Typically, we spend our winter months in Maricopa, AZ but have never visited the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument just less than 50 miles away.
We decided to see the ancient ruins built by the Hohokam or Ancestral Sonoran Desert People (ASDP) around 5,500 BC. The ASDP were hunters and gatherers at first but later became farmers and engineered one of the best water irrigation systems from the Gila River. The only tools they had were sticks and rocks. Yet, they were able to build a farming community of about 2,000 members for a hundred years as farmers. They also traded with other local tribes as well.
While this may not sound astonishing, you have to know the Arizona desert. Finding surface water is almost impossible, yet the community was able to thrive back then. The ASDP used every available resource around them, including building structures with cement-like materials called caliche.
Around 1,100 BC, villages became more formally organized. Caliche homes were grouped into caliche-walled compounds, and these compounds were arranged around public plazas and public structures. The Great House was built within one of these compounds. In 1932, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a steel shelter to protect the Great House from the harsh weather.
The summer temperatures can reach 120° F and cause cracking in the foundation. There was about a dozen members of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) or Native American Conservation Corps (NACC) organization that was applying caliche to the existing structures to prevent erosions. We watched several members mix the caliche while others carried buckets to apply on the surface.
There are many ancient pueblos in the southwestern United States, and this ruin is just one classic example. If you haven’t traveled through this portion of the country, be sure to check out some of the ruins along the way.