Description

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, in Coolidge, Arizona, just northeast of the city of Casa Grande, preserves a group of Hohokam structures dating to the Classic Period

The building of the Casa Grande was a major event of the Classic Period (1100 – 1450 C.E.). The best dating methods available indicate that this large, caliche structure was built during the 1300's. The construction appears to have been well planned and organized, requiring tons of material and a huge cooperative effort on the part of many people. Today we can only marvel at the Casa Grande and try to imagine what it was used for. Though many theories have been suggested, we still aren’t sure as to its purpose. All we can assume is that the Casa Grande must have been very important to the people who built it.

During the late 1300’s and early 1400’s, the ancestral Sonoran Desert people suffered a period of widespread depopulation and change. Speculations as to the cause have included drought, floods, disease, invasion, earthquakes, internal strife, and salinization of farmland. Today, several American Indian groups have ancestral links to the ancestral people.

Written on the back of the print is:

"Casa Grande Ruins 1878

3 miles from Gila River

Outside measures 60 x 46 ft

General thickness of wall  - about 4 ft - a little less in some portions - and 4 ft 6 in other parts. From 30 to 46 feet high - a little more than 3 stories."