The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is home to a Hohokam community compound dating back to the 1300s.The Casa Grande Ruins are located in Arizona, southeast of Phoenix in the Gila River valley, immediately north of Coolidge. They are Native American ruins with an enigmatic history. The Casa Grande Ruins’ mystique is enhanced because Casa Grande was either a gathering spot for the desert people or a waypoint marker in a vast system of canals and trading partners.President Benjamin Harrison designated Casa Grande Ruins as the first prehistoric ruin to be protected by the United States Government in 1892. The purpose of one of the largest prehistoric buildings ever created in North America is unknown.Facts About Casa Grande RuinsThe Casa Grande Ruins in Arizona, surrounded by a low earthen wall and several agricultural canals, could have served as a municipal hub or was used as a residence. This monument has a four-story dirt pueblo that has survived for centuries to give us a glimpse into America’s prehistoric past, unaware of the actual purpose.Casa Grande Ruins is the sole pre-Columbian structure of its kind, still standing.In the tourist center of the National Monument, there is a museum with local antiquities.Casa Grande Ruins consists of the ruins of multiple structures surrounded by the compound wall built by the ancient people of the Hohokam period.There is another monument near the Casa Grande Ruins, which is the Hohokam Pima National Monument (formed in 1972), located 20 mi (32 km) northwest of Casa Grande and covers 2.6 sq mi (6.7 sq km).Casa Grande Ruins was protected in 1903 by a corrugated iron roof supported by redwood timbers.The Casa Grande roof is as famous as the Ruins themselves.The roof also has a water drainage system, a grounded lightning rod, and hurricane-force wind resistance.On August 3, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson re-designated this site as a National Monument. The President then passed the control of the structure over to the NPS (National Park Service).New buildings were built to house park operations and a visitor center building along with the parking lot.Picacho Peak State Park, Roosevelt Lake in Sonoran Desert National Monument is a volcanic peak in the Sonoran desert.This building became the world’s largest awning, standing at 69 ft (21 m) tall and covering over 8,000 sq ft (743.2 sq m).Casa Grande Ruins was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, along with all other historical areas managed by the NPS.Historic adobes from the past, the ‘Civilian Conservation Corps’ constructed several adobe buildings to serve as lodging and administrative offices for the national monument between 1937 and 1940.The adobe buildings, built using traditional methods, are still used today and are registered as historical places. Thanks to diligent conservation efforts, Casa Grande Ruins’ physical look has been preserved.Casa Grande Ruins is a year-round golf destination with good conditions at various local courses. People take a bike ride, hike, or perhaps a farm or dairy tour.Casa Grande Ruins was the country’s first archaeological site to receive federal protection and stabilization funding.The native name for the Casa Grande Ruins is Sivan Vahkih.Modern-day cotton fields surround the monument.Archeological Facts About Casa Grande RuinsArcheologists were unable to identify the actual reason for the building of Casa Grande Ruins. This magnificent protective structure will likely outlast the ruins built to safeguard it.The ancient Sonorans who built Casa Grande Ruins did not have a written language; they left no documents when they abandoned it.There are different walls or sides of this monument. The west wall and the east side of Casa Grande Ruins are prominent.Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino visited Casa Grande in 1694 and wrote about it. The spectacular structure was named ‘Casa Grande,’ or ‘Great House.‘Archeologists have found evidence that the ancient desert people (Sonorans) who made this also developed extensive trade connections and wide-scale irrigation farming, which lasted for over a thousand years.The term ‘Hohokam’ is given to a place with earthen buildings, red on buff pottery, and large canals by archaeologists; however, it is not the name of a tribe or people.The monument is named after the Gila River valley’s greatest Hohokam structure.The west wall of Compound A may be seen to the west side of the monument, which is 419 ft (127.7 m) and 6 in (15.2 cm) long. Many one-story rooms were built along this wall on the inside of the compound.The term Casa Grande is derived from Spanish.The monument is made of caliche, a porous substance bonded with calcium carbonate.Casa Grande Ruins’ HistoryCasa Grande Ruins is a spiritually significant location. It is mentioned frequently in oral traditions and provides a tangible remembrance of ancestors who lived long ago.The Casa Grande Ruins was re-designated as a national monument on August 3, 1918.This site is situated between Phoenix and Tucson in Pinal County, in the state of Arizona.The spectacular Casa Grande (big house), a four-story unreinforced clay structure, towers over the ruins of a walled compound excavated by Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino in 1694.It is the last pre-Columbian building built by Salado Indians, a Pueblo tribe, in the early 14th century.The Casa Grande was built around A.D. 1300-1350, nearly 700 years ago.The actual purpose of Casa Grande Ruins is unknown.The Casa Grande, or ‘Big House,’ is a four-story structure of unreinforced clay (caliche).It preserves the Hohokam structures dating to the classic period of 1150-1450 C.E.The original name of Casa Grande was Terminus, but it was renamed Casa Grande in 1880 to honor the prehistoric ruins found 19 mi (30.6 km) away.Apart from Spanish missionaries and other Indian people, the area was not revisited until the 1880s. Facts About The Domes And MonumentsCasa Grande Ruins is known as one of the largest ancient structures in the United States. Casa Grande Ruins site contains a ball court, a common feature in many of the sites in the area. It was used for a standardized ball game in the area, which is present near the parking lot towards the north of the monument.Visitors are not permitted inside the ‘Great House’ due to its fragile nature.Casa Grande Ruins were proclaimed by Casa Grande Reservation on June 22, 1892, becoming the first cultural reserve in the U.S.In 1932, the main building of the visitor center, the nearby parking area and entrance road, and a new steel shelter roof over the Casa Grande was finished.Casa Grande Ruins consists of outer rooms surrounding an inner structure.At four stories tall, this is one of the largest structures known to have been built.Casa Grande’s domes were built in the late ’70s and early ’80s to help with computer production, but they were never finished.Despite being scheduled to be demolished, the Casa Grande domes remain standing.People visit this monument for a change from their busy lives, and they also explore the Picacho Peak State Park, which is nearby.
The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is home to a Hohokam community compound dating back to the 1300s.
