Casa Grande Ruin | Page 9

close inspection of the general map will show that Font's inference is hardly justified by the condition of the remains today. It seems more likely that the area in question was covered by groups of buildings and rows of rooms, connected by open courts, and forming an outline sometimes regular for a considerable distance, but more often irregular, after the manner of pueblo structures today. The long north and south ridge which forms the southeastern corner of the area, with other ridges extending westward, is quite wide on top, wide enough to accommodate a single row of rooms of the same width as those of the ruin, and it is hardly reasonable to suppose that a wall would be built 10 or 12 feet wide when one of 4 feet would serve every purpose to which it could possibly be put. Furthermore, the supposition of an inclosing wall does not leave any reasonable explanation of the transverse ridges above mentioned, nor of the long ridge which runs southward from the southeastern corner of the ruin.
The exterior walls rise to a height of from 20 to 25 feet above the ground. This height accommodated two stories, but the top of the wall is now 1 to 2 feet higher than the roof level of the second story. The middle room or space was built up three stories high and the walls are now 28 to 30 feet above the ground level. The tops of the walls, while rough and much eroded, are approximately level. The exterior surface of the walls is rough, as shown in the illustrations, but the interior walls of the rooms are finished with a remarkable degree of smoothness, so much so as to attract the attention of everyone who has visited the ruin. Mange, who saw the ruin with Padre Font in 1697, says the walls shine like Puebla pottery, and they still retain this finish wherever the surface has not cracked off. This fine finish is shown in a number of illustrations herewith. The walls are not of even thickness. At the ground level the exterior wall is from 3? to 4? feet thick, and in one place at the southern end of the eastern wall, is a trifle over 5 feet thick. The interior walls are from 3 to 4 feet thick at base. At the top the walls are reduced to about 2 feet thick, partly by setbacks or steps at the floor levels, partly by exterior batter, the interior wall surface being approximately vertical. Some writers, noting the inclination of the outer wall surface, and not seeing the interior, have inferred that the walls leaned considerably away from the perpendicular. This inference has been strengthened, in some cases, by an examination of the interior, for the inner wall surface, while finely finished, is not by any means a plane surface, being generally concave in each room; yet a line drawn from floor level to floor level would be very nearly vertical. The building was constructed by crude methods, thoroughly aboriginal in character, and there is no uniformity in its measurements. The walls, even in the same room, are not of even thickness, the floor joists were seldom on a straight line, and measurements made at similar places, e.g., the two ends of a room, seldom agree.
[Illustration: Pl. LV: West Front of Casa Grande Ruin.]
A series of precise measurements gives the following results: Outside eastern wall, at level 3 feet above center of depressed area adjoining the ruin on the east, 59 feet; western wall at same level, 59 feet 1 inch; northern and southern walls, at same level, 42 and 43 feet respectively. These measurements are between points formed by the intersection of the wall lines; the northeastern and southeastern corners having fallen, the actual length of standing wall is less. At the level stated the northern wall measures but 34 feet 4 inches, and the southern wall 36 feet 10 inches. A similar irregularity is found in the interior measurements of rooms. The middle room is marked by an exceptional departure from regularity in shape and dimensions. Both the east and west walls are bowed eastward, making the western wall convex and the eastern wall concave in reference to the room.
Precise measurements of the middle room at the second floor level, 8 feet above the base previously stated, are as follows: Eastern side, 24 feet 8? inches; western side, 24 feet 2 inches; northern side, 9 feet 3? inches; southern side, 9 feet 1 inch. The eastern room is a little more regular, but there is a difference of 11 inches between the measurements of the northern and southern ends. A similar difference is found in the western room, amounting there to 6 inches. The northern and southern rooms do not afford