Built inside a cliffside alcove ninety feet off an Arizona valley floor, an ancient American “castle” remained a mystery to settlers in the area for decades until historians discovered the unique structure had a much older, richer history than originally thought.
When settlers and Mexican-American War veterans came to Verde Valley in the 1840s, they mistakenly assumed that the pre-Columbian fortress, nestled in the limestone embankment of Beaver Creek Canyon along what is now the I-17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff, was built by the Aztecs. They named it Montezuma Castle, after the 16th century Aztec Emperor Montezuma II.
A number of articles written as late as the 20th century also attributed Montezuma Castle to the Aztecs, Nugent said. But while the Verde Valley dwelling has retained its Aztec name, its baffling history is now better understood.
“The cliff dwelling is not a castle and never had any connection to the 16th century Aztec Emperor,” Nugent said. “Montezuma Castle was built by a Native American culture known as the Southern Sinagua. These people resided in the Verde Valley for 800 years or more, and developed an advanced culture built on farming and trade.”
While the origins of the Sinagua are unclear, they are thought to have settled Verde Valley around 600 A.D. to propagate crops for food using water from Beaver Creek, build homes, and develop fruitful trade routes.
Montezuma Castle represented a Sinagua dwelling from the early 12th century, since earlier homes were pit houses built partially underground. The five-storey, 20-room cliffside structure was originally much larger than what remains today, Nugent said, and once included a larger section: “Castle A,” comprised of as many as 45 rooms built against the face of the cliff.
The lowest storey of Castle A lay on the canyon floor, attached to the cliff, with beams inserted into sockets dug out from the limestone. A row of sockets can still be seen today.
“Castle A appears to have been destroyed by fire sometime before the area was abandoned by the Southern Sinagua,” Nugent said. “Since no signs of warfare have been detected, the cause of the fire was either accidental or the result of some natural cause, such as lightning.”
One mystery that remains is exactly why the Sinagua abandoned their settlement of eight centuries in the early 15th century, leaving the then-300-year-old Montezuma Castle to the mercy of time.
One speculation is that flooding of the neighboring Hohokam people’s farmland may have prompted the Hohokam to invade Verde Valley and push the Sinagua out. Others believe the decline of the Sinagua settlement occurred gradually, as they merged with Hopi clans further north and Yavapai moved in.
Originally a hunter-gatherer group, the Native American Yavapai still live in Verde Valley today.
Montezuma Castle stood completely abandoned by 1425. It was rediscovered in 1583 by a small Spanish expedition from Mexico who, led by Antonio de Espejo and assisted by Hopi guides, were searching for precious metals.
The next to settle Verde Valley were U.S. troops in the 1840s. With new life in the valley, Montezuma Castle was elevated from an abandoned dwelling to a site of national and historic interest.
The site was declared protected by President Theodore Roosevelt’s Antiquities Act of 1906, becoming the first historic ruin to be named a National Monument and has since attracted thousands of visitors every year. Site managers led guided tours up the cliffside on ladders to see the interior of the castle until 1951, when surging numbers forced officials to consider preservation of the limestone.
Today, only researchers are allowed access into the castle though there is a replica model, complete with furniture and inhabitants, on the path leading up to the site for tourists.
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