Tonto National Monument -Upper Ruin

Tonto National Monument is located 30 minutes west of Globe AZ on the south side of Roosevelt Reservoir. I am a photographer and I have been intrigued with the ruins of the Southwest especially those in Arizona. I have been up to the Tonto National Monument a few times and I had an opportunity to join Rex and Peg Lavoie; volunteers at the Monument on a behind the scenes photo walk to the upper ruins, I jumped on it.

On the hike up to the upper ruin, I thought about reasons the Salado may have desired to build up in these caves.

I have heard ideas like war with other groups may have caused the Salado to invest so much effort in building 600 feet above the fertile valley floor. I question that explanation because I had just learned about just how many people had lived in the Tonto Basin. The population likely never toped a thousand but the crop area and other natural resources would have supported up to that level. The upper and lower ruins combined had an estimated 50 rooms and a few at each site would have been common and storage areas so these two cave dwellings would have supported a tenth of the population from the Basin. I asked the question to the Lavoie’s to get their take on this issue.

It seems the common idea at the Monument is if threats of outside tribes were a cause, it was likely spurred by food source loss from either flooding or drought causing a shortage in the area. Other ideas entertained by us on the trip up was the possibility that these sites were used as a ‘resort’ or getaway maybe not in the manor we would today because the conditions show that each room had tools and items for living longer term so that does not look feasible.

I had read the history on Tonto National Monument before I made the trip up there and learned that there are about 70 other sites within the Monument boundaries many of which are residential in origin. I did not learn how many people these there sites would have housed but knowing that each dwelling may have a small family unit of about 8 people adds up to quite a number.

Tree ring data showed that the upper and lower cave dwelling were built and lived in during the same times as many of the platform mounds in the Basin so I asked if it was likely that the population grew so much in the Basin that some family units chose to move into the hills. That idea is supported by the distribution of group specific traits like the Salado Polychrome ceramics which has Hohokam and Mogollon traits in it. It is possible that even as the Salado became a separate group by leaving a crowded area and joining others from different areas, as their numbers grew, some family units chose to spread out. I can understand the immediate local area of the Tonto Basin but I can’t quite grasp why the Salado also moved into the Sierra Ancha Wilderness just north-east of the Basin. This area is isolated and difficult.

While up at the upper ruins, I explored the midden and even though it had been excavated and back filled with dirt, there were some artifacts left for us to see. There are several metate’s and small corn husks. I was shown a quid, which to me looked like a large course hair ball but I was told that the Salado chewed yucca for its mild sweetness much like we chew gum today. They spit out the fibers when the pulp was consumed leaving a ball of brown fibers.

It was nice to be able to see the agave I had read about being an important food source. The root was baked underground then eaten. I learned allot about the area and the Salado which made them even more real to me instead of being disconnected from them and learning from a text. I got to walk in their steps and see their existence first hand.

After my photo walk of the upper ruins, I drove out to Schoolhouse Mound and passed Pinto Creek Mound on my way home. I got a feel for the vast size of their civilization and while it was in my car, I still felt the distance.

Devils Chasm

Out of all of the sites of Indian origin that I have explored, there is one that stands out in my mind. It is the fortress in Devils Chasm. There are a few reasons this site stands out in particular; the trail to the ruin is so very challenging and the site is really well preserved due to the difficult trek up to it. Really there is not much of a path but that will change as more people learn of this site and desire to explore it. The trail is a difficult combination of obvious path, bolder hopping up a creek, rope climb, slick rock scampering and bush whacking.
To add to it all, the trip is only about 1.5 miles one way but with an elevation gain of nearly 2,000 feet. At the point where you reach the base of the cliff bellow the ruin site, you are 650 feet bellow your destination and a dirt hillside that is nearly straight up is your last push. You have to grab branches and small bushes to pull your self up. So in a paragraph I gave a brief overview of a 3 hour exhausting but intoxicating climb.
Once at the ruin, it is clear why this site is worth the effort and you will battle the desire to lay out and sleep on a nice rock as your body rests! So the fortress is nestled at the base of a 1,000 foot cliff under a overhang. The builders of this site designed some really neat architectural features that can be missed if focused heavily on the interior. The ledge that the fortress is built on has a natural bulge that the outer wall follows making this the first and only rounded walls I have encountered in a ruin at this time. Also there is a third story tower with peep holes and what I assume to be a sun deck that could have been used for social gathering or food drying. Unfortunately there was a fire that torched most of the Chasm many years ago and consumed about 75% of the organic material in the fortress. There are a few wood beams left but the ceiling/floors have all been destroyed.

I have made the trip up the this ruin now twice and after the first trip, I went through my photos and realized that I fell into most of the same shots I had seen on the internet and in my very rare copy of Echoes in the Canyon that was written by archeologists working for the University of Arizona. I could not be pleased with my work as it was the same high angle shots looking up from the trail directly bellow I had seen others capture. I did manage one that is unique shot as I stood precariously on a dead log spanning a drop-off to get a cactus to weigh the right side of the frame.
Still I was not pleased. I have been obsessed for a year with capturing the ruin like no one else has, at eye level from across the Chasm. There is a cliff across so that is out of the question as I discovered the first time, however, I found a spot on a topo map and once there I was able to pull off the shot I was looking for.

To further pique interest, the tree ring data shows this ruin was built in AD 1275 and abandon about AD 1300. So I ponder, what drove this family unit to this extreme location? The USDA Forest Service rates this location "Nearly Impossible to Get to" and "Unusually high concentration of rattle snakes". Even with modern ropes, hiking gear, and a canteen of cold water to quench your thirst, this ruin is reached at the maximum of some people's abilities. What about the folks that lived there. They carried each of the stones, batches of mortar mud as well as the timbers up to the site. One of the timbers is 15 foot long and 7-9.5 inch in diameter and had to take 4 plus strong workers to get it up there. A neat feature is the hand prints that remain in the mud walls.
Also, where did these folks maintain a food supply? There aren't any level spots larger than a family bathroom let alone any clear of large rocks to grow crops in the area.This leads me to think they could have traveled down the Chasm to some areas bellow the major obsticals and likely had to daily. Little is known about the Salado Indians even with years of archeologists combing and collecting bits to fit into the puzzle.
I have to force myself to remember that there are many more sites in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness that beg to be explored and with the fact that it is a 12 hour trip just to visit one, I need to let this one rest while I discover the next obsession...

Oregon -All Work and Play

I developed a Data Mining System nearly 2 years ago for my group at work. It has saved hundreds of man hours in technician and engineering effort in compiling data. Arizona is not a development site for special projects and yet I was given the go-ahead to use what resources I needed to put together a proof of concept. I had a working system in a few months and now my system has been upgraded to 2.0 after bringing in a software engineer to enhance the application beyond what I can code. I wrote an install document and was asked to install my system in the development site in Hillsbouro Oregon. I flew up to Oregon on Sunday and planned to get in some sightseeing before work on Monday morning. I headed up to the Columbia River Gorge on the Historic Highway. I was amazed at how many waterfalls there are!

Here is a view looking east up the Columbia River Gorge from Crown Point. By the way, Crown Point is the most windy spot I have ever been! I could barely hold the camera still enough to get a respectable image.
This is Bridal Vail Falls

I took this video with my phone of Bridal Vail Falls to show the amount of water flowing

This is Horsetail Falls

I really liked Latourell Falls due to the cliff face detail.
This is likely the more widely known of the Gorge falls; Multnomah Falls- Incredible!
Here is Shepperd's Dell Falls

This is the Upper section of Wahkeena Falls, it is comprised of several cascades and here is one of my favorite sections.
There was this amazing tunnel lined with Cedar that smelled great as well as looked awesome.

There is moss on everything! I could not find dirt as something green was growing everywhere!

At the end of the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway was this bridge

I then headed out to the coast with two things in mind. The town of Tillamook and the ocean!

Highway 101 took me north along the coast and this was one of the points

Nice sandy trails lead to the beach every few hundred yards

Here a small stream meets the sea

This is a low view of the beach. Not seen here but there are shells everywhere!

There is a rock feature off shore that had an arch

Looking back to the small fishing town along the coast, quaint!

So the important thing (to me) about the town of Tillamook is the cheese factory! I really enjoy a slice of Monterrey Jack on a cracker and even add some summer sausage to get it right. Tillamook cheese has usually been my first choice so it was natural that I would want to check out the factory. I got to sample many different cheeses and the most unique was the squeaky cheese. It squeaked when you bite into it! I really liked the Bacon Cheddar too, unfortunately i have not been able to find it on my local store shelves.

So to finish off my trip to the coast, I had a Tillamook Cheese Bacon Burger at the cheese factory cafe. Incredible.

I took hundreds of photos and many more than these are great shots but I will not publish them all as this blog would go on a long way. I really enjoyed visiting Oregon and hope one day to take Tara and the boys up to see the places I visited. Maybe in the spring so it won't be raining the entire time. I spen more time drying off my camera gear than enjoying the area!~