When the eruption was over, a few individuals probably returned to this area and found, much to their surprise and pleasure, that they could grow crops in locations where they hadn’t been able to farm before. The 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 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.
Citadel Ruin
Abandonment of the area is almost 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 on which the people had depended for their farming. Depopulation set in as farming acreage decreased.
The Anasazi element apparently moved north or east into the Tsegi Canyon or Hopi country, while the Sinagua moved south into the Verde Valley and east to the Chavez Pass region near Winslow. By the mid 1200’s Wupatki probably was completely abandoned.
When the Spanish came through this general region between 1583 and 1605, they encountered small bands of Indians in the San Francisco Mountains near Flagstaff. These probably were hunting and gathering parties of either Havasupais from the Grand Canyon or Yavapais from the Verde Valley. No Indians were reported between the Hopi villages and the San Francisco Mountains. The Navajo, who are seen in the monument today, did not move into the general Wupatki region until about 1870.
Other accessible ruins in the monument are Wukoki, a three-story pueblo built on a large outcrop of sandstone, Lomaki, and Citadel Ruin.
