon), and one of the few that had such a pronounced effect upon people living in the area. When it erupted it covered almost 800 square miles (2080 sq km) including the Wupatki area, with fine black volcanic ash. This eruption took place before the masonry pueblos in this region were built.
When the eruption was over, a few individuals probably returned to this area and found, to their surprise and pleasure, they were able to mature crops in locations where they hadn’t been able to farm before. The thin layer of volcanic ash acted as a moisture-retaining mulch; the people could plant their seeds in the underlying soil and the cinder cover would hold enough moisture to insure them a good harvest.
When this word spread around, it created a great land rush, the only one we know of in the Southwest. Large numbers of Indians from all over this part of the Southwest swarmed into the region of the cinder fall to take advantage of the new farming land. The Hohokam came from the south, the Mogollon from the southeast and the Anasazi from the north.
The main concentration took place between A.D. 1100 and 1200, and during that time the area between the San Francisco Mountains and the Little Colorado River was inhabited by perhaps 8,000 Indians.
The abandonment of the area is as interesting as the occupation. Tree-ring evidence indicates that from about A.D. 1215 to 1300 there was a long drought of varying intensity which culminated in the great drought of 1276-1299. Winds accompanying the drought turned the area into a dust bowl, moving away the moisture-retaining cover of cinders that the people had depended upon for their farming. The people left as farming acreage decreased.