Casa Grande

We moved from Yuma today about 180 miles East to Casa Grande. This town was named for the ruins found about 20 miles North of here. When the Spanish arrived in 1600, they found a ruin of a village centered around a huge house (Casa Grande). the building was at least 3 stories tall with rooms of unknown use. Over the centuries, the building has deteriorated but you can still tell it was huge for the era when it was built.

Archaeologists have worked the site for most of the 20th century and have pieced together that a civilization known as Hohokam. They settled this area around 300 AD and built the Big House around 1100. They seemed to have knowledge like the Mexican civilizations: irrigation canals, large building engineering, and calendar knowledge with view ports in the Big House for sun solstice and moon events. They ma be related to the Pueblos. Anyway, they built the Casa Grande from Caliche (KA Lee Che) which is calcium carbonate and is found as hard pan here in the Sonora desert. They in effect made concrete and poured the mixture into 2 foot sections right on the walls they were building. They did not use blocks or bricks as is done with adobe. I was amazed to see their efforts. I had never heard of them.