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| Fig Spring Ancient Habitation, AZ | |
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| | Fig Spring Ancient Habitation, AZ | | | |
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Fig Spring Ancient Habitation, AZ
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| Hiking | 2.80 Miles |
476 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.80 Miles | 3 Hrs 41 Mns | | 0.76 mph |
| 476 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Needed a hike to get some exercise so decided to go take a look at a prehistoric habitation that's been on my list for about 3 years thanks to [ photoset ] . It's location north of the town of New River put it within easy driving distance for a day hike. (Note: I'm avoiding the use of the "R" word for these ancient habitations so this will be less likely to show up on random "R" word internet searches) Access to this habitation site is through state land so just in case, I renewed my AZ State Land Recreation Permit. Further research since returning indicates the access is across state land leased to HR Ventures LLC. But no locked gates, no "stay out" signs and evidence of heavy use by off-road vehicle enthusiasts indicates that if there are limitations to access they aren't being enforced. On this weekday I did not encounter any other visitors to this area.
I drove a short distance into the state land on a 4x4 road and found a place to park where my car would be somewhat out-of-sight down in a drainage. From there it was only about 1.6 miles of off-trail hiking to the location of the prehistoric site along a ridge top with great views Along the way I discovered another site of about 6 to 12 rooms abut 0.3 miles from my original objective. This first site had 6 to 12 rooms with some being quite large, maybe 24 ft x 15 ft. It did not appear to have had a defensive wall around its perimeter. The second site was of similar size and had a massive defensive wall surrounding a cluster of rooms on the inside. The wall enclosed an area approximately 138 ft long by 93 ft wide. A somewhat typical size for hilltop compounds I've seen in the Cave Creek area. In my experience it is unusual to find two sites of this size so close together and also unusual for hilltop sites to not have had a defensive wall. Perhaps the inhabitants of the first site retreated to the second site for protection when necessary.
An unusual find in a fairly large clearing between the sites were 6 ft by 10 ft letters spelling USMC outlined on the ground with rocks. They are visible on Google Earth and were placed their sometime between the 4/21/2017 and 2/24/2018 GE images. |
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