The Verde Valley encompasses Sedona and the outlying areas of Rimrock, Lake Montezuma, Camp Verde, Cornville, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, and Jerome.
Geologically, the history began about 500 million years ago when the land was alternately ocean bottom and coastal plain. Sedimentary layers of sandstone formed and volcanic activity caused the Verde Valley to down fault into a deep basin with lakebeds, creating the Mogollon Rim (pronounced moh-gee-on) which today, you can see as the horse shoe shaped rim spanning the north end of Sedona and the Verde Valley. This is also the South end of the Colorado Plateau.
3 Million years ago, the Colorado Plateau uplifted, and erosion by wind, rain, and snow melt created Oak Creek Canyon and exposed layers of red rock formations surrounding Sedona.
Archaeologists estimate human presence in the Verde Valley began about 800 B.C., and the hunting gathering lifestyle continued until 600-700 A.D. During this time, the Hohokam, a skillful farming people who were experts in irrigation procedures, moved into the Valley. Following the Hohokam, the Sinagua (pronounced sin-a-wah, meaning without water) emerged between 900 and 1350 A.D., and built pueblo and cliff dwellings. Sinagua were proficient farmers and potters; they established trade routes with the Anasazi to the north, and the Hohokam to the South, and had an acute understanding of astronomy. The Sinaguan built Palatki and Honanki near Sedona where the ruins stand today. The villages at Montezuma Castle (35 rooms near Montezuma Well) and Tuzigoot (over 100 rooms in Clarkdale) reached their present size in the 1300s. All were mysteriously abandoned in the early 1400s. Soon after, the Yavapai - which are thought to be descendents of the Sinagua and Hohokam - and Apache people began to occupy this area.
The Yavapai were in the Valley when Captain Antonio de Espejo and his band of Spanish conquistadors arrived looking for "great riches" in the Verde Valley in 1583.
U.S. military occupation of the Verde Valley began with Fort Verde in 1865 to protect settlers farming along the Verde River. Western Mining and farming disrupted the lives of the Tonto Apache and the Yavapai Tribes, and the late 1860s and early 1870s saw major conflicts in the Valley. In 1875, The Yavapai and Apache were forcibly removed to the San Carlos Reservation in East Central Arizona. The Seven Sacred Pools in Sedona was just one place the Calvary ambushed the Apache under the orders of General George Crook.
Camp Lincoln was located one mile north of Fort Verde's present site, and was used from 1866-1871. Posts at Clear Creek junction (five miles south of Camp Verde.) were abandoned in 1891.
Today, a reservation of 448 acres near Camp Verde exists for the Yavapai and Apache people.
Local citizens began a museum in the Fort Verde administration building in 1956 and donated several buildings to create Fort Verde State Historical Park in 1970, in Camp Verde.