The Sinagua

To the Hopi, the farmers who built the Verde Valley's cliff dwellings are Hisatsinom, the people of long ago and their own ancestors. Archaeologists call them the Southern Sinagua, a Spanish label meaning "without water" coined only in 1939. For centuries they raised corn, beans, and squash and built stone villages like Palatki and Honanki, both Hopi-named. They did not vanish: by about 1400 they had moved on, many north to the Hopi Mesas, carrying their traditions into the pueblos where their descendants live today.

What the plaque says

The Sinagua. Historic Sedona. The earliest peoples arrived in the Verde Valley about 11,500 years ago. These early people practiced a hunting and gathering economy until approximately A.D. 1 when agriculture appeared. The Sinagua, whose Spanish name means "without water." appeared at this time. They farmed and traded extensively in this area until about A.D. 1400. Examples of the structures the Sinagua constructed include Palatki Ruin, which offers glimpses of the past depicted in painted rock art called "pictographs," as well as the ruin itself. Honanki, another nearby Sinagua ruin included at least 60 rooms and more pictographs. Southeast of Sedona is Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well, good examples of cliff dwellings and early irrigated farming. Tuzigoot, west of Sedona in Clarkdale, is a pueblo and more typical of what the communities in the Verde Valley were like during the last phase of Sinagua occupation. The V Bar V Ranch petroglyph site is located east of Sedona and it noted for its finely crafted animal and geometric forms.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sedona — steps away
  Red-rock skyline, Little Hollywood, and the town Sedona Schnebly gave her name to
• Oak Creek Canyon — 6.8 mi
  The switchback drive from red rock to ponderosa on State Route 89A
• Tuzigoot — 16 mi
  A hilltop Sinagua pueblo over the Verde, dug out of the ground in the Depression
• Montezuma Castle — 18 mi
  A five-story Sinagua cliff dwelling, misnamed for an emperor who was never here

More markers nearby

• Carl Richards' Garage — steps away
• Rollie's Camera — 0.2 mi
• The Hart Store, 1926 — 0.3 mi
• Hart Pump House — 0.3 mi