Tonto National Monument consists of the ruins of two cliff dwellings established by the Salado Indians in about 1300 AD. The southeast-facing settlements were built quite high up a steep hillside within well-protected natural caves overlooking the Tonto Basin, which is now flooded forming Theodore Roosevelt Lake, though originally the Salt River flowed through the Basin which was therefore well irrigated and fertile. As with many other ancient peoples of the Southwest, the Salado appear to have abandoned their villages suddenly, early in the fifteenth century, for reasons which are not known. The national monument, which was established by President Roosevelt in December 1907, is located a few miles from state route 88 (The Apache Trail) and the shore of Theodore Roosevelt Lake, in a generally rocky and quite empty area that has extensive and varied cacti.
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