Pipe Spring - water at Pipe Spring

The water at Pipe Spring has long been an important resource for humans living in the region of the Arizona Strip (northwestern Arizona, north of the Grand Canyon). Long before the arrival of the Mormon pioneers (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), indigenous peoples passed through or lived in the region. The earliest visitors to the springs in the area may have been the nomadic peoples who made distinctive stone tools. Clovis projectile points found along the Arizona Strip possibly correlate to dates 9500 to 9000 B.C. In addition, projectile points from Archaic periods (7000 to 300 B.C.) have been collected in the general region (Fairley, 1989). The actual site of Pipe Spring was inhabited by Ancestral Puebloans who utilized the Arizona Strip (300 B.C. to AD 1250). The Ancestral Puebloans left behind evidence including masonry dwellings and ceramic pottery. These inhabitants left their homes in the Pipe Spring area at about the same time other Puebloan villages were vacated. "Changes in prevailing socioeconomic and environmental conditions..." are "the most commonly suggested explanation" for the apparent departure of most of the Ancestral Puebloan people from the region (Fairley, 1989). However, the Kaibab Paiutes believe that they are descendants of these people who may have remained local but been forced into a different lifestyle because of changing environmental conditions. The Kaibab Paiutes lived in the area at the time of the first Euroamerican settlers arrive. Archeological and historic artifacts are on display at the combined Pipe Spring National Monument-Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians Visitor Center and Museum.