City of Globe – Besh Ba Gowah

BY KENNETH CHAN

A top-10 attraction in the Globe-Miami area, Besh Ba Gowah offers a not-to-be-missed immersive experience of ancient Southwestern history and culture. One of the most significant finds of Southwestern archaeology, these partially restored ruins allow visitors to walk among the corridors, plazas and buildings of a people who occupied the Globe and Tonto Basin area centuries before Columbus arrived in the New World.

The Besh complex comprises some 200 rooms, as well as ethnobotanical gardens where visitors can see how the Salado people grew and prepared food. The museum holds a significant collection of Salado pottery, textiles, and stone artifacts.

During the one-night-only Festival of Lights, thousands of luminarias light the walls, turning the ruins into a breathtaking place of magic and beauty. The Festival of Lights takes place every year in early or mid-December.

Besh was discovered and mapped in 1883 by the explorer Adolph Bandolier. Between 1935 and 1946, the pioneering female archaeologist Irene Vickrey supervised the site’s excavation, a project of the WPA. After Vickrey’s untimely death, the site experienced neglect and deterioration until the 1980s, when a Globe councilman, Louis Aguirre, intervened to ensure its reexcavation and reconstruction.

Besh Ba Gowah is located at 1324 S. Jesse Hayes Road. There is an admission fee, and the museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays in the summer. Although the ground within the ruins is unpaved and uneven, the site is wheelchair accessible. For more information, call the museum at (928) 425-0320.