The two National Park Service national monuments in the Verde Valley — Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot — both saw their number of visitors last year fall to the lowest levels in more than three decades, according to NPS statistics.
Montezuma Castle hit its high-water mark in 1996 with more than a million visitors. Since then, however, it has steadily declined, hosting 389,091 in 2013, its lowest visitation since 1979. Located in Camp Verde, Montezuma Castle also includes Montezuma Well.
About 31.3 million people have visited the monument since it began counting them in 1920.
Tuzigoot, near Clarkdale, had 85,746 visitors last year, the lowest number since 1983. Its high was 138,684 in 1992.
Tuzigoot has hosted 5.4 million visitors since it began counting in 1940.
Dorothy FireCloud, who was named superintendent for both monuments in November 2012, did not return a message by press time asking whether the agency has insight into why visitation is declining or whether there are steps that can be taken to increase it.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, Oct. 29, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
