Special Features

At its peak between 1250 CE and 1450 CE, the Agua Fria National Monument in central Arizona was home to several thousand people. This prehistoric settlement today is called Perry Mesa, and it contains more than 450 documented sites.

Visitors can see massive basalt pueblos, some with as many as 100 rooms, and many smaller habitations. Stone forts, extensive terraced agricultural fields and an enormous array of stunning rock art attest both to the threats facing the people who lived in the Agua Fria area and to their skill as artists and farmers. Petroglyphs of water birds, scratched into cliff faces, suggest the area may once have had abundant water.

More About the Monument

Agua Fria National Monument encompasses 71,000 acres of grassy, semi-desert mesas; cutting through the mesas is the cottonwood and willow-shaded canyon of the Agua Fria River and its tributaries. Abundant wildlife thrives in the Monument, including pronghorn antelope, mule deer, white-tail deer, javalina and mountain lions. Small mammals, neotropical birds, fish, and amphibians and reptiles like the Gila Monster add to the riches of this ecosystem. A visitor may even see the occasional elk or black bear.

The Society for American Archeology has praised the Monument's "rich, intact archeological records that... encompass substantial portions of prehistoric social systems." Indeed, Agua Fria tells a rich story about the lives of the people who inhabited the area thousands of years ago.

Both the Hopi and the Yavapai (Apache) People consider the land important to their cultural history. The Monument also holds evidence of more recent, nineteenth century history: Basque sheep camps, historic mining ruins and military activities are of further interest to the careful explorer.

Resources

• Arizona Wilderness Coalition
• The Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter