Casa Grande Ruin | Page 9

partly across it. This area is doubtless the one measured
in 1776, by Padre Font, whose description, was copied by later writers,
and whose measurements were applied by Humboldt and others to the
ruin itself. Font gave his measurements as those of a circumscribing
wall, and his inference has been adopted by many, in fact most, later
writers. A circumscribing wall is an anomalous feature, in the
experience of the writer, and a 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 3½ to 4½ 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