Arizona's Historic Sites
Arizona is home to a diverse array of historic sites that reflect its rich cultural heritage, including significant contributions from Native American history, European settlement, and advancements in science and technology. Key sites include the Awatovi Ruins, an important Hopi village with a history dating back to 1540, and the Gatlin Site, which features one of the few documented Hohokam platform mounds. The state also showcases the Casa Malpais, highlighting early Pueblo cultural patterns, and the Hubbell Trading Post, which represents interactions between Navajos and white traders.
In addition to Native American sites, Arizona is notable for its scientific advancements, with landmarks such as the Lowell Observatory, where groundbreaking research on Mars and the discovery of Pluto took place. The Roosevelt Dam stands out as an engineering marvel, enhancing agricultural productivity in the region. The San Xavier Del Bac Mission and the Yuma Crossing serve as testaments to the intertwining of religious and transportation history in the state. Collectively, these sites offer a glimpse into Arizona's dynamic past, making it a compelling destination for those interested in history and culture.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Arizona's Historic Sites
Awatovi Ruins
Location: Keams Canyon, Navajo County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, European settlement
Statement of significance: Located on the Hopi Indian Reservation, Awatovi Ruins is the site of one of the most important Hopi Indian villages encountered by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s men in 1540. It contains the remains of a five-hundred-year-old pueblo and a seventeenth century Spanish mission complex. Excavations were conducted at the site by the Peabody Museum in the 1930’s.
Casa Malpais Site
Location: Springerville, Apache County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Situated on terraces of a fallen basalt cliff along the upper Little Colorado River, the site dates from late Pueblo III to early Pueblo IV (1250-1325 C.E.) times. Casa Malpais appears to incorporate features of both early and late Mogollon culture settlement patterns.
Desert Laboratory
Location: Tucson, Pima County
Relevant issues: Science and technology
Statement of significance: Established in 1903 by the Carnegie Institution for the purpose of studying “the methods by which plants perform their functions under the extraordinary conditions existing in deserts,” the Desert Laboratory was for over thirty-five years the center for the study of North American desert ecology. Much of the framework of plant ecology generally, and desert ecology in particular, was formulated here.
Gatlin Site
Location: Gila Bend, Maricopa County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Probably first occupied sometime before 900 C.E., the Gatlin Site contains one of the few documented Hohokam platform mounds. Associated with the mound are pit houses, ball courts, middens, and prehistoric canals. The mound is one of the only excavated and documented Sedentary Period platform mounds that is still relatively intact.
Hubbell Trading Post
Location: Ganado, Apache County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, western expansion
Statement of significance: This still-active trading post represents the varied interactions of Navajos and the white traders who ran trading posts on the Navajo Reservation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Jerome Historic District
Location: Jerome, Yavapai County
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: Jerome was one of the richest copper-producing areas in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The town and surrounding mining area illustrate the historic activities associated with copper production.
Kinishba Ruins
Location: Whiteriver, Gila County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This site contains the ruins of a pueblo capable of housing up to one thousand Indians that was abandoned about 1400 C.E. The culture of the inhabitants represented a blend of Mogollon and Anasazi ancestry.
Lowell Observatory
Location: Flagstaff, Coconino County
Relevant issues: Science and technology
Statement of significance: Founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell (1855-1916), this relatively small observatory was at the time the one significant center of pure scientific research in the Southwest. Here, Lowell studied Mars (and theorized that it was inhabited by intelligent beings) and performed the computations that led to the discovery of Pluto; A. E. Douglass (1867-1962) conducted research that led to the modern science of dendrochronology; and, in 1912, V. M. Slipher (1875-1969) discovered that the universe was expanding. The observatory is still in operation.
Old Oraibi
Location: Oraibi, Navajo County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Located on the westernmost of the Hopi mesas, this is probably the oldest continuously inhabited pueblo in the Southwest. Old Oraibi documents Hopi culture and history from before European contact to the present day. The village is on the present Hopi Indian Reservation.
Pueblo Grande Ruin and Irrigation Sites
Location: Pueblo Grande City Park, Phoenix, Maricopa County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Web site: www.arizonaguide.com/pueblogrande
Statement of significance: The prehistoric platform mound and associated archaeological remains at Pueblo Grande represent one of the last surviving urban architectural sites of its kind in the southwestern United States. There is evidence that between 1100 and 1400 C.E., Pueblo Grande served as a Hohokam administration center for a major irrigation canal system. Due to its prehistoric significance, preeminent archaeologists have conducted research at Pueblo Grande since the 1880’s.
Roosevelt Dam
Location: Globe, Gila County
Relevant issues: Science and technology
Statement of significance: Erected between 1906 and 1911, the world’s highest masonry dam is acknowledged for its outstanding engineering. Roosevelt Dam was the first major public works project completed under the National Reclamation Act, which was enacted in 1902 during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. Roosevelt Dam was designed as a storage facility to increase the agricultural productivity of this arid region along the Salt River.
San Xavier Del Bac Mission
Location: Tucson, Pima County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, European settlement, religion
Statement of significance: Founded in 1700 by the Jesuits, Bac then formed the extreme northern thrust of Nueva Espana. The present structure is the third, perhaps the fourth, church on the site. Consecrated by Franciscans, it was begun in 1783 and completed in 1797. One of the finest Spanish Colonial churches in the country, it is a synthesis of Baroque design and the desert materials from which it was built by Papago Indian laborers supervised by Spanish-American master craftsmen.
Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites
Location: Yuma
Relevant issues: American Indian history, western expansion
Statement of significance: First used by Native Americans, this natural crossing served as a significant transportation gateway on the Colorado River during the Spanish Colonial and U.S. westward expansion periods. The surviving buildings of the Yuma Quartermaster Depot and Arizona Territorial Prison are the key features on the Arizona side of the border; across the river, in California, stand the surviving buildings of Fort Yuma, an Army outpost that guarded the crossing from 1850 to 1885.
"From Ancient Ruins to Historic Military Forts, Connect with Arizona’s Vibrant History and Living Cultures on Foot." Smithsonian Magazine, 2024, www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/from-ancient-ruins-to-historic-military-forts-connect-with-arizonas-vibrant-history-and-living-cultures-on-foot-180983258/. Accessed 26 May 2024.
Hartz, Donna and George Hartz. Arizona's National Parks and Monuments. Arcadia Publishing, 2013.
O'Bagy Davis, Carolyn. Arizona's Historic Trading Posts. Arcadia Publishing, 2014.
Trujillo, Greg. "Here Are the Top Five Historic Places in Phoenix, According to a Historian." 12 News, 14 Mar. 2024, www.12news.com/article/news/history/top-5-historic-places-phoenix-arizona-according-to-historian-steve-schumacher/75-452a26ac-0d65-4f74-9920-bd535752c91c. Accessed 26 May 2024.