{"id":8952,"date":"2011-08-02T18:03:55","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T23:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=8952"},"modified":"2021-08-12T19:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T00:03:28","slug":"hohokam_pima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/hohokam_pima\/","title":{"rendered":"The Park You Cannot Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. National Park Service currently has 394 units, with one more arriving soon<\/a>. These include all manner of parks, monuments, historic sites, battlefields, seashores, recreation areas, trails and various other interesting designations. Each one is a beloved national treasure. They include the famous like Yellowstone<\/a> National Park. But they also include the more obscure such as Rosie the Riveter\/World War II Home Front<\/a> National Historical Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"View<\/a>
Phoenix, Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, you can never visit one of the sites. Even though it\u2019s located within a major metropolitan area with more than four million residents, you cannot go there. You can touch it ever so briefly but you can never truly experience it legally. The National Park Service strictly prohibits tourists there. The site is the Hohokam Pima<\/a> National Monument on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Snaketown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The government established a national monument to protect Snaketown. This was an ancient village of the pre-Columbian Hohokam people who once inhabited a swath of the desert southwest. Researchers believe Paleo-Indians settled Snaketown sometime around 2,300 year ago. Then they abandoned it for unknown reasons (possibly drought) about 900 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The settlement served as a large cultural center with a couple of thousand residents. It included intensive agricultural cultivation and a large system of irrigation canals. Archaeologists excavated Snaketown in the 1930’s and again in the 1960’s. When done, they completely reburied the site to preserve it for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hohokam Pima National Monument falls within the boundaries of the Gila River Indian Community<\/a>. According to the National Park Service, “The Gila River Indian Community has decided not to open the extremely sensitive area to the public.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this is as close as you can get to Snaketown without permission:<\/p>\n\n\n\n