Irrigation Communities

This map from our Visitor Center exhibits show some of the extensive prehistoric canals associated with the Casa Grande.

NPS

The walled compound where you are standing was just one community of a network of communities that were built along canal systems. An eagle flying high over this Gila River Valley 1,000 years ago would have seen dozens of villages with wide, irrigated fields.

Extended families usually shared rooms and open areas within a compound like the one you are in now. Several compounds grouped together made up a village. Villages along a network of canals worked together to keep the irrigation water flowing into the fields.

The largest villages were often found at beginning or end of canals. At these sites you will find ball courts, platform mounds and sometimes structures like the Casa Grande. Large sites were gathering places where people celebrated ceremonies and harvests.

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PDF of the wayside (26,450 KB) is available.

 

• Canal Controls

  
  

  Dr. Jerry Howard, archeologist and curator of anthropology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, explains why the ruins are located just as they are.

  Credit / Author:

  NPS, movie outtakes, thanks to volunteer editor Jenise Cook

  Date created:

  10/14/2020

  Audio Transcript

  My name is Doctor Jerry Brian Howard. I was curator of anthropology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I am an archeologist.

  There were 3 thriving centers for this culture in the Classic Period. Three fantastic sites. And to my mind they are all located at the head the canal system controlling the water. Pueblo Grande and Mesa Grande on the Salt River and Casa Grande on the Gila River. Each of these communities shared 2 things in common. One was that they were located in areas where they could probably control the water in the irrigation systems. They controlled the water, the lifeline for the other communities, the other villages. They also contained 3 great structures. Platform mounds or in this case the unique structure, the Great House at Casa Grande.