“A land without ruins is a land without memories - a land without memories is a land without history” ~ Abram Joseph Ryan

Photographed at Pueblo Canyon cliff-ruins, within the Sierra Ancha Wilderness of the Tonto National Forest. Pueblo Canyon shows carbon dating ranging from about 1275A.D. to maybe 1350A.D. then nothing...no clues...no trace.

The various cliff-ruins of the Sierra Ancha Wilderness are steeped in mystery and legend, for these people came, flourished, and then vanished without a trace in 1300 A.D., leaving only their magnificent cliff dwellings, some pottery shards, and pieces of bone. Scientists fiercely debate both the exact culture of Ancient American that inhabited these ruins, as well as the causes of their very sudden disappearance. It is generally agreed that these people were a faction of the Salado Tribe, and their move North and total change of habitat seems to correlate with a great drought around the same time and the warlike factions which were believed to exist in the area due to these conditions.