Montezuma's
Well
Matthew Arnold & Jason Bliley
Sinagua cliff dwellings above Montezuma's Well
Jason displays leeches & water scorpions |
MONTEZUMA'S
WELL NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA—
It seemed
as though everyone in the Verde Valley asked us, "Have you seen Montezuma's
Well yet?" Before we left the area, we made the trip up the narrow
road near Rimrock, Arizona.
The Phoenix
took up most of the spaces in the parking area, and we decided to ask
the rangers if we'd cause a traffic jam. We walked over to the ranger
station, and that's how we met seasonal ranger Matthew Arnold and volunteer
ranger Jason Bliley. "Don't worry," they said, and we headed
up the hill to the well.
I thought
that something called a well would be small and manmade, an archaeological
curiosity. I couldn't have been more wrong. Montezuma's Well is a sort
of crater lake at the top of a hill, and it's huge. From 900 to 1400 A.D.,
it supported a community of over 200 Sinagua Indians, and 1.1 million
gallons of water a day still flow from it.
Built into
the well's rock walls are the cliff dwellings typical of Sinagua civilization,
and more stone structures dot the lanscape nearby.
We walked
the perimeter and returned to Matthew and Jason with a few hundred questions.
They were full of fascinating information about the well, which draws
thousands and thousands of visitors every year.
"The
first time the park service ever used scuba equipment was here at Montezuma's
Well," said Matthew. "They wanted to find out how deep it was.
The divers went down about fifty feet, and then they noticed they couldn't
see in front of themselves, even a few inches. It turns out that the real
bottom was fifteen more feet down, and they were swimming in dark brown
mud along with a few million leeches."
"The
leeches come to the surface at night," said Jason. "Here's what
they look like." He showed us a few healthy specimens in a jar, and
also brought out a container of water scorpions. "But they aren't
true scorpions," he said. Montezuma's Well is also home to a unique
species of arthropod similar to brine shrimp. "That's what keeps
all those leeches fed," explained Matthew.
Many mysteries
surround Montezuma's Well, its current inhabitants, and the ancient civilzation
that once flourished around it. One of the most baffling is the source
of all the water. Tests using gas and dye have been performed, but so
far, no connection has been established between the well's water and any
other water source in the area.
Our visit,
all too brief, left us with more questions than answers. One we'll keep
asking whenever anyone wants to know what to see in Arizona is, "Have
you seen Montezuma's Well yet?"
Montezuma's
Well
2 miles east of Rimrock, Arizona,
on Beaver Creek Road
Montezuma's
Well
