Casa Grande Ruin | Page 3

mound north of it. He gave a short history of the ruin and
quite an extended account of the Pima traditions concerning it. He
considered the Casa Grande a stronghold or fortress, a place of last
resort, the counterpart, functionally, of the blockhouse of the early
settlers of eastern United States.
[Footnote 1: Papers Archæol. Inst. of Amer., Amer. ser., iv, Cambridge,
1892, p. 453 et sec.]
In 1888 Mr. F. H. Cushing presented to the Congrès International des
Américanistes[1] some "Preliminary notes" on his work as director of
the Hemenway southwestern archeological expedition. Mr. Cushing did
not describe the Casa Grande, but merely alluded to it as a surviving

example of the temple, or principal structure, which occurred in
conjunction with nearly all the settlements studied. As Mr. Cushing's
work was devoted, however, to the investigation of remains analogous
to, if not identical with, the Casa Grande, his report forms a valuable
contribution to the literature of this subject, and although not everyone
can accept the broad inferences and generalizations drawn by Mr.
Cushing--of which he was able, unfortunately, to present only a mere
statement--the report should be consulted by every student of
southwestern archeology.
[Footnote 1: Berlin meeting, 1888; Compte-Rendu, Berlin, 1890, p. 150
et seq.]
The latest contribution to the literature of the Casa Grande is a report
by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes,[1] also of the Hemenway expedition, under
the title "On the present condition of a ruin in Arizona called Casa
Grande." Two magnificent illustrations are presented, engravings from
photographs, showing general views of the ruin, as well as a number of
views depicting details, and the ground plan presented at the end of the
report is the best so far published. It is unfortunate that this author was
not able to give more time to the study of the ruin; yet his report is a
valuable contribution to our knowledge concerning the Casa Grande.
[Footnote 1: Jour. of Amer. Ethn. and Arch., Cambridge, 1892, vol. ii,
page 179 et seq.]

DESCRIPTION.
THE CASA GRANDE GROUP.
The Casa Grande has been variously placed at from 2 leagues to 2
miles south of Gila river. The writer has never traversed the distance
from the ruin to the river, but the ruin is about a mile from Walker
ranch, which is well known in that neighborhood, and about half a mile
from the river. This question, however, is not of much importance, as
the ruin is easily found by anyone looking for it, being located directly

on one of the stage routes from Casa Grande station, on the Southern
Pacific railroad, to Florence, Arizona, and about 9 miles below, or west
of, the latter place.
The name Casa Grande has been usually applied to a single structure
standing near the southwestern corner of a large area covered by
mounds and other débris, but some writers have applied it to the
southwestern portion of the area and even to the whole area. The latter
seems the proper application of the term, but to avoid confusion, where
both the settlement as a whole and that portion which has formed the
theme of so many writers are referred to, the settlement will be
designated as the Casa Grande group, and the single structure with
standing walls as the Casa Grande ruin.
Probably no two investigators would assign the same limits to the area
covered by the group, as the margins of this area merge imperceptibly
into the surrounding country. The accompanying map (plate LI) shows
this area as interpreted by the writer. The surface covered by well
defined remains, as there shown, extends about 1,800 feet north and
south and 1,500 feet east and west, or a total area of about 65 acres.
[Illustration: Pl. LI: Map of Casa Grande Group.]
The Casa Grande ruin, as the term is here used, occupies a position near
the southwestern corner of the group, and it will be noticed that its size
is insignificant as compared with that of the entire group, or even with
the large structure in the north-central part of it. The division of the
group into northern and southern portions, which has been made by
some writers, is clearly shown on the map; but this division is more
apparent than real. The contour interval on the map is one foot--a
sufficiently small interval to show the surface configuration closely and
to bring out some of its peculiarities. Depressions are shown by dotted
contours. It will be noticed that while most of the mounds which mark
the sites of former structures rise but 10 feet or less above the
surrounding level, the profiles vary considerably, some being much
more smoothed off and rounded than others, the former being shown on
the map by even, "flowing" contours, while the latter are more irregular;