Arizona’s Atlantis

My family and I had the good fortune to spend a night in Flagstaff.  We were armed with an intent to visit Sunset Crater and relax a little bit.  Lacking a map, we ended up 40-odd miles to the east of Flagstaff at Meteor Crater.  We discovered all craters are not equal.  Some hide secret ancient civilizations.  Disappointed by the impact site called Meteor Crater, we returned to our hotel room and found a brochure advertising the Wupatki National Monument.  Now armed with a name and a direction- 30 minutes northeast of Flagstaff on State Route 89- we set out.  Inadvertently we found Sunset Crater and learned some of the mystery of the Sinagua. 

Around 1064 A.D., Sunset Crater- now a dormant volcano- exploded in a series of eruptions causing lava flows that devastated sparse vegetation, left blackened sand for miles around and possibly fueled a civilization that has mysteriously receded into the vapors of time.  Several southwestern ruins stand today, attesting to the existence of a community called Sinagua (“Seen-a-wa”) who managed a living from this dry, wind blown desert.  Today, the Wupatki National Monument houses remains of a complex culture that like a bright flame faded quickly.

According to Hopi legend, many centuries ago the Sinagua took part in a great migration guided by a spirit called Ma’asau.  This legend says four groups walked in each of the four compass directions to survey the land around the Grand Canyon.  Returning to share knowledge started as their purpose, but many forgot their purpose and settled in the areas they found.  In this manner, the Sinagua discovered the area now called Wupatki National Monument sandwiched between the dusty, panoramic sky of the Painted Desert and the towering 12,000-foot snowcapped San Francisco Peaks.  In this arid land of ever-present wind, the tribe left many clues for archeologists to uncover.

The first people arrived here between 500 and 600 A.D., living in branch covered holes called pit houses.  Before Sunset Crater erupted, the Sinagua consisted of several hundred people who probably subsistence farmed.  Some scientists theorize the fresh volcanic ash enriched the farmland by holding moisture in the deposited, porous mulch which resulted in a mass immigration to the area around mid-1100.  These immigrants, from the “Four Directions” according to the Hopi, brought Anasazi-style masonry, pottery from Prescott and the Mogollon Rim areas as well as Hohokam influences. 

Several settlements, the Wukoki, Lomaki and Wupatki Pueblos, materialized around this time.  The people here survived using at least half of the 240 plants native to the region, 51 edible-types, combined with farming and hunting.  In the early 13th century everyone left.  Popular theory states, this migration occurred because of over-population and an Oklahoma Dust Bowl-type condition from the warming climate in which farming soil scattered with the wind.  Today, the Sinagua civilization remains a mystery.  No one knows for sure where they came from or why they left.

Created in 1924 by President Calvin Coolidge, the Wupatki National Monument invites visitors today to traverse a 36-mile loop winding past Sunset Crater and four ruin sites.  The shifting winds usually keep the air clear enough to view the Hopi Buttes 60-miles to the east.  Under the constraints of low rainfall, people came together at this place to create a well-organized community of traders, farmers, builders and artisans.  Formed by unrelated groups the Sinagua community earned their name, “without water” in Spanish, by surviving where a consistent water source remains scarce.  The Citadel, Lomaki, Wukoki and Wupatki Pueblo- the monument’s namesake- still stand in various stages of deterioration, revealing the handiwork of the different cultures that took part in their construction. 

Only the Citadel, the second largest of the Pueblo dwelling sites, remains roped off from human inspection.  The other three sites, less than a mile from the main road, wait for close inspection.  Driving north past Sunset Crater, the first ruin site- the Wukoki Pueblo- rests approximately half a mile off the main road.  Perched precariously on a red stone boulder, its ancient brick walls remain well intact with minimal modern reinforcement.  The architecture bears a great resemblance to cliff dwellings, minus the cliff.  No roof closes out the sky, although wood beams covered with mud once served that purpose.  The rooms to this field house ruin remain accessible to anyone willing to stoop low enough to enter the shoulder-width, three-foot opening.  Not the largest of the ruins, Wukoki Pueblo endures as one of the most intact. 

Further north stands the largest and most diverse of these sites, the Wupatki Pueblo.  The visitor center fronts this collection of multi-cultured ruins.  Much like the Wukoki Pueblo, several field houses of Pueblo design dot the landscape, but surrounding these sandstone houses remain three particular points of interest.  North of the village center, a Hohokam-style oval-walled ball court housed community events.  Archeologists believe the arena served as a stage for games similar to those played by the Inca and Mayan tribes in Central America.  In the Mesoamerican games, it’s believed, the event served both religious and athletic purposes ending with the losing teams’ death.  Lacking written record, the purpose of Sinagua games remains only speculation.  Also on this site, a Puebloan kiva dug into the ground with stone benches lining the circular wall probably served as a community room.  Both the ball court and the community room have remained well-preserved and accessible. 

The Hopi still believe the Wupatki National Monument houses Yaponcha, god of the wind, and at the Wupatki Pueblo site the reason for this belief lives and breathes.  On the outskirts of the village center, an opening in the earth called a “blow hole” inhales and exhales.  Scientists do not know how deep this hole burrows into the ground, but with only an iron grate protecting a potentially perilous fall; the rush of air beneath the ground sounds as if the Earth breaths through this opening.  When atmospheric pressure drops lower than the air pressure under the Earth, wind escapes the blowhole and when the barometer rises the hole sucks in air.  The force of the ebb and flow pull flowing hair toward it like a vacuum cleaner or push it away like an immense hair dryer.    Located close to the ball court, some archeologists believe this site served religious purposes.

Continuing north along the main road the Citadel looms largely intact, with restricted parking to protect fragile walls from errant hands.  Moving further north, the Lomaki Pueblo still invites close inspection.  Built on a twisting ravine in Box Canyon, which served the Sinagua as a trade route, the Lomaki Pueblo seems less impressive because of the size and intact construction of the former sites.  Built on a small mesa, the high winds have eroded much of these buildings over time, although entranceways and foundations stand allowing imagination to run wild.  Scanning the surrounding hills, other ruins remain visible in various states of disrepair: from piles of limestone brick to half-erected walls dotting the landscape.

Consuming more than 34,000 acres of land, the Wupatki National Monument holds evidence of 78 different kinds of pottery.  Shards of these ancient jars remain strewn around many of the ruins.  From 1981 to 1987, teams of archeologists walked 56-square miles of the monument, 30 to 45 feet apart, scanning the ground.  They found dozens of petroglyph sites, mammoth bones and even an 11,000-year old Clovis spear point.  After examining the artifacts and ruins, scientists have formed only a vague idea of who inhabited this region.

The reason for the Sinagua disappearance from the Flagstaff area in the 14th century remains cloaked in history.  It is known that there were two Sinagua communities native to Arizona.  The northern Sinagua lived near the Wupatki region and Walnut Canyon, while the southern Sinagua populated Verde Valley and Sedona leaving behind Montezuma’s Castle and Tuzigoot.  Neither culture survived in a homogenous state.  It’s believed the Sinagua blended in with the Hopi.  Today, Hopis still claim the Sinagua as ancestors and claim their ruins as sacred to their own culture.

The myth of Atlantis once held sway over the world.  Maybe it is the search alone that keeps people interested.  The legend of the Sinagua, however, is just as complex with the added benefit of having left artifacts behind for us to still discover.