Total Actual Cost: $1,409,786
Project Number: CSUCOYOTE
Funding Sources: 2004 General Obligation Bonds, US Fish & Wildlife Service
Completion Date: March 2005
Managing Dept.: Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation
Project Map: GIS Map
Old Hayhook Ranch, located at the base of the Coyote Mountains in Altar Valley, is comprised of a number of old homestead claims and associated ranchlands located adjacent to the Coyote Wilderness Area and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Several parcels of the Old Hayhook Ranch were purchased by Pima County in 2005 from a private landowner for its outstanding natural and cultural resources.
In addition to its cultural values, it was determined to have high habitat value for more than 20 vulnerable species and the land includes a portion of a complex of Hohokam villages considered to be ancestral sites to the Tohono O’odham. The 839 acres parcel was consequently designated a high priority conservation area for acquisition to preserve these values. Historic Preservation bonds and a Recovery Land Acquisition Grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service funded the acquisition.
Long-recognized for its exceptional natural, cultural and archaeological values, this area of the Coyote Mountains contains a portion of a significant archaeological complex of 39 sites situated in the lower mountain environment. Settled since Archaic times, the majority of the prehistoric occupation in the area dates to the Hohokam Sedentary and Classic periods (A.D. 1100 – 1450). During the Classic Period, the Hohokam community appears to have centered on a number of large village sites with compound walls and platform mounds. Additional sites include smaller occupation sites, farmsteads, agricultural areas, resource gathering and processing sites, and rock art sites. Together these sites comprise and ancestral site complex of the Tohono O’odham Nation and reflect an intact cultural landscape of Hohokam settlement and land use. This land will be managed in perpetuity to protect its exceptional habitat and cultural values and to preserve intact the Coyote Mountains archaeological complex.
