This week, the theme is ‘ruin’ or ruined. Since we’re both history buffs around here, we always find ways of driving around where we live and tour the ruins. When we resided in Arizona it was/and is a great state to just take a road, any road, and you’ll find a lot of historical value. Some quite unknown to ‘tourists’. But this particular ruin is quite famous to those who know the Sonoran Desert Area….
Between the two Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson, just off Interstate 10, you come upon a small town known as Casa Grande [pronounced CAWsa GRAWNday]. And on the outskirts of the small burg, as you drive with cotton fields on either side of you, you will find some Native American Ruins. The photos here that I scanned from my Arizona Albums shows you the “Big House”, which if you’re able to speak or read and comprehend Spanish, it’s Casa Grande. It is under the roofed shelter for the sole purpose of protecting it against the monsoon season for the fact that the fierce rains and high winds would play a significant part in its erosion.
It is now a National Monument of great historical value in the Southwest United States….
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….and now, the history lesson:
Pictured here is the Casa Grande, or “Big House,” as it may have appeared around 1350 C.E. One of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America, its purpose remains as much a mystery as the people who built it. Archeologists have discovered evidence of wide-scale irrigation farming and trade which lasted over a thousand years and ended about 1450. Today the ancient ones are remembered as the “Hohokam,” [pronounced ho HOKE um] an O’odham [pronounced oh OH dum] word meaning “Those Who Are Gone.”
The Hohokam abandoned the Casa Grande area around 1450 C.E., leaving no written language behind. Historic accounts of the Casa Grande begin with the journal entries of Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino when he visited the ruins in 1694. In his description of the large ancient structure before him, he wrote the words “casa grande” (or “great house”) which are still used today. [Padre Kino pictured] read more…..
