Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of the cliff dwellings near a lake named "Montezuma's Well", Arizona, ca.1900. Caves and holes are carved into the rocky cliff, while shrubs and dry bushes cover the hillside leading up to the caves. A man is visible walking up the rocky hill at right. Compares to CHS-2586. "Montezuma's Castle is well known among tourists who exit Interstate 17 on their way north to the Grand Canyon. But few Montezuma Castle tourists are familiar with the park's counterpart-- Montezuma's Well. The "well" was first brought to the general public's attention by Richard J. Hinton in his Handbook to Arizona, published in 1878. It is believed that the first white visitor to the area was the Spaniard Antonio de Espejo on his 1583 expedition. In his journal he describes an abandoned pueblo with a ditch running from a nearby pond. It is thought this was Montezuma's Castle and Well. Early settlers to the area concluded that the stately cliff dwelling belonged to the Aztec emperor Montezuma. Actually, the "castle" was home to the Sinagua -- not the Aztecs -- and was deserted nearly a century before Montezuma was born. Montezuma never lived in the castle named after him nor did he drink from the well's waters." -- unknown author.
Type
image
Format
2 photographs : glass photonegative, photoprint, b&w 21 x 26 cm. glass plate negatives photographic prints photographs
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