In the following pages I have supplied some information on Montezuma's Castle. I have combined a couple of sources so there may be duplicate information, sorry but I felt the more info the better

Nestled into a limestone recess high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley, stands one of the best preserved and most easily accessible cliff ruins in North America. This 5-story, 20-room cliff dwelling served as a "high-rise apartment building" for prehistoric Sinagua Indians more than 600 years ago.

Early settlers to the area assumed that the imposing structure was connected to the Aztec emperor Montezuma, but this "castle" was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma was born.

General Information

Rates & Fees

Entrance Fee: $2.00 per person, children 16 and younger are admitted free of charge. Golden Passports are honored.

Seasons / Hours

Open every day of the year, including December 25.

Visitor Center

Summer Hours: 8:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Winter Hours: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Facilities/Features

Stores/Museum
The Visitor Center contains a small museum displaying artifacts. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association runs a small bookstore in the Visitor Center.

Programs & Events
Wayside exhibits, found along the self-guiding trail describe the cultural and natural history of the area. The trail is a paved, level sidewalk just over 1/3 of a mile in length. A diorama/audio program depicts the interior view of the Castle. Rangers are available on the trail and programs are presented when staffing permits.

Food/Supplies
There are no food or supplies within the Monument. Overnight accommodations, food, supplies and gasoline are available in downtown Campe Verde, 4 miles south.

Accessibility
The Visitor Center and paved sidewalk are fully accessible to wheelchairs.

Geography

Montezuma Castle, comprising 840 acres, is located approximately within the town of Camp Verde, 50 miles south of Flagstaff and 90 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona. It can be reached by taking Exit 289 off I-17 and following the signs 3 miles to the Visitor Center parking lot.

Climate

Summers are generally hot and dry, with somewhat mild winters.

Things To Do

Montezuma Well is an added section to Montezuma Castle National Monument. The unit preserves a large, spring-fed limestone sinkhole and prehistoric ruins that remain from early Hohokam and Sinagua occupation. Both cultures lived at the site and irrigated their crops with the water from the Well. Remains of their ancient irrigation canals can still be seen.

No entrance fee is charged. The Well is located approximately 11 miles from Montezuma Castle. Take Exit 293 from I-17 and drive four miles. There is a 1/3-mile loop trail that is not recommended for wheelchair use.

Camping & Lodging

Lodging

There is no lodging in the Monument. Numerous hotels and motels are located in and around Camp Verde and Sedona, AZ within 25 miles.

Camping

There is no camping in the Monument. U.S. Forest Service and private campgrounds are located in and throughout the area, including Oak Creek Canyon.

Precautions, Rules, Regulations

It is the visitor's responsibility to know and obey park rules. Regulations are designed for visitors' protection and to protect natural resources.

• All vehicles, including bicycles, must remain on designated roadways. Always use designated parking areas, never stop in the roadway.
• Observe posted speed limits - park roads are not designed for speed. Enjoy the scenery safely. Slow down at dawn and dusk and watch for animals.
• Buckle up. Seat belts are required by law.
• Do not feed wildlife. Avoid contact with rodents. The white-footed deer mouse is a carrier of hantavirus and prairie dogs can carry plague.
• Poisonous snakes and insects are common but not aggressive. Keep a safe distance. This is their home and they are protected.
• All natural resources, animals, plants, and rocks are protected. Look, but do not take.
• Hunting and the possession of firearms is prohibited within the Monument.
• Pets are not allowed in buildings, on trails, or tied to fixed objects. They may be exercised in parking areas on a leash. Summer temperatures may be fatal to pets in closed vehicles

Set within a limestone cliff overlooking Beaver Creek in Arizona's Verde Valley (figure 1), the prehistoric ruin known as Montezuma Castle has stood for hundreds of years, a witness to great changes in the surrounding cultural and natural landscapes. The Castle, which the Sinagua people built and occupied from as early as a.d. 1200 until their mysterious departure from the Verde Valley more than two hundred years later, now serves as a reminder of the prehistoric cultures that once flourished in the region. Archeological evidence suggests a sequence of settlement by the Hohokam, Hakataya, and Sinagua peoples in the lush valleys and hills along the Verde River beginning around a.d. 900. Though these groups prospered, developing sophisticated cultures as well as agricultural and trade-based economies, they abandoned the Verde Valley entirely by a.d. 1425.

Figure 1. Site location map. From Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments Master Plan, 1975, Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments administrative office.

Many years passed before visitors to the region reported their discovery of the remains of these vanished cultures. During the periods of exploration and settlement of the Verde Valley, Spanish explorers, fur trappers, surveyors, military officers, settlers, and tourists noted the impressive prehistoric structures and speculated on their origins, but the growing interest in and visitation to these "ruins" over time threatened their preservation. [1] Various individuals and groups became concerned about the destruction of these unique and fragile resources, and responded with efforts to repair and protect them. Continued discussions at the local and national levels about the preservation of antiquities resulted in the establishment of Montezuma Castle National Monument on 8 December 1906 and later in the National Park Service (NPS) administration of the site.

Native Peoples

Archeologists regard the Verde Valley as an aboriginal melting pot where at least 4 prehistoric cultures intermingled. Montezuma Castle National Monument preserves the remains of at least 2 of the cultures that once flourished here.

The first permanent settlers in the valley were the Hohokam -- a Pima word for "all used up." These resourceful farmers arrived in the area around 600 AD and lived in one-room houses made of poles, sticks and mud. They irrigated their crops of corn, beans and squash from fissures in limestone rocks which carried water from Beaver Creek and the sinkhole we call Montezuma Well. A semi-subterranean dwelling near the Well is the only typical Hohokam house on display in the National Park Service system.

The Sinagua -- Spanish for "without water" -- lived in the nearby foothills and the plateau beyond the valley. Like the Anasazi, they were pithouse dwellers and dry farmers, who depended on rain for their crops. After the Hohokam abandoned the area shortly after the millennium, the Sinagua moved down into the valley and adopted the irrigation systems left by the Hohokam. By 1125, they began to build above ground masonry structures and large pueblos on hilltops or alcoves of cliffs.

Sometime after 1125, the Sinagua began building the 5-story, 20-room "castle," which stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley floor. It was so well constructed that it has withstood vandalism and the elements for more than 600 years and remains one of the best preserved prehistoric structures in the deserts of the American Southwest.

The prehistoric population in this region peaked in the 1300s and remained stable for another century. Suddenly, and mysteriously, in the early 1400s the Sinagua abandoned the valley, never to return.

Exploration & Settlement

Spaniard Antonio de Esejo appears to be the first European to reach the Verde Valley and mention its ruins in the 1700s. Mexican and American trappers spread rumors of ruins during the following years but created no written record. In the mid-1880s, a railroad survey took note of abandoned Indian villages in the Verde Valley. Finally in 1884, Edgar A. Mearns, a Fort Verde physician, mapped and surveyed several sites, including the "castle."

Scientific studies were initiated by Cosmos Mindeleff of the Smithsonian in 1892, and 3 years later, Jesse W. Fewkes from the Smithsonian also explored the region. Between 1896 and 1900, the Arizona Antiquarian Association performed some emergency repairs on a few of the walls. Subsequently, an underwater exploration of Montezuma Well was conducted with disappointing results. By 1930, 185 sites had been identified in the Verde Valley and surrounding plateau.

Park History

As vandalism and pothunting became a concern around the turn of the century, a movement was launched to preserve the area as a national monument. On December 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the area Montezuma Castle National Monument, which also incorporated Montezuma Well into its 840 acres.

In 1916, the Monument was transferred from jurisdiction of the US Forest Service to the National Park Service, but it wasn't until 1927 that a permanent custodian was named and the resources truly became protected.

Natural History

Plants & Animals

Abundant water in the Verde Valley offers a rich habitat for deer, antelope, rabbit, muskrat, prairie dogs and ducks and other birds.

Geology

Montezuma Castle overlooks Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Verde River, which flows through the Verde Valley. The Verde Valley runs between the mountainous highlands -- the Black Hills -- of central Arizona to the south and the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau to the north.

The valley was created by the Verde Fault, which eventually caused the Black Hills to be uplifted more than 4,000 feet while impounding the Verde River into series of lakes. Tributary streams drained the limestone surface of the Coconino Plateau from the north into these lakes, creating 3,000-feet-thick deposits called the Verde Formation.

Slightly acidic groundwater in limestone regions gradually dissolves passages and caverns in the underground rock. Geologists call this karst topography of which the Verde Valley is a classic example. With changes in ground water levels, underground caverns sometimes collapse, creating sinkholes filled with water. Such is the case with Montezuma Well, which is still a primary source of water for the Verde River. Near Beaver Creek, the generous amount of water gushing from rock crevices was used by prehistoric peoples of the Verde Valley to provide irrigation water their crops.