Abandoned

We were surveying a finger ridge in the San Pedro Valley, four of us, in the usual survey mode. It was about 10 minutes before we were to stop for the day and return to the car.

I had a rock wall!

I called to my crewmates, “Hey come see this!”

No response. I call again. Nothing.

I turned to go to the ridge edge to find my crew and I stumbled onto another rock wall.

At the edge of the ridge and far below me I saw my crew walking down the dirt road towards the car.

They had abandoned me!

“Hey! I yelled to them. “I have something.”

One yelled back to me, “Do we need to come back up?”

“Yes.” I shouted back.

Disgusted, they returned.

The crew chief looked at the rock walls and determined them to be a reservoir-not much of anything.

Weeks later Alan D. asked me to be on his crew, as he wanted to investigate the rock walls I found.

He determined them to be a dried laid masonry ballcourt, Hohokam culture 800-1000AD, the only one found to date in southeast Arizona. All ballcourts to date have been of dirt bermed style.

This ballcourt has been named for me.

Not a bad ending for me, the product of abandonment!