Coyote Ruin, Fitzmaurice Ruin, and Museum of Indigenous People Tour

On Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21, 2023, join Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Coyote Ruin, Fitzmaurice Ruin, and Museum of Indigenous People” tour with archaeologist Andrew Christenson, PhD, in Prescott and Prescott Valley, Arizona. The tour will begin on Saturday at 11:30 and end on Sunday 12:00 noon. There is a requested donation of $99 donation per person ($80 for members of Old Pueblo Archaeology Center or Friends of Pueblo Grande Museum), which covers all site entry fees and Old Pueblo’s expenses.

Archaeologist Dr. Andy Christenson leads this tour to two archaeological sites of west-central Arizona’s Prescott culture and to one of Arizona’s oldest anthropology museums. For the Coyote Ruin in Prescott, which was occupied from perhaps the 900s until after 1300 CE, excavations in the 1920s are the earliest in the Prescott area for which we have documentation. In 1998 and later additional excavations were conducted in 11 of Coyote’s 26 masonry rooms and two of its 10 pit structures, and many agricultural and water-control features were recorded. The Fitzmaurice Ruin on and near a prominent hilltop in Prescott Valley includes a 27-room pueblo and outlying structures dating between 1140 and 1300, stone-outlined areas interpreted as terraced and possibly canal-irrigated garden plots, and at least one petroglyph. Prescott’s Museum of Indigenous People, originally the Smoki Museum, is a complex of stone buildings completed in 1935 by a non-Native, community-minded social group, the “Smoki People,” with assistance from Depression-era work program participants. Participants are responsible for their own transportation, lodging, and meals.

Donations are due 10 days after reservation request or by 5 pm Monday May 15, whichever is earlier: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.

Flyer: 20230520-0521(v2)_Coyote&Fitzmaurice&MuseumOfIndigenousPeopleTourFlyer