Archaeologists have found evidence that people likely used the canyon seasonally for thousands of years prior to the Sinagua people arriving around the year 600.
Initially building one-room pit houses near their fields of corn, beans and squash on the canyon’s rim, the Sinagua began inhabiting the canyon itself around 1125. Using roughly shaped limestone rocks, clay cement and wood beams, the Sinagua people built over 300 cliff dwellings in the limestone cliff’s shallow alcoves. These shallow alcoves were carved by wind and water in several layers of the softer limestone in the canyon wall, leaving the overhanging harder limestone layers as the dwelling ceilings. They stayed for about 125 years before moving on, most likely due to changes in the climate that reduced the amount of water available to grow crops.
Occupied until approximately 1250 CE, the Sinagua people were experts in growing crops and living in an arid environment. There are nearly 400 species of plants that they relied upon, including the Arizona black walnut and Prickly Pear cactus. The rims are forested with Ponderosa pine and Gambel oak, along with pinyon and juniper.
The Hopi called this place Sawayava, which translates to place of the bats, according to staff at the Museum of Northern Arizona. The community that was created here during the late 12th century was huge, as there were "more total cliff dwelling rooms than can be found at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park," wrote Christian E. Downum in Walnut Canyon: Centennial, Natural History, Archaeology, and Beyond, a 2016 publication.
"The architectural remains of Walnut Canyon tell a story of people connected to, yet distinct from, their neighbors," wrote Downum. "The canyon's rooms and adjacent archaeological sites continue to yield small but valuable clues to ancient daily life and deep history. Walnut Canyon's cliff dwellings can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, but it seems clear they embody a particular era much different fromthe simpler time that came before, and profoundly distinct from the era or turmoil and transformations that would later unfold."
Along the trail that leads you down from the visitor center into the canyon, it’s a simple matter to imagine life in these canyons; hauling water from the creek, tending fields on the rim, and sheltering from cold winds inside these stone rooms. Since the rooms were built under limestone overhangs, there are no roof beams, and they were also constructed with a front stone porch. Inside the visitor center a wall-to-floor glass wall lets you gaze down into the 400-foot deep canyon.
Ironically, sin agua is Spanish for “without water” – a tribute to this civilization’s ability to live in a very dry climate.
With the construction of the railroad nearby in the 1880s, Walnut Canyon became a popular destination; scores of “pot-hunters” streamed into the canyon. Armed with shovels and dynamite, these souvenir-seekers upturned ancient floors, toppled enduring walls, and desecrated graves.
The theft and destruction alarmed local citizens and led to establishment of Walnut Canyon National Monument in 1915. Remnants of the canyon’s past were protected first by the US Forest Service, then (since 1934) by the National Park Service.
This park has long been easily accessible to cross-country travelers. In 1915 a spur road to the monument was designated part of the National Old Trails Highway, also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway. That route stretched for 3,095 miles across the U.S. and Walnut Canyon became a short detour from this major transcontinental route.
The original Walnut Canyon Visitor Center was built from local stone by the CCC in 1940. It's still there, as part of the expanded building in use today. A stone restroom constructed by the CCC that same year was renovated in 2006 and put back into use.
