Shallow caves, overlooking today's Theodore Roosevelt Lake in central Arizona, shelter dwellings that are nearly 700 years old. Tonto Basin is one of many valleys and basins with evidence of early farming activity. Encompassing about 300 square miles, Tonto Basin supports diverse animals and plants, from mountain pines to desert cacti. Tonto Creek and the Salt River, deposit rich soils along the valley floor, nourishing mesquite, Arizona walnut, and sycamore. Hillsides and mesas are blanketed with saguaro, cholla, prickly pear, agave, and jojoba, the higher elevations with oak, juniper, pinyon, and ponderosa pine. Deer, rabbit, quail, and other wildlife are integral parts of this ecosystem. For thousands of years people took advantage of the basin's bountiful offerings. The first people, to settle here permanently, arrived between the years 100 and 600. Eagle Ridge, a village of 15 pit houses, is one of Tonto Basin's earliest farming communities. Like their hunter-gatherer predecessors, Eagle Ridge occupants harvested plants and hunted animals but, unlike their ancestors, they grew corn, beans, and cotton. A valuable archeological find, Eagle Ridge allows us to see people in the transition from hunter-gatherer to sedentary farmers. They were the forerunners of agricultural groups soon to emerge. About the year 600 people left this community, with no evidence of human activity in Tonto Basin for 150 years. By 750 people from the lower Gila and Salt river valleys (near today's city of Phoenix) built pithouse villages in Tonto Basin. Identified by the settlement patterns of their villages and their red-on-buff pottery, they were an extension of the southern Hohokam farmers. For 400 years they used irrigation farming to grow corn, beans, squash, and cotton. Populations to the north and east had grown too. They were the puebloan groups, and by 1100 their populations rivaled the desert Hohokam. Starting in the 1100s population centers approached their social and economic peak. Archeological evidence indicates that drought, plant and animal depletion, and population growth pushed resource availability to critical levels. Faced with instability, many northern pueblo groups left their homelands, and the Colorado Plateau and Central Mountain populations declined. According to the traditions of their descendants, people settled, then moved on, as part of their preordained quest to find permanent homelands. Social and environmental upsets were often signals to resume migrations and fulfill their destiny. Migrations took them to what is now western New Mexico and central, southern, and eastern Arizona. Evidence of such a migration emerged in Tonto Basin's archeological record. By 1250 people occupied prime land on the valley floor, and the new arrivals began settling in the basin's upper elevations. As people arrived, communities absorbed their new ideas, technologies, and philosophies, resulting in changes to Tonto Basin's cultural identity. At this time Salado polychrome pottery appears in the archeological record. Deriving its name from the Salt River, that flows through the basin, this pottery style reflects the changing times. Migrations continued, and populations grew. By 1275 thousands of people lived in Tonto Basin. Archeologists refer to this mixed-cultural phenomenon as Salado. Info based on National Park Service materials. Scanned from a photo taken in 1996. Thanks for stopping by, taking a peak and for all your previous comments and favs. Dana