The monument features the archaeological site Snaketown 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Phoenix, Arizona,[6] designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

[7] The museum at the nearby Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, in Coolidge, Arizona, contains artifacts from Snaketown.

Early in the Classic Period (1150 CE – 1400/1450) the community of Snaketown, once apparently central to the broader Hohokam culture, was suddenly abandoned.

The Hohokam were farmers, even though they lived in an area with dry sandy soil, rugged volcanic mountains and slow running rivers.

The Hohokam made the sandy soil fertile by channeling water from the local river through a series of man-made canals.

Most of the population lived in pit houses, carefully dug rectangular depressions in the earth with branch and mud adobe walls supported by log sized corner posts.

These pit houses were similar to those constructed by the neighboring Mogollon pueblo people, but were larger in size and made with a more shallow depression.

Paul Sidney Martin and Fred Plog[6] argued that these were the Ootam people, which was a subdivision of the Cochise culture.

[10] Archaeologist Brian Fagan dates Hohokam culture to 500 CE,[11] and sums up the situation by stating that there are simply two separate schools of thought on the subject.

Snaketown derives its name from another O’odham word meaning “place of snakes” and is considered to be one of the larger Hohokam settlements.

The site of Snaketown is positioned on the Gila River and the community is estimated to have been 250 acres in size at its maximum extent, with much more farmland and smaller settlements surrounding it.

[11] It has been estimated that in the Hohokam era, canals were built in this area up to seven miles (11 km) long, providing water for 70,000 acres of land.

They began to grow new crops such as agave and tobacco and, although maize farmers, they most likely subsidized their diet with small amounts of hunting and gathering.

These houses were home to small groups of extended families [13] Snaketown was first excavated in 1934 by the Gila Pueblo Foundation, under the direction of Harold S. Gladwin.

Industries producing pottery and shell jewellery also existed and the settlement had trade links with Mesoamerican societies, evidenced by copper bells and figurines.

Winifred and Harold Gladwin began the intensive study of Hohokam culture with the help of Emil Haury.

[15] Haury eventually returned to Snaketown in 1964 as a result of new data discovered by the works of Charles Di Peso and Albert Schroeder on Hohokam culture at other sites.

Haury cites over-irrigation leading to soil depletion as a possibility for its fall, but still contends that abandonment also occurred in nearby cultures that were less dependent on irrigation.