With the decline of the Hohokam and the Sinagua, Native American use and disturbance of Montezuma Castle and its surroundings likewise diminished only to be intensified again with the arrival of European settlers in the mid-1800s. The resulting post-settlement conversion of the landscape to agriculture and urban use continues to the present day.

The physical imprint of post-settlement agrarian and pastoral practices on the landscape is still highly visible. The vegetation of Montezuma Castle remains in the process of recovery and in some instances may never recover to a state which is more or less "natural", that is, one which would greatly resemble central Arizona vegetation types (i.e., plant associations) which had developed largely in the absence of human disturbance. Montezuma Castle National Monument's bottomland vegetation is a prime example.

The mesquite stands located on the Beaver Creek floodplain are relatively young and represent only about 60 years of recovery, at a maximum, from abandoned agricultural fields and pastures. Although mesquite dominates the vegetation's tree layer, dense, self-sustaining and ecologically stable populations of Mediterranean annual grasses and weedy forbs dominate the understory vegetation. Recovery will likely proceed no further due to hydrological changes in Beaver Creek brought about by upstream water diversions and disturbance-induced water table lowering.

The high volume of fine fuels also creates an unnatural fire hazard. Plants typical of upland comminuties and responsive to disturbance, such as snakeweed, are invading and changing the vegetation characteristics of Montezuma Castle's bottomland plant associations. The unit's bottomlands, in essence have become "desertified." Views of the mineral-rich Black Hills to the south, or the red and white sandstone country of Sedona and the basalt-capped palisades of the Mogollon Rim to the north, to the limestone hills of the Verde Valley, the dynamic nature of the Earth's geologic processes is evident in the landforms surrounding the monument.

Visitors to Montezuma Castle will not want to miss
Montezuma Well.

Article by Sarah Horton