1000 Years in Verde River Valley

Hi Blog!

On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, we decided to play tourist. After yesterday's nine mile hike, we felt we earned a little touring around. Our campground is in the middle of the Verde River Valley in central Arizona. Folks have been living along the Verde River for thousands of years. The Paleo-Indians (11,500 to 9,000 B.C.) traveled through the valley hunting big game, such as the giant sloth, mammoth, saber-tooth tiger, horse, bison and camel.

Around 650 A.D., the Sinagua people entered the Verde Valley from east-central Arizona. Between 1150 and 1300, the Sinagua reached their maximum territorial extent, with villages of 3 to 10 families scattered throughout every environmental niche in the Verde Valley.

But, between A.D. 1300 and 1400, the climate fluctuated dramatically between wet and dry periods.   These and other complications prompted the Sinagua to congregate into about 50 pueblos each occupied by 20 to 100 or more families. The Verde Valley was abandoned by the Sinagua about 1400. By the time the Spainish explorers passed through the Verde Valley in 1583, the Sinagua Pueblo of Tuzigoot had been abandoned.

Tuzigoot National Monument preserves the pueblo ruin which sits on the summit of a limestone and sandstone ridge just east of Clarkdale, Arizona, 120 feet above the Verde River floodplain.  It was surrounded by fertile floodplain the Sinagua farmed when they occupied the site.

This tiny lizard has a bird's eye view of the Verde River Valley, with the area the Native Americans farmed in the near foreground below.

The Tuzigoot Site is an elongated complex of stone masonry rooms that were built along the spine of a natural outcrop. The central rooms stand higher than the others and they appear to have served public functions. The pueblo has 110 rooms. 

The Visitor's Center houses a small museum filled with artifacts discovered at the site. Based on the types of clay and style of artwork found at the site, there was a large trading network throughout the southwest.

Our next stop was Clarkdale, Arizona. Originally a “company town,” Clarkdale was founded by the United Verde Copper Company to provide housing and services for the employees of its copper smelter. The extensive smelter complex was located near the Verde River and processed copper ore that was brought down from the mines in Jerome from 1913-1953. Copper was king in Clarkdale. They even have a museum dedicated to copper art.

The Clarkdale Historical Society has a nice little history museum. We learned a lot about the area. Unlike other company towns of the period that grew haphazardly, Clarkdale was designed and built from a unified master plan. The main town site was located on a ridge overlooking the industrial smelter complex and was developed with residential homes, including upper and lower-income housing, a commercial area, and administrative center, schools, recreational and cultural facilities, and parks. Today the town overlooks the Salt River Materials Group cement plant, which provided all the cement for the Glen Canyon Dam.

After visiting Clarkdale, we drove up into the Black Hills to the town of Jerome. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde River Valley, Jerome is more than 5,000 feet above sea level. Supported in its heyday by rich copper mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. As of the 2010 census, its population was 444. The town literally clings to the side of the mountain. Here is the view of the town from Jerome State Historic Park, which is housed in the impressive adobe mansion of James Douglas, proprietor of one of the mines in Jerome:

The history of mining goes way back in Jerome. Since the bright colored ore was partly visible on the surface, it is likely that native peoples had long mined it for the colorful copper-bearing minerals malachite and azurite. Later, in 1585, a Spanish exploring expedition made note of the ore. In 1598, Captain Marcos Farfán de los Godos, hired by Juan de Oñate to explore the land, staked out claims of copper mines in modern-day Jerome. The first U.S. mining claims in the Verde District were filed in 1876.

The white "J" on the left hovers over the town of Jerome. The open pit mine is in the background to the right, behind a gravel wall or dam.

The Jerome State Historic Park is located in the historic Douglas Mansion. The Douglas Mansion has been a landmark in Jerome since 1916, when James S. Douglas built it on the hill just above his Little Daisy Mine. Douglas designed the house as a hotel for mining officials and investors as well as for his own family. It featured a wine cellar, billiard room, marble shower, steam heat and a central vacuum system.

Each room in the mansion houses a different exhibit. We first watched a video on the history of Jerome. We then went room to room checking out the exhibits. It is hard to tell from this photo, but this is a 3-D model of the mine and the various shafts and tunnels. Each little line in the model represents an underground shaft.  There are over 100 miles of underground tunnels beneath the city of Jerome.  You can understand why it might be necessary to construct a 3-D model in order to keep track of all the passages and their connections and orientations.

Everyone knows Kathy loves rocks. Here are two of her favorites - Malachite and Azurite. The green one, Malachite is copper carbonate. Malachite is more common than Azurite and is typically associated with copper deposits around limestone, the source of the carbonate. Azurite is a soft, deep blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits.

After tearing Kathy away from the rock collection, we drove over to Main Street and stopped into the Jerome Mine Museum. The photo below is of one of the more interesting exhibits.

There are several geologic faults that run under Jerome. While there has not been any significant earthquake activity since mining began here, all of the mining activity has from time to time caused the town to slide downhill due to its impact on the unstable ground. In the most recent big slide in 1936 (caused by underground blasting) many of the historic structures in town were too severely damaged to be rebuilt. The town has set up a unique "wishing well" to accept donations to help with renovation of its historic structures.  The town can use as much financial assistance as it can get, because the entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kathy did her part and threw money for the cause, but she missed the porcelain throne by mere inches!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at Bobby D's BBQ, which is housed in an original building that once housed the English Kitchen.  The English Kitchen, owned by a Chinese immigrant, never actually served English food -- only Chinese food.  Yet  it was considered to serve the best Chinese cuisine in the Verde River Valley.

After lunch, we headed back down the mountain to our campsite just outside Cottonwood. As with every place we stay, there wasn't nearly enough time to see everything, and we are looking forward to exploring more of the Verde River Valley in a future visit.