Archangel of Sedona by Tony Peluso

Author:Tony Peluso [Peluso, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Warriors, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

August 28, 2013, 10:00 a.m.

Paleo-Indian Ruins at Schnebly Tank

Coconino National Forest, Arizona

The Paleo-Indian ruins at Schnebly Tank didn’t resemble any of the other impressive Native American sites on the Mogollon Rim or in the Verde Valley. They were ancient—ten times as old as Palatki, Tuzigoot, and Montezuma’s Castle. The inhabitants of this site hunted and gathered along the rim for more than 3,000 years before the Egyptians designed the Pyramids at Giza.

The Paleo-Indians didn’t engage in recognizable agriculture. They didn’t leave remnants of their dwellings, other than shallow trenches dug out of the limestone that they used as foundations for tents made from animal skins, tree bark, or brush. They did provide posterity with a rich tapestry of complex and detailed petroglyphs.

As I walked alongside the rock wall that served as their primitive canvas, I marveled at the effort that the Paleo-Indians had invested in the intricate work. The glyphs depicted all manner of predators, game animals, human beings, geometric designs, and strange figures that I couldn’t recognize. A huge sandstone overhang, at least 25 feet in depth, had protected the ancient etchings over the last ten millennia.

I tried to imagine what it must have been like to live up here 10,000 years ago in an area swarming with deadly predators, never knowing what threat or bounty the hunt would bring. They must have been a hardy band, surviving on guts, wits, and limited natural resources in this small box canyon. The Paleo-Indians propagated and prospered in a difficult environment, and still had time for artistic expression.

The prehistoric artists found a bountiful source of water at the site. In the desert, high plains, and arid scrub forests of central and northern Arizona, a tank is anything natural or manmade that catches rainwater. In the limestone and sandstone formations that form the Mogollon Rim and its foothills, natural bowls, depressions, and tanks are common. Due to the paucity of rain, they’re dry most of the time.

Schnebly Tank is the exception that proves the rule. It’s large for a tank, with a water surface area roughly two-thirds of an acre. After a heavy rain it can double in surface size and depth. It’s never dry because a small, cold, and reliable spring feeds it year-round. The tank sits in a narrow draw off the main canyon at 6,600 feet above sea level, along one of the tree-lined promontories on the Mogollon Rim.

Other springs feed a little creek that local wags have named the Conaqua—Spanish for “with water.” The presence of the tank, the other natural springs, and the small creek made it possible for the ancient rock artists to survive for several generations before they disappeared.

I felt giddy from my major discovery, now an hour old. After arriving at the site, we located the etchings that Hansen claimed resembled the Christus.

These petroglyphs depicted a spot-on reproduction of the Christ figure from the chapel. After close examination, the Christus etchings seemed more detailed, proportional, and life-like than any of the other glyphs at Schnebly Tank.

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