Casa Grande Ruins Administrative History

CHAPTER VII: THE ONLY BIT OF TYPICAL DESERT LAND

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, human activity began to alter the Gila Valley landscape with an outcome that left Casa Grande Ruins National Monument as an island of natural desert growth in the midst of an agricultural community. Outside pressures from ranching followed by twentieth century farming and urban development have taken their toll on the monument flora and fauna and continue to threaten further degradation of the monument's natural vegetation and wildlife. Consequently, in the 1980s, the major issues of monument management have changed from ruins preservation to protection of the natural habitat.

A. The Natural Setting

In the centuries following the Hohokam abandonment of Casa Grande, desert vegetation and grass recaptured the land. Travelers in the last half of the nineteenth century could never have envisioned the modern-day scene of this area. At that time nearly all who passed through the valley were impressed with the desert growth and in particular with the tall mesquite. Henry Hanks, who accompanied some New Jersey geologists in 1879, noted that the mesquite hid the Great House until it had been nearly reached. Even by that date, however, the human element had begun to make a change. [1]

In 1869, when Ralph Norris surveyed the subdivision lines in Township 5 South, he noted that Section 16 had a cover of mesquite, greasewood, and grass. Norris thought that much of the township had an appearance of having been cultivated and, as a result, contained a large supply of "grammon" grass. Grass frequently becomes the first invader of previously disturbed soil and thereby controls the disbursement of other vegetation. Periodically, along the banks of the Gila, Norris found that Mexican families had already settled and were cultivating fields using water diverted from that river. By the early I 870s, however, the abundant grass attracted ranchers. Charles Clark, who visited Casa Grande in 1873 recorded the existence of Decker's ranch buildings along the Gila just north of the ruins. Although suffering occasional setbacks from drought, cattle ranching prospered in the monument area for about fifty years. Livestock, wandering over open range, proved to be a destructive nuisance to the ruins. The early custodians requested funds to fence the prehistoric remains to keep cattle away from them. They reported that livestock had damaged the ruins both by rubbing against them and walking over the mounds. Although the custodians only expressed a concern about ruins damage, the cattle also destroyed the natural vegetation. Cattle would be attracted to the shade provided by the taller ruins. As a result, the surrounding vegetation suffered from grazing and trampling. Frank Pinkley reported in 1902 that the range cattle had consumed all the forage within 100 yards of the Great House. Such intensive grazing on the monument not only destroyed the grass, but had an effect on other natural vegetation. The lack of grass allowed mesquite and creosote bush to spread and dominate the other vegetation. Consequently, some change would have begun to occur in the monument flora by the later part of the nineteenth century. Despite livestock damage to the natural vegetation, a 1912 description stated that the desert around Casa Grande "is rather well covered with trees, brush, shrubs, and in the spring a large variety of wild flowers. Among the trees, shrubs, and brush, are the mesquite, catclaw, creosote bush, salt bush sometimes called sage brush. Cactus is not very prominent immediately surrounding Casa Grande ...". Animal and bird life, however, were quite abundant. [2]

Although livestock grazing may have harmed the monument vegetation, the development of irrigated land and a population center on the monument's boundary led to even greater damage to the flora and fauna. The first sign that would lead to an even greater change in the monument's vegetation appeared in the 1880s. Farmers began to settle along the Gila River some twenty miles upstream from Casa Grande and, by building crude diversion dams, they obtained some of its water for irrigation. On their land they planted fruit trees, grapes, cereal grains, and alfalfa. In 1889 the Pinal County Board of Supervisors advocated that a permanent dam be built at the Buttes area, some fifteen miles east of Florence, to provide a water storage reservoir. The supervisors concluded that water from this source could be used to irrigate the whole Gila Valley. At the time that this promotional tract appeared, men had already begun to dream of constructing a permanent dam at that site. Irrigation water from a storage reservoir was not the only source of moisture. By the early part of the twentieth century, farmers realized that an immense amount of water lay at shallow depths under the whole Gila Valley. In 1916 in an effort to attract more farmers, the Pinal County Commissioner of Immigration wrote that many wells furnished a plentiful supply of irrigation water. [3]

Although the early farmers focused their irrigation efforts to the east of Florence, the arrival of more and more settlers, combined with the approval of the Coolidge Dam to store Gila River water, soon brought people to cultivate the land around Casa Grande. The approval of the San Carlos Irrigation District in 1924 led Frank Pinkley to write that "this irrigation district will surround our monument and the time may come when we will have the only bit of typical desert land in this part of the valley." [4]

In 1925, R. J. Jones, a Phoenix businessman, purchased eighty acres of land along a newly constructed line of the Southern Pacific Railroad and plotted it into a town site just southeast of the monument boundary. He named it after President Calvin Coolidge, who occupied the White House at the time. Many young married couples purchased property there. As a future omen, one of the first buildings constructed in the town was a cotton gin. When part of the boundary and subdivision lines of Township 5 South were resurveyed in 1928, the surveyor, Dupree Averill, noted that, in scattered areas throughout the township, land had just begun to be improved for irrigation. [5]

Once started, the development of irrigated land spread rapidly. In 1929, Edna Pinkley wrote that the desert around Casa Grande was disappearing quickly to be replaced by cotton, alfalfa, grapes, and lettuce. The following year, during a visit to the monument, Charles Peterson echoed Pinkley's earlier thoughts. He wrote that irrigation made possible by the Coolidge Dam would leave the monument acreage as an isolated area of desert flora among cultivated fields. It did not take long for Casa Grande to become a desert island. C. P. Russell observed in 1932 that agricultural development had affected the monument on all sides making it a bit of native desert preserved. Soon, spring winds carried soil from surrounding fields being prepared for cotton planting. These storms carried dust across the monument. [6]

Settlers continued to be attracted to Coolidge and its surrounding area after 1930. The period of greatest growth came between 1930 and 1945 as more and more irrigation took place. As it turned out, the storage reservoir behind Coolidge Dam could not supply sufficient water for an entire growing season. Consequently, the Indian Irrigation Service, San Carlos District, and farmers all drilled wells to obtain water when the reservoir ran dry. Pumping more and more water rapidly lowered the water table. This situation, in turn, caused farmers to drill their wells deeper. In a time of drought during 1947-48, the water shortage led to a sharp drop in the population growth rate. Rumors spread that the state legislature intended to control water use. Consequently, land speculators began to sink as many wells as possible before any regulation could take affect. When pumping began from these new wells in the spring of 1948, the water level in the monument well fell by ten feet. In the next year it had dropped an additional thirty to thirty-five feet. As usual, the state did nothing to regulate the water problem. Testimony at public hearings in June 1951 gave evidence that ground water was being removed thirty-seven times faster than it was being replaced. The state land commissioner stated that there were 539 wells functioning in the Gila and Santa Cruz River ground water basin. If that were not bad enough, he reported that he had received 395 new notices of intent to drill wells. It would take years and the abandonment of some land before any regulation was placed on the number of wells. [7]