ANTIQUITIES OF THE UPPER VERDE RIVER AND 
WALNUT CREEK VALLEYS, ARIZONA 
By JessE Water FEWKES 
INTRODUCTION 
The following pages are more in the nature of a preliminary report 
than an exhaustive account of the antiquities of the valleys of the 
upper Verde River and Walnut Creek. This report deals with areas 
little known archeologically, although, by reason of their geographic 
positions, presenting to the student of the prehistoric culture of 
Arizona most interesting problems. The aim is to consider types 
rather than to enumerate many examples of the same kind of ruins. 
The present discussion is confined for the greater part, though not 
entirely, to architectural features. 
The reader is reminded that the antiquities of these valleys have 
not been wholly neglected by former students. Ruins believed to 
be prehistoric were reported from the Verde many years ago, and 
those on the lower Verde have been described monographically by 
Mr. Cosmos Mindeleff. 
The antiquities of the region bordering the Verde River from 
Camp Verde to the point where it discharges its waters into the Salt 
naturally resemble those of the other tributaries of the latter, although 
the geologic conditions on the upper Verde have led to certain 
architectural differences. The locality of the ruins here considered is 
the western frontier of the ancient Pueblo country. The inhabitants 
of this region, an agricultural people, were subject to attack by power- 
ful nomadic tribes. Here, where defensive structures were necessary, 
we should naturally look for a relatively large number of forts or for- 
tified hilltops. The upper Verde River and Walnut Creek flow through 
a part of Arizona occupied to within a few years by the Yavapai, 
a more or Jess nomadic tribe of mixed blood, who reasonably may be 
regarded as descendants of the prehistoric house builders. Descend- 
ants of other survivors of prehistoric times may be looked for among 
several groups of modern Indians of Yuman stock—-the Walapai and 
the Havasupai, especially the latter, now living in the depths of 
Cataract Canyon, a branch of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 
1In 13th Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. 
185 
