FEWKES] RUINS ON WALNUT CREEK 207 
structures and who are the descendants of the builders, are impor- 
tant questions. 
In ancient times there was a well-worn Indian trail from the 
Colorado River, past Mount Hope, through Aztec Pass, down Walnut 
Creek, and across Williamson and Chino Valleys to the Verde. This 
trail, used by later American explorers, was doubtless the one fol- 
lowed by some of the early Spanish missionaries in their efforts to 
reach the Hopi Indians from the California side. Although the route 
taken by early Spanish travelers in crossing the country west of the 
Hopi villages is more or less problematical, it would seem that Onate, 
in 1604, may have crossed the divide at Aztec Pass (pl. 93, 6), and that 
Father Garcés, 172 years later, may have followed this trail past Mount 
Hope and down Walnut Creek. The Yavapai (‘‘Yampais’’) were 
numerous in this region at that time and much later, as indicated on 
the few maps and descriptions which have come down to us. 
In 1853 Sitgreaves followed the same Indian trail over Aztec Pass, 
crossing the country afterward traversed by Whipple, but, although 
he must have seen several ruins in this region, he mentions none, nor 
do others who followed approximately the same route, namely, Beale’s 
road, known also as the Government road. 
There is considerable arable land lying along Walnut Creek (pl. 93), 
which is continually shifting, owing to the inroads made by the stream, 
hence it is hardly probable that the flats now seen are those once 
cultivated by the Indians. It may be for this reason that the ancient 
farmhouses were built on the tongue-shaped terraces or on gravelly 
mesas bordering the stream, where the ruins are now found. 
The forts were built on the summits of the highest prominences 
both for protection and for the sake of obtaining a wide view up and 
down the stream, and it is an instructive fact in this connection that 
one rarely loses sight of one of these hill forts before another can be 
seen. By means of a system of smoke signals news of an approaching 
foe could be communicated from settlement to settlement from one end 
of Walnut Valley to the other, giving the farmers in their fields skirt- 
ing the stream opportunity to retreat to the forts for protection. 
The ruins in Walnut (‘‘Pueblo”) Creek Valley' are thus referred to 
in Whipple’s report: 
Five miles beyond Turkey Creek we came upon Pueblo Creek, so called on account 
of extensive ruins of houses and fortifications that lined its banks . . . Wide 
Indian trails and ruins of extensive fortifications constructed centuries since upon 
the heights to defend it showed that not only present tribes but ancient races had 
deemed Aztec Pass of great importance. 
1 The names *‘ Turkey Creek’’ and *‘ Pueblo Creek,’’ mentioned by Whipple, do not seem to have been 
generally adopted by white settlers. The stream called by Whipple ‘‘ Pueblo Creek’’ is now called Wal- 
nut Creek. ‘‘Aztec Pass” also is a name but little known to settlers in this region. 
