Casa Grande Ruins Administrative History

All of the "curiosities" removed from the site evidently whetted Charles Poston for more. As Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Arizona, he wrote to his superior in Washington, D.C. that he and Browne had just visited a ruin that had been built by a "very superior civilization." Since remnants of stone and earthenware were strewn for miles around it, Poston thought,

if some excavations could be made about this old ruin it might lead to the discovery of relics throwing some light on this obscure subject.

A considerable examination might be made for an expenditure of five hundred dollars if done under supervision of the Indian Agent at the Pima Villages or some officer of the government stationed in the vicinity. [16]

Poston's recommendation was the first plan advanced for an archeological excavation, but nothing came of this proposal. He never wrote of returning to Casa Grande to "recover" more "curiosities."

By the late 1860s and early 1870s more people came to view the Great House ruins and non-Native American settlers began to farm and ranch along the Gila River. When Ralph Norris surveyed the interior township lines for Township 5 South, Range 8 East during the summer of 1869, he noted four Mexican families farming along the Gila within several miles of Casa Grande. It was possible that they used some of the old Hohokam canals to irrigate their fields. Obtaining water from the Gila adjacent to their fields would have proved difficult, for Bartlett reported in 1853 that the river bank north of Casa Grande was some fifteen feet above the water. John Devine erroneously reported later that, when he visited the ruins in the 1860s, the Great House had five complete stories and the floor joists were in place and perfect. Visitors for more than 160 years had never found the ruins in such condition. It certainly was not in that pristine form when Charles Clark rode to the ruins in 1873. To investigate the interior of the Great House, Clark crawled through a door opening which was nearly filled to the top with debris. Some Indians interrupted him as he was trying to remove one of the floor joist remains from a wall. He remained hidden in the ruins and watched as they took his food and the bridle from his horse before departing. Clark spent the night in the Casa Grande in fear of the Indians' return. When none had reappeared by the next day, he rode to "Decker's ranch" on the Gila River just north of the ruins. Clark's Indian experience did not stop him from returning the next year. This time he was accompanied by a Professor Hodge from Ann Torbar [Ann Arbor?], Michigan. The two men crawled back into the ruin where they removed two charred stubs of floor joists from a wall. Just as Clark and the professor were preparing to dig in the center part of the Great House, a representative of the Indian agent at Sacaton arrived and told them that the Pima would not permit digging in the Casa Grande. As a result, they packed their equipment and left. Subsequent Indian agents at nearby Sacaton did not take as much interest in the ruins and artifact removal ultimately became a common practice. [17]

Scholastic interest in Casa Grande did not end with Professor Hodge of Michigan. Educational and scientific inquisitiveness about the ruins developed in the 1870s. To stimulate the curiosity of school children, a January 1877 issue of the Juvenile Instructor carried an article on the Great House. The first real scientific investigation of the ruins occurred in April 1879. Led by Henry Hanks, an assemblage of New Jersey geologists including Professor George Cook set out to explore and document Casa Grande. Hanks wrote his impressions of the countryside and the ruin. As they rode west from Florence, the party found the ground to be covered with broken pottery. Although the mesquite trees were low, they hid the Great House until the group was almost at the site. As he approached the Casa Grande, Hanks was disappointed. He found that his romanticized image of a stately building, that he had gained from published descriptions, did not hold true. Hanks wrote that one saw

only a huge dun colored, almost shapeless mass, looming up strangely from the desolate plain. There is nothing architectural about the structure. It is, at best, but a mud house; though, as he examines it more closely, it seems more and more wonderful, and the mind is filled with conjecture as to the uses to which this great building may have been put, and why it stands so lonely and isolated. [18]

Professor Cook took samples of the wall material from the Great House. Analysis of this soil showed the walls contained seventeen percent carbonate of lime. This amount of lime led to the speculation on how the prehistoric inhabitants had obtained it. Some thought that it could have come from sea shells from the Gulf of California, but this solution was ruled impossible since that much lime could not have been carried that distance. Others believed that the soil had a high degree of calcium, but most decided that the lime was burned with the building material. [19]

While at the ruins, Hanks, with the group of New Jersey scholars, took exact measurements of the Casa Grande. Its walls were 3.7 feet thick. The highest point was thirty-five feet although it was thought to have originally been four or five stories. The central series of rooms were still one story higher than the outer walls. Its length was 58.5 feet with a forty-three-foot width. A check of its alignment showed that the structure was almost, but not quite in line with the cardinal points. Some parts of the building's exterior were still smooth while other areas had cavities. Years of rain storms and natural sand blasts had taken a toll. Interior walls showed signs of a fire from long ago, but the rafter ends were preserved in the walls. When Hanks and the group removed some of these rafter ends, they could see that blunt instruments had been used to cut them. [20]

The New Jersey group conjectured about the uses made of the Great House. Some offered the idea that it had been a grain warehouse since the irrigation canals led them to believe that the original inhabitants had raised extensive amounts of crops. Further thought led to the conclusion that the small floor rafters would not hold the weight of much grain. One individual decided it served as a temple, but he changed his mind because the small, multiple rooms with a great number of doors and "port-holes" ruled against such a function. In the end, the party determined that all speculation was absurd because no clue remained of its use. Their only hope was that the building be preserved before vandals carried it off piece by piece. People had already dug in and around the structure. Hanks thought that the territorial legislature needed to pass a law soon to protect the Great House, but neither he nor any member of the group made an effort to communicate with the legislature. [21]

Less than six months after the New Jersey party departed, the Phoenix Herald reported that Indian Inspector Hammond had spent several days at Casa Grande making "careful and scientific examination" of the ruins. Hammond did not confine his activities to the Great House as his predecessors had done. In addition to measuring and describing the main building, he measured the quadrangle enclosure wall and the remains of other structures within that area. Outside of this area, which later became identified as Compound A, Hammond measured other ruins including an artificial platform which he found northeast of the Great House. This platform undoubtedly was one of two such platform mounds uncovered in an area later named Compound B. Hammond's examination included excavations that he made around the expanse of remains. He found no weapons or tools. Hammond recovered "immense quantities" of pottery and exposed a four-to six-inch layer of charcoal as well as grass from "thatched roofs." [22]

Greater opportunity for looting and vandalism occurred after the Southern Pacific Railroad completed a line through the area in the winter of 1879-80. The railroad honored the ruin by naming its station twenty miles to the west Casa Grande. Soon a stage line opened between Florence and the Casa Grande station. It ran within a few feet of the Great House. The stage driver would frequently stop to permit passengers to explore the grounds. This situation undoubtedly led many people to return to the ruins to dig among the remains. Railroad officials probably helped to encourage such activity after the Arizona Daily Star published a story that one Southern Pacific official intended to take some men and tools and investigate the ruins. [23]

It was not long before publications began to remark on the amount of artifacts being recovered at Casa Grande. Patrick Hamilton wrote in 1884 that "a number of stone axes, bone awls and other implements of the stone age have been excavated from the ruins." Another author stated that people who had dug in the ruins had found whole pottery of which some pieces were large ollas like those used by modern Indians. A Florence merchant even defaced the Great House by using it as an advertisement billboard. It was no wonder that concerns for the preservation of the Great House were raised. [24]