ANCESTORS

It is well known that the area where I live was inhabited a thousand years and more before the present residents arrived here.  Several pit houses have been discovered on the north side of Willow Lake and have been carefully explored, restored as much as can be and are now on display for amateur archaelogists and history buffs.

The remaining pits where the houses stood, beginning in 850 A.D., have been protected with concrete walls and steel ramadas. Sidewalks have been laid to allow visitors to view the sites without causing any damage.

Holes were dug in the ground to support tree limbs which in turn provided support for the roofs.  Only the earth excavations remain. Artifacts including pottery shards were removed and taken to a museum.

The larger pits were used for food storage.

Archaelogists have learned that the pit houses were occupied more or less continuously for about 200 years, from around 900 A.D. to 1100 A.D.  Then the Native Americans slowly abandoned the sites and moved away. The area was not inhabited again until the 16th Century, when the Yavapai Apache moved into the area.  They are still here, on a small reservation, but now with a large resort hotel and two casinos.

The earliest inhabitants had this view toward the nearby Willow Lake.

Of course the many houses on the other side of the lake came hundreds of years later.

It's an interesting site worth visiting to learn about some of our earliest visitors to this land called Arizona.