BESH BA GOWAH | Globe, Arizona | Exploring the Remains of an Old Salado Indian Village

One of the best-kept secrets in Arizona is Besh-Ba-Gowah in Globe, AZ. This archaeological park has some of the best-preserved & reconstructed Indian ruins one can explore. Today we adventure to this old village & wander where the Salado culture lived.
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There's no shortage of Indian ruins to explore in Arizona as it has been a cultural melting pot across the centuries. In this video, we visit Besh Ba Gowah Archeological Park, an amazing site where visitors can walk among the reconstructed walls of an Indian village.
It is located near the town of Globe, Arizona. Finding the park can be a bit tricky as it is located around a mostly residential area. Directions have been linked below.
Besh Ba Gowah was a 200 room village inhabited by the Salado culture somewhere between 1225 and 1400 AD. Rooms in the village had many purposes - living, storage, cooking, communal, and even ceremonial. Walls were made of rounded stones and mortared with mud. At the time the walls would have been smoothed over with adobe giving a finished look. Today the reconstruction does not include the finished adobe.
In the center of the village was a plaza. It is said that up to 150 people were buried here essentially making it the village's cemetery. The entrance into the village was through a long, dark-covered hallway. While not covered now, this long hallway can be seen upon initially entering the remains.
The Salado people were hunters and gatherers. The Tonto Basin and nearby Pinal Creek provided much of what the Salado needed for thriving in the area. Corn, squash, pumpkin, and beans were farmed for a food source.
Textiles and pottery were prolific here. Geometric designs on the pottery were common. In addition, the Salado were part of a major trade route. Shells from the Pacific have been found on-site as well as copper bells from Mexico. Many excavated examples of archeological finds can be seen in the park's museum.
As with Tonto National Monument, no one really knows why the Salado abandoned the area. It is thought that drought or conflict with neighboring cultures may have taken part.
The name Besh Ba Gowah was given to the location much later by the Apache. It translates to "place of metal" or "metal camp", a reference to the mining of precious metals that was taking place in the late 1800s.
VIDEO FILMED: 02/28/2020
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⚪ Besh Ba Gowah Video - • Besh Ba Gowah Archeolo...
⚪ Besh Ba Gowah Archeological Park - www.globeaz.gov...
⚪ Directions to Besh Ba Gowah - goo.gl/maps/mK...
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Welcome to the Cactus Atlas! We are Glenn and Amy and invite you to join us as we visit all sorts of locations across the American West. We tour both natural and man-made attractions.
Our base of operations is in the Phoenix, AZ area. We do a lot of hiking and day trips as well as campground reviews and hope that we will be a great resource if you are planning a trip to the American West. We also hope to delight you with our exciting adventures!

[@michaele.ebright8834]

Went through this site a few years ago with my wife and we enjoyed this VERY MUCH, thank you, good presentation

[@CactusAtlas]

Thanks so much! 😄

[@charlieredeemed]

I used to play in these ruins, as a kid. It was the funnest to play "Ditch 'Em" there. I lived right by it and never took the paid tour and didn't even know there was one, as a kid; it was pretty open for us to just go run around in. That was my playground😂 and our community-center swimming-pool was right there. I went to Globe schools, Miami Schools and I graduated from the highschool called Liberty, right next to that area.

[@CactusAtlas]

That probably was the best playground ever for a kid though I imagine the temptation to climb over everything would have been great. We both were really impressed by it when we went.

[@charlieredeemed]

@@CactusAtlas So awesome👍

[@joywyse6996]

Really appreciate your travels around Arizona. I have never heard of Besh-Ba-Gowah in Globe. I'm learning more about Arizona history from the videos, and I really am happy I am since I am moving back. May take a little drive to Globe to see the ruins. When I worked at the Ute Indian Museum there was a new museum constructed to replace the old one and some of the employees who were there late into the evening heard sounds of what sounded like spirits of the Utes laughing and playing drums. They were keeping tabs on the new buidling. Thanks.

[@CactusAtlas]

Haha! You're likely going to be coming back with a whole list before you arrive! 😅

[@josephbingham1255]

The inside of the Museum has a surprising amount of clay pots and other artifact found here during excavation.

[@tpseeker3367]

Thanks for taking us along & helping us learn more about forgotten areas & heritage of our country. Sad that so much history has been lost to development. Oh Hey there unseen Amy. Rimshot on the dad joke. Which is Way Better than the 🦆👄

[@CactusAtlas]

Hahah! I like to lurk, what can I say. 😅

[@tpseeker3367]

Just happy someone is keeping an eye on Glenn from time to time 😜@@CactusAtlas

[@SomeplaceOrAnother]

Globe AZ looks really interesting. 👍

[@CactusAtlas]

It does, doesn't it? It's certainly a place that we feel that we need to explore a lot more in the future. From some old schoolhouses turned bed and breakfast to really interesting architecture... it needs a deeper dive. Hopefully things will allow us to go again soon and really just wander and see what we find.

[@pennysaufley8974]

I wonder if what we think of as weird had to do with defense? Like burying the dead where perhaps enemies could not disturb the bodies? Or door ways that would be more defensible? Of course, I haven’t a clue, just spitballing. It seems like a really interesting place to visit!

[@CactusAtlas]

Very interesting and thought provoking! Attitudes towards death have certainly shifted throughout time so what we now consider "weird" might have been totally normal in another time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 😊👍

[@gstiles7]

definitely a hidden gem of the state, great find!

[@CactusAtlas]

Yeah, it really is. Still baffled at how it stayed off our radar for so long.

[@gstiles7]

and of course it wouldn't be complete without a bad dad joke...lol

[@CactusAtlas]

You know me lol...

[@DaPaC1978]

Great video! I haven’t been there yet, but I moved to Santa Fe, NM from MN because of the history. I had no idea this human history existed until a trip to the SW, then I moved here 4 months later!

[@CactusAtlas]

Oh wow! That's a move! Sante Fe is on our list of places to go when we can afford a few days away. So many things we want to see. The SW is just packed with so much. We love it here. Thanks for the comment!

[@DaPaC1978]

The Cactus Atlas that was 12 yrs ago now, I don’t know if I could move on a whim like that again! There is so much to do & see here, great food too! Bandelier is a must, as well as the Tent Rocks hike :)

[@DaPaC1978]

The Cactus Atlas Check out my channel sometime- High Desert Camper. So far, I only show the campground, info, & music

[@CactusAtlas]

Thanks for those suggestions. We have added those to the Cactus Atlas spreadsheet of places to visit in fact! We really appreciate getting recommendations and welcome them any time!

[@brianfow4666]

Would have been interesting with a tiny drone. But i know that is frowned upon

[@CactusAtlas]

Yes for sure. Still need to invest in one, which will happen soon. But yeah, not sure if that would be allowed there, although I recall seeing another video someone did at this location where they did in fact use one.

[@gstiles7]

if meat was scarce then cooking next to the dead makes sense...I guess

[@CactusAtlas]

Gotta get your protein somehow!

[@user-gw4ww5ht6e]

I need happe