Casa Grande Ruins

The Casa Grande Ruins are located in the small town of Coolidge, about an hours drive from the campsite. Anyone that has spent time in the Sonoran Desert knows how harsh this land can be. Annual rainfalls averaging 8 inches and temperatures reaching 120 degrees F. For people living on this land centuries ago, daily chores presented daily challenges. Not only did they lack metal tools and wheeled vehicles they also had no burden animals.


Casa Grande Ruins

The first desert dwelling farmers of the southwest are called the "Hohokam". Irrigation was key to their success in this harsh desert. The Hohokam dug hundreds of miles of canals using stone-age tools allowing them to cultivate corn, beans, squash, cotton, tobacco, and more. This successful agricultural system lead to the building of civilizations, hence the Casa Grande Ruins. These ancient remains were built and used by the Hohokam from the 1200s and 1300s. The Hohokam used a material called caliche to build  their permanent dwellings. These ruins at one time had a 7 foot enclosure wall around the compound.

Several building existed within the compound

The grandest building within the compound was named Casa Grande, it stood 35 feet tall and contained 3,000 tons of caliche.

The remains of Casa Grande

Casa Grande contained beams of pine, fir, and juniper which were obtained from 50 miles away.

A replica of what Casa Grande was like

Researchers have found that the small circular windows in the upper left portion on Casa Grande's west wall aligns with the sun on the summer solstice. The square hole on the right aligns once every 18 1/2 years with the setting moon. Is this a type of calendar system for harvesting crops?

The best preserved wall of Casa Grande

Within a few generations after Casa Grande was built the Hohokam society declined. Compounds were abandoned and by the 1400s the Hohokam society ended. Reasons are unknown as to why this happened but it is thought that years of heavy flooding followed by years of drought damaged their canal system and consequently their crops. Today this is all that is left of a once thriving community.