Red Rock Country - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 467

7. Dead Horse Ranch State Park
When Calvin Ireys went shopping for a ranch in the Verde Valley in the early 1950s, he
visitedthisspot,onlytofindthattheowner'shorsehadjustdiedandthecarcasswasawait-
ing pickup. Later that night, when his family sat down to dinner, Ireys asked his children
which ranch he should buy. Their reply: “The one with the dead horse.” Ireys did as they
suggested, and the name stuck.
Today Dead Horse Ranch State Park occupies more than 300 acres along the Verde
River, with excellent camping facilities and leisurely hiking trails that meander along the
riverbanksandintothesurroundingdesert.Thepark'slagoonisregularlystockedwithpan-
fish, bass, and trout, which are easy pickings for anglers.
8. Tuzigoot National Monument
StrewnacrosstheVerdeValleyareremnantsofanancientpeople,calledtheSinaguas,who
first appeared in this region about 2,000 years ago. No one knows for certain who they
were. Probably they moved down off the Mogollon Rim around 1125 onto lands vacated
by the Hohokams, another group of people who had moved north. Adopting the irrigation
practices of neighboring tribes, the Sinaguas farmed the fertile bottomlands of the Verde
Valley and began to build apartment-style pueblos, a practice they may have learned from
the Anasazis. For some 300 years the Sinaguas thrived; then they simply vanished. Some
archaeologists think adevastating droughtwas responsible; others cite tribal warfare asthe
cause. The mystery is deepened by the seeming permanence of the structures they left be-
hind.
The hilltop village known as Tuzigoot housed as many as 250 Sinaguas at its peak,
around1300.Builtalmostentirelywithoutexteriordoors,thetwo-storypueblowasentered
by ladders through rooftop hatches, giving credence to the theory that the Sinaguas were
menaced by warring neighbors.
On the other side of the valley (about a 45-minute drive from Tuzigoot via Rtes. 279,
260,and17)liesanotherSinaguawonder:MontezumaCastle,afive-storystructuretucked
high on a sandstone cliff. It owes its romantic but misleading name to early explorers who
mistakenlyconcludedthatthedwellingwasbuiltbyAztecsofMontezuma'sarmywhofled
north.