The Ancient Salado People of Present-Day Globe, Arizona: Their Art and Culture

Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park

For 175 years, the Salado people built an entire world from stone and mud in what’s now Globe, Arizona.

Between 1225 and 1400 CE, they carved out 200 rooms in terraced blocks that rose like ancient apartments above Pinal Creek. Then one day, they packed up and left, never to return.

Here’s their story, carved in stone at a place you can walk through today.

The Salado Cultural Blend

The Salado culture formed around 1150 CE when drought and floods forced people to move across the Southwest. Three different groups—Mogollon, Hohokam, and Ancestral Puebloan—came together in the Tonto Basin area.

People moved south from northeastern Arizona, bringing their building skills and pottery styles. The Salt River (Rio Salado in Spanish) gave this new mixed culture its name.

The Pueblo’s Architecture

Besh-Ba-Gowah had rooms stacked two or three stories high in connected blocks. Long, narrow hallways and small open areas linked these room groups together.

A large central plaza measuring 12 meters by 27 meters sat at the heart of the pueblo. In total, about 400 rooms filled the village, with 250 on the ground floor.

People entered through one ground-level corridor covered by upper rooms.

Masonry Techniques

The Salado built their walls using granite stones of different sizes held together with clay mortar. They smoothed interior walls with clay or white limestone plaster. A key feature of Salado building was using large stone slabs standing upright as the foundation course.

Salado Polychrome Pottery

The Salado made beautiful pottery with three colors—white, black, and red. Besh-Ba-Gowah has an unusually large collection of these decorated pots.

Potters painted with white clay and black dye from boiled plants, and they sometimes added red paint to finish their designs.

The earliest style, Pinto polychrome, appeared around 1275 CE with simple patterns. Later Gila and Tonto styles used more complex designs. Gila pottery became popular through trade, spreading from Mexico to New Mexico.

The Salado People’s Agricultural Practices

The Salado grew corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, and amaranth in fields around Pinal Creek. They built small canals to water their crops.

They grew cotton for making cloth and planted agave for food and fiber. Hunting animals and gathering wild plants, berries, and nuts added to their food supply.

This mix of farming and foraging helped them survive in the dry Arizona landscape.

Craftwork and Material Culture

The Salado wove yucca and agave fibers into sandals tough enough for rocky ground. They made tight coiled baskets and cotton cloth, along with crafting tools from animal bones and stones.

Stone tools included grinding stones for corn, palettes for mixing paint, axes, hoes, and sharp points made from obsidian.

They made beads and decorations from turquoise for personal use and trade. These crafts combined skills from all three of their parent cultures.

Extensive Trade Networks

The Salado traded with people near and far. Seashells found at Besh-Ba-Gowah came from as far as the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California, along with colorful macaw feathers from southern Mexico and copper bells from western Mexico show their far-reaching connections.

Their pottery was highly valued, with pieces found as far south as Paquimé in northern Mexico.

Burial Practices and Ceremony

The Salado buried their dead in the ground, unlike the Hohokam who burned their dead. They placed bodies in graves lined with rocks or in shallow pits near their homes.

Early on, they both buried and burned their dead, showing their mixed heritage. Over time, burial became their main practice.

Besh-Ba-Gowah served as a place for ceremonies and storing food. The pueblo had spaces for community gatherings and religious events.

Defensive Features

Over time, Salado villages became more focused on defense. Besh-Ba-Gowah, with its single entrance corridor and tall walls, offered good protection.

Around 1350 CE, many Salado people left the Tonto Basin. Some moved to cliff houses in the Sierra Ancha Mountains where natural rock shelters added security.

Stone walls surrounded some Salado villages, a practice they learned from the Hohokam. They built on high ground near water, balancing safety with access to this vital resource.

Abandonment and Migration

After 1350 CE, Salado people began leaving the Tonto Basin area. By 1450 CE, they had completely left Besh-Ba-Gowah and nearby villages.

Several long droughts in the 1400s made farming harder. Dwindling resources and conflicts with other groups pushed them to find new homes.

Stories passed down by Native Americans tell where the Salado went. Some joined Hopi and Zuni pueblos to the north. Others moved west to the Salt River Valley or south toward the Rio Grande and Mexico.

Visiting Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park

Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park is at 1324 Jesse Hayes Road in Globe, Arizona. The park opens daily from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, except Mondays and Tuesdays during July through September.

Your admission fee includes access to the pueblo ruins, museum, and botanical gardens.

Explore the partially restored pueblo, climb ladders to second-story rooms, and browse nearly 600 artifacts in the museum. Don’t miss the ethnobotanical garden showcasing plants the Salado used in daily life.

The site is wheelchair accessible except for the botanical garden’s rougher terrain.

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