While the Sinagua were, in effect, Stone Age people, they were, at the same time, expert in farming, which yielded their principal sources of food. Each day the village farmers climbed the arduous trail to the canyon’s rim. In small natural clearings among the junipers on the northeast rim of the canyon, they found plenty of arable soil, which they cultivated with digging sticks and stone-bladed hoes. They grew corn, beans, squash and sunflowers. They probably also domesticated wild turkeys, helping assure themselves a steady supply of meat.
Additionally, they harvested wild plants such as the snowberry, serviceberry, currant and elderberry, and true to their ancestral nomadic roots, they hunted the wild game of the area, which abounded with elk, deer, antelope, bear, porcupine and birds.
Like the peoples of the other Puebloan traditions, the Sinagua carried on commerce with distant neighbors, trading surplus animal skins and foodstuffs for salt, cotton, stone axes, pottery, turquoise and seashells. The shells, valued for their use in jewelry, were carried to Walnut Canyon all the way from the Pacific Coast.
Like their cultural kin, the dwellers of Walnut Canyon utilized music in ceremony and dance. The earliest scientific examination of the ruins revealed the presence of flageolets, small wind instruments that produced haunting melodies.
After less than a century, the Sinagua began walking away from their homes in Walnut Canyon, probably leaving by family groups over time, not by mass migration all at once. By A. D. 1225, they were all gone. They may have abandoned the region as a result of the prolonged drought, exhausted resources, disease, enemy raiders, discredited religious leaders, bad “sign,” greener pastures or none or some or all of the above. No one knows for sure. It is known, however, that neighboring regions were also being abandoned during the same time period. The Sinagua probably migrated east and south, coalescing with larger villages, near dependable water sources.
Modern Times
Nearly 600 years rolled by after the last lingering note of a flageolet drifted down Walnut Canyon. In all that time, no Spanish or American explorer ever mentioned the area. Then, in 1883, a Smithsonian Institution archaeologist, James Stevenson, arrived on the scene. His reports about Walnut Canyon attracted both scholarly and public attention. Even so, knowledge of Walnut Canyon's archaeological remains didn’t become widespread until tracks for a transcontinental railroad were laid nearby in the mid-1880s, bringing increased population to the area.
Unfortunately, Walnut Canyon fared better when it was unknown than it did in the decades following Stevenson’s discovery, for it would became the subject of a favorite Sunday pastime for people from Flagstaff. They loaded up their buggies with lunch baskets, beer and shovels and headed out to the canyon to hunt artifacts. Sadly, with their shovels, the scavengers, both amateur and commercial, enjoyed a Roman holiday at the cost of the archaeological record.
One early scavenger, R. T. Cross, reported in the local newspaper that, “In one of the first dwellings we visited, we struck a bonanza and came away heavily laden.” Among the artifacts she found, she said, were arrows, cloth, a child’s sandal and a fishing line—a Sunday digger’s novelties but an archaeologist’s treasure trove.
To try and stop widespread looting, the U. S. Forest Service in 1904 hired William H. Pierce as Walnut Canyon’s first ranger. There are mixed reports about his effectiveness. While he instructed visitors not to dig in the ruins, his wife sold artifacts to tourists from a curio shop located next door to the ranger cabin.
Looting of the cliff dwellings took a serious turn for the worse when scavengers began dynamiting the walls to let in more light to illuminate their plundering. Eventually, concerned citizens began calling for some kind of protective action.
At last, in 1915, the federal government finally mounted a serious effort to protect Walnut Canyon by making it a National Monument. By that time, however, little remained that was worth stealing. Walnut Canyon has been called a “monument to vandalism.” Comprehensive enforcement efforts did not begin until 1933.
For all that, Walnut Canyon remains a rewarding place to visit.
What To See And Do
The entrance road to Walnut Canyon National Monument is a three-mile-long highway that connects with Interstate 40, seven miles east of Flagstaff. Your first stop should be at the Visitor Center, where National Park Service employees will answer your questions. The Visitor Center offers interpretive exhibits that cover the canyon’s geologic and human history and explain how the Sinagua farmed, hunted and traded. A botanical case, a tree-ring dating display, and an A. D. 1150 to 1250 cliff dwelling diorama are also of interest.
From the rear of the exhibit room, rock steps lead to an easily negotiated ledge. Encircling a jutting, chaparral-grown peninsula around which the canyon loops in a hairpin curve, this ledge trail leads to 30 of the best preserved – or, more accurately, least destroyed – ruins. The trail also provides a distant view of approximately 100 more ruins on the opposite wall of the canyon.
The imperishability of ancient fire-hearth soot is attested to by the greasy black coating that still covers the interior of the dwellings. Although I used utmost care in exploring the rooms, my headgear emerged carrying plenty of evidence of contact with the low ceilings.
On the trail, visitors walk through a floral life zone that includes such plants as ponderosa pine, juniper and Douglas fir. A few minutes later, at a lower elevation, you find yourself in an altogether different life zone, where cactus and yucca predominate. The black walnut tree, from which the canyon takes its name, grows in soil pockets of the canyon walls. The trail loop from the Visitor Center through the canyon is three-quarters of a mile long. It involves a steep 200-foot ascent at an elevation of 7,000 feet.
Indian cliff dwellings inevitably fascinate. They are invested with an irresistible charm, for here in the well-defined space in a stony recess, a person can imagine getting close to the aborigines, to enter into greater understanding of their interests, and a greater sympathy with their lives.
Walnut Canyon National Monument is open year-round except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the week. For more information contact: Superintendent, Walnut Canyon National Monument, Walnut Canyon Road, Flagstaff, Arizona 86004 (Phone 1-928-526-3367 or FAX 1-928-527-4259).
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Joe Zentner is a retired professor and a freelance writer who has photographed archaeological sites throughout the Southwest. He lives in Cary, North Carolina.
