While wine tasting and indulging in pecan pies may have been the main attraction during the Camp Verde Spring Heritage Festival on March 17 and 18, attendees who explored behind the scenes may have found something just as delightful. During the weekend, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center had a soft opening for its new outdoor gem: The Native American Heritage Pathway, nestled on a small property in Camp Verde.
Since 2015, the archaeological center has been developing the pathway into a leisure hiking site and an outdoor classroom. According to Ken Zoll, executive director of the Verde Valley Archaeology Center, the pathway is expected to open Saturday, June 30, and will be more than just a hike in the Verde Valley — it will allow attendees to travel back in time and explore the history of American Indians who inhabited the area.
Additionally, there will be a garden on site that will be run by a small Hopi group, and various traditional plant species will be harvested on site, such as yucca, agave, beans, squash and more. Zoll said the garden will continue to be developed through the third week of April, which he said is a culturally relevant time.
Also reconstructed on the land, to demonstrate American Indian culture, will be wickiups, which are American Indian huts with oval frames that are covered in brushwood, grass or similar elements.
Although the pathway will be a public hiking spot, Zoll stressed that it still is an archaeological site, and therefore people are advised not to pick up and take anything with them as unconventional souvenirs.
Informational panels will guide visitors throughout the entirety of the hike. The panels are intended to teach people about the animals, plants and people who inhabited the area nearly 1,400 years ago, and the building and hunting techniques they used to survive. Additionally, the center plans to add a museum and collection site to the pathway two years down the road.
The first panel people will be acquainted by on the hike provides a glimpse into the living conditions of the American Indian village once active on the site. Zoll noted that there were eight to 12 pit houses identified on the land through investigation, which were the houses the native people built within the ground prior to building pueblos. He noted that one of the pit houses they excavated on the land dated back to A.D. 650.
Although the land is developing into a new outdoor attraction in Camp Verde, it was not always shaping up to be what is it now, but rather a site to build homes upon. The journey to developing this attraction began in 2006, when the property was known as the Simonton Ranch. When the first pit house was found on the land, plans began to be rewritten and investigated for archaeological identification as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit, which is required before residential development can be implemented.
The first pit house they discovered contained human remains and called for an investigation to take place on the land for more. As the investigation continued, it revealed the cultural and historical relevance of the land. In 2013, the Verde Valley Archaeology Center sought permission from the property owner of Simonton to excavate the features before any further development was undertaken. In response, he offered to donate to the Center up to six acres of the property containing much of the pit houses, burial sites and more.
Zoll noted that back when the first hand excavation was conducted, a Hopi seer was sought out to gain blessing to respectfully continue to use and develop on the land.
“The spirits are looking kindly upon what we are doing here. It was a very calming trail as he walked it,” Zoll said the Hopi seer had noted when exploring the site.
In July 2015, the archaeological center finally began to break ground at the site and develop the half-mile loop trail.
Now at trail’s end to finishing the pathway, Zoll noted the project was made possible through the helping hands of several local and state entities who donated funds and resources. Those in support included the Town of Camp Verde; the Yavapai, Apache and Hopi nations; and grant support from the National Park Service River and Trails and Conservation Program.
Zoll also said the agave in the pathway garden was planted by Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens staff members, who will return before the grand opening of the pathway to conduct plant identification of native species on the land to create name plaques for each they are able to identify.
Much of the work on the trail was performed by center members with the assistance of the Camp Verde Old Guys, a community service volunteer group.
With the opening day of the pathway just a few months away, the archaeological center and its partners are working daily to ensure that everything is in place for people to be able to enjoy all that the hike offers. To make sure the pathway gets the grand opening it deserves, Zoll said there will be a ceremony that will feature American Indian dancing, music and blessing, to pay tribute the past and continuance of American Indian presence on the pathway land.
“We decided to do the trail first to show people we can actually accomplish something,” Zoll said. “… We’re going to have the Hopi council here, the Yavapai-Apache council here, and we will have Hopi and Yavapai prayers to open it up, we’ll do a ribbon cutting, the whole ball of wax.”
Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126, or email mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com
