Living History: Building a Model Pueblo

Last year when we spent 2 months in Northern Arizona one of our favorite parts of our stay was learning about the rich history of the indigenous peoples of the Verde Valley. When we returned to Cottonwood this February we knew we needed to revisit Tuzigoot, Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well to learn more about the history of the people who lived here and built these incredible dwellings 1000 years ago.

After visiting each of these historical sites again, and reflecting on our visits to places like Mesa Verde and Bandelier, the boys came up with one of our favorite homeschool projects to date: creating a model pueblo using the same materials people used to build cliff dwellings and pueblos 1000 years ago.

We started by hiking to the Verde River at our campground and collecting clay along the river. The kids collected rocks and sticks around camp and began planning out their designs. They started with some rough prototypes that were fun to construct but not as true to the style of the indigenous southwest and not as sturdy.

Us parents couldn't miss out on the fun and the pueblo construction became a family project. We created strong rock walls by layering wet river clay and closely stacked rocks, constructing the pueblo walls layer by layer. We created the roof by laying longer sticks across the walls, layered with small cross sticks and a thick adobe layer across the top.

The kids quickly learned that skimping on clay leads to weak walls and marveled at the volume of mud mortar that must have been required to construct dwellings that lasted 1000 years. The boys dreamed up a removable roof so we could easily peer inside our pueblo and imagine what life would have been like living in a home made of mud, rocks and sticks. We made a miniature ladder and then, because we were having so much fun creating with natural clay and excited to add the details of daily life, created tiny pots, pitchers and bowls to add to our model.

Creating our model pueblo took hours and was a fully immersive experience. Our whole family was in flow as we brainstormed, designed, tested, and iterated through the process of creating something new together. We were not only learning about history, we were living it. We now had an understanding of what it took to design and build these homes because we had the experience of building our own, though on a much smaller scale. We weren't just imagining the determination, frustration, and creativity of the indigenous people who built Tuzigoot, we were experiencing it for ourselves.

Anytime children can not only learn about something but truly experience it themselves, they will learn and remember it at a far deeper level.