These farm folk probably lived in comparative peace in the valley until about the beginning of the 12th century. After 1100, another group of farm Indians entered the valley from the north. These people constructed communal dwellings, or pueblos, which after A. D. 1250 were converted into large compact defensible structures.
Beginnings of Montezuma Castle
The majority of these Indians concentrated into larger settlements for protection. They built their pueblos on the hilltops near their fields, for here were the most convenient sites. Tuzigoot National Monument, 2 miles east of Clarkdale, Ariz., provides an excellent example of these hilltop locations. Occasionally, a suitable location was found in a cliff.
It can be imagined with what enthusiasm a band of the farmers might have first noticed, on the north bank of Beaver Creek, only 4 miles from the Verde River, a great cavern-pitted limestone cliff, well over 100 feet high. This was an ideal spot for a dwelling site, with good farmland nearby on the creek terrace. Here they began building rooms to accommodate their needs. We find that in a quarter-mile strip of cliff there were two distinct apartment houses. Growth during several generations made one of these villages a 5-story structure with 45 rooms. A hundred yards east was a 5-story structure with 20 rooms, which was destined, centuries later, to be inaccurately called Montezuma Castle.
Montezuma Castle rises above the model which explains its history
The Classic Period
These dwellings were occupied until about A. D. 1400. As many as 200 persons may well have lived in the several house clusters. The castle could have accommodated 12 or 15 families (possibly 50 people). These cliff dwellers lived through the peak period of Pueblo culture, producing stone implements, excellent turquoise and shell jewelry, cotton cloth (some of it elaborately decorated), sturdily constructed baskets, and many other objects.
The pottery made locally, at Montezuma Castle and in the Verde Valley generally, consisted mainly of plain brown or red ware. The prehistoric people of the Verde, although apparently highly talented along certain other lines, seem never to have developed a really ornamental painted pottery of their own. Instead, they acquired decorated pottery from the north by trade with the Flagstaff area and the Hopi country.