From Rubble to Reconstruction

Tuzigoot is the remains of a 110-room pueblo whose oldest rooms were built over 900 years ago, a place where people once lived and later left for reasons that are still not fully known. Before 1933, the hill appeared to be rubble rather than rooms, but an excavation led by archeologists Louis R. Caywood and Edward H. Spicer revealed part of Tuzigoot's story and rebuilt the pueblo while providing badly needed jobs to local families during the Great Depression. Their work showed more about the people who occupied Tuzigoot, yet much remains to be learned. Much of the pueblo seen today is reconstructed, and the name Tuzigoot was chosen by the workers who rebuilt it from the Western Apache word Tú zighoot, while the Yavapai call it Ah-hah dtahlahkvah; both names mean "crooked water," referring to the bend in the Verde River.

Arizona · United States