The Singuara Indians built the cliff dwellings and lived here from 1200 - 1400AD. About 100 people occupied this place. They used a series of ladders to get up to their homes from the creek and farmland below. The ladders could be raised for protection. The site was named Montezuma in error by early Spanish explorers who thought that it was built by the Aztecs.
It is a mystery why the Indians left this and other cliff dwellings in Arizona and Utah. It is speculated that it was a severe drought that made them move to better land, or enemies, or disease - but no one really knows why cliff dwellings were all abandoned about the same time.