Historic sites in the Verde Valley

We list six historic sites: two in Camp Verde and one each in Clarkdale, Jerome, Rimrock and Sedona. All six list a phone number and a website.

Almost all of these are run by a government agency, not a business, and that changes how you plan a visit. Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot are National Park Service sites. Montezuma Well near Rimrock is part of the same monument. Fort Verde and Jerome are state historic parks, and Palatki near Sedona is a Forest Service heritage site.

That means fees, gates and passes. Entry is charged at most of them, the gate hours are real and they’re enforced, and the federal sites sit inside a pass system, so a pass bought at one National Park Service site generally covers another. Palatki is the odd one out and the one to plan for most carefully. Forest Service heritage sites in the red rocks commonly need a reservation and a separate pass, and the access road is rough on a low car.

Two kinds of history sit side by side here. Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, Tuzigoot and Palatki are Sinagua sites, built and lived in centuries before the towns around them. Fort Verde and Jerome are nineteenth century, the army first and then copper.

Check each site’s own hours before you drive out. Of all our listings, these are the ones where a seasonal change or a government closure is most likely to catch you off guard.