Well, first of all, Arizona, as a state has only been around since February 14, 1912 and so the ancient inhabitants didn't actually live in Arizona, as such. But, it seems like every exhibit, TV show or magazine article about the original indigenous inhabitants refers to their disappearance and has to say that it was a mysterious disappearance. For example, if you do a Google search on "mysterious disappearance ancient inhabitants Arizona" you will get thousands of resultant Websites. Whether you visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument or any of the other ruins, you will always see a reference to the mystery. Speaking of Casa Grande, one mystery is why the National Monument is right across the street from a Walmart.
Regarding the issue of a mystery, first of all, there were a lot of inhabitants in Arizona when the Europeans first came in about 1528. What isn't a mystery, is that shortly after the first European contact, smallpox and other diseases decimated the native population. Estimates run as high as 75% to 90% of the population killed throughout the North American Continent. This is a historical fact that seems to mostly escape the speculation as to what happened to the native population. It is really no mystery that by the time European settlers started to colonize what is now the Southwestern part of the U.S., there were comparatively few natives left. When was the last time you read about the epidemics decimating the native population in one of your history books?
The other speculative reasons for the apparent abandonment of the indigenous ruins are drought, warfare among the tribes and migrations for social or other reasons. The only real mystery is why everyone thinks it is a mystery. It might also have been a good idea to ask the Indians at the time as to what happened to the early inhabitants, but that didn't seem to occur to any of the early explorers. By the way, there has been a recent dramatic increase in the number of Indians counted by the U.S. Census.
There are dozens of Indian ruins and petroglyph sites in Arizona. It is extremely interesting to visit them. I will come back to this topic again and again.
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