Casa Grande National Monument

The area around Casa Grande was occupied by Hohokam people who were highly successful agriculturist with extensive irrigation systems and a widespread trading network.

This rectangular structure stands 4 stories high and contains 11 rooms. An estimated 2,800 tons of mud went into the project, whose walls range in thickness from 4.5 ft at the base to 1.8 ft near the top. It was constructed primarily of caliche earth, a desert subsoil with high lime content that becomes brick-hard. Building Wood included ponderosa pine, white fir, juniper, and mesquite. The heavier timbers probably originated in mountain regions more than fifty miles distant, and the logs were probably floated down the Gila River. Over 600 roof beams were used, and at least 1,500 cubic yards of soil were set into the walls.

Archaeologists don't know the purpose of Casa Grande, but some speculate that it was used for ceremonies or astronomical observations; certain holes in the walls appear to line up with the sun at the summer solstice and possibly with the moon during certain lunar events. Hohokam Indians built Casa Grande around AD 1350. It has little resemblance to other Hohokam pueblos; Mexican cultures may have influenced its construction. By 1450 the Hohokam abandoned it along with all their villages. The Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino recorded the site in 1694, giving it the Spanish name for "Big House." The ruins became a landmark for subsequent exploratory expeditions as well as later travelers, frontiersmen, soldiers, settlers, and tourists. By 1880, the Southern Pacific Railroad had a station only twenty miles away from which regular tours were conducted to the site. The ruin had virtually no more protection from souvenir hunters and vandals than it did from the weather, and many artifacts were carried off.