shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileArizona

on a limestone ridge above the Verde River near Clarkdale

Tuzigoot NM

Name: Tuzigoot NM — on ceramic tile, by WenderVista
Brand: WenderVista

— — the ridge the village kept watch from.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.

— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand

— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines

— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall

— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround

— a note from the studio

“A Sinagua pueblo on a long limestone ridge above the Verde River, two miles east of Clarkdale in the Verde Valley. The walls hold 110 rooms, two and three stories at the high end, built between roughly 1000 and 1400 CE. Cottonwoods follow the river below. The view runs from Mingus Mountain west to the red rocks of the Sedona country east.

from the studio

— bring it home

Tuzigoot NM, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?

One tile — square or rectangle.

How big?

the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand

6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb

Surface finish

A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.

How it sits

A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.

$58

Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.

— size

6 × 6 in

15 cm

— weighs

1.6 lb

solid in the hand

— surface

ceramic, hand-finished

art rests beneath a thin glossy finish

— from

Knoxville, TN

our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies

— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Tuzigoot NM

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.

— the place

Tuzigoot sits on a 120-foot limestone-and-sandstone ridge above the Verde River in Yavapai County, Arizona, two miles east of Clarkdale and about twenty miles southwest of Sedona. The pueblo was built and occupied by the Sinagua people between approximately 1000 and 1400 CE, growing to 110 rooms at its peak. The site was excavated in 1933 by Louis Caywood and Edward Spicer of the University of Arizona under a Civil Works Administration project, and proclaimed a National Monument by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939.

— informed by National Park Service, Wikipedia

— the stone

The masonry is dry-laid limestone and sandstone, gathered from the ridge itself and the surrounding outcrops, set with mud mortar. Walls average two feet thick at the base, narrowing as they rise. Roof beams of ponderosa pine and juniper were brought from higher elevations west of the valley; some original beams remain in place. The highest standing walls rose three stories. The reconstructed museum room shows wall plaster, hearths, and a smoke hole as they were used. Most rooms had no exterior doors and were entered through roof hatches.

— informed by National Park Service · Architecture

— the visit

The monument is open daily from eight to five, closed Thanksgiving and Christmas, with a ten-dollar entrance fee valid for seven days and shared with Montezuma Castle. A quarter-mile paved loop climbs from the visitor center to the pueblo summit and back, gaining about a hundred feet. The museum holds Sinagua pottery, shell jewelry from Pacific trade routes, and the artifacts recovered during the 1933 excavation. Tavasci Marsh, a Verde River oxbow, lies below the north side of the ridge.

— informed by National Park Service · Plan Your Visit

— where

United States · Yavapai County, Arizona

— within

Tuzigoot National Monument

— elevation

1,067 m · 3,500 ft

— position

34.7700° N · 112.0264° W

— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.

3 km W

Clarkdale

river town

10 km SW

Jerome

mining town

40 km E

Montezuma Castle

Sinagua cliff dwelling

32 km NE

Sedona

red-rock town

Tuzigoot NM

Clarkdale

Jerome

Montezuma Castle

Sedona

— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Tuzigoot NM — and about bringing the piece home.

— about the place

The Sinagua people built Tuzigoot between roughly 1000 and 1400 CE. The name is an Apache word for crooked water, referring to the bend of the Verde River below. The same culture built Wupatki and Montezuma Castle.

By around 1400 CE the population had moved on, likely a combination of drought, soil exhaustion in the floodplain fields, and broader Southwestern depopulation. Hopi oral history remembers Tuzigoot as one of the ancestral villages.

The pueblo grew from a small hilltop cluster around 1000 CE to 110 rooms by the 1300s, with an estimated peak population of about 250 people. Two- and three-story sections rose at the ridge's high end.

Tuzigoot was excavated in 1933 by University of Arizona archaeologists Louis Caywood and Edward Spicer, funded by the Civil Works Administration. The work employed local Clarkdale miners after the Phelps Dodge copper smelter closed.

About twenty miles southwest by road, a thirty-minute drive through Cottonwood. The site pairs naturally with Montezuma Castle, twenty-five miles east, on the same entrance ticket.

— about the piece in your home

It reads warmly for that recipient. Tuzigoot is one of the defining places of the Verde Valley and the easiest Sinagua pueblo to walk. A Medium with a studio note carries the connection well.

The warm limestone palette sits in Southwest Modern, Earth-tone Minimalist, and Mountain-modern interiors. It reads against cream plaster walls, oak floors, and rooms with leather, wool, or saltillo tile.

Yes. Pueblo-and-mesa source material has become the calmer alternative to the older kachina-and-cactus Southwest vocabulary. Tuzigoot's ridgeline silhouette renders unusually well.

A single Large sits well above a console or reading chair. A 4-tile Mural carries a standard sofa wall. A 9-tile Mural takes a great-room feature wall.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and tolerate humidity. Reserve the glossy finish for dry interior walls.

A soft microfibre cloth and water. No abrasives, no ammonia, no acid cleaners. The colour lives in the surface beneath a thin protective layer.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in-house by Reid Wender. We do not license imagery, and each place composition is original to the studio.

— if this one stayed with you