The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-11-13
THE CASA GRANDE RUINS,
RELICS OF AN ANCIENT RACE IN
ARIZONA.
A Greet House That Was In Ruins
Hundreds of Years Ago-A Kings
Palace.

A Greet House That Was in Ruins
Hundreds of Years Ago--A Kings
Palace.
Special Agent Morrison, who was sent
by the United States Interior Department
to examine into the condition Of the ruins
in Pinal County, Arizona, in his report
saws that these venerable relics of prehis-
toric America stand in a great undulating
plain, about midway between the station
of Casa Grande and Florence, seven or
eight miles from the Gila River, He
saws that the front Of the main building
measures sixty-six feet, and the width
forty-threc feet. The height Of the first
story is thirteen feet, the second nine
feet. and the third and fourth stories
eight feet each The greater part Of the
upper story has disappeared. The walls
are between four and five feet thick, and
the material of which they are constructed
is almost indestructible concrete made of
fine gravel, sand and cement, closely re-
sembling the granolithic now used in
Washington
This was laid in the walls in great
blocks. One of these measured seven feet
three inches in length, four feet three
inches in width and two feet six inches
in height. The walls both inside and out
were plastered with cement which yet
clings to them with wonderful tenacity,
that on the inside being as smooth and
glossy as the best hard finished interiors
of the present day. All Of the rooms, Of
which there are four now intact, are Of n
uniform buff color which is very pleasing
to the eve. The largest of these rooms Is
thirty-four by nine feet. The extreme
height of the building is nearly forty feet.
The lower story is filed up with crumb-
ling debris and the drifting sand Of the
plain to the height of thirteen or fourteen
| feet. The holes in which the ceiling
| timbers were placed are plainly visible,
but every particle of wood has been car
ried away by relic hunters, and the disin-
tegration Of the walls has been 50 rapid
of late years that if measures are not i'm
mediatcly taken to strengthen them the
| entire mass will soon fall into shapeless
ruin.
The report saws that for miles around
| the mysterious Casa Grande many great
mounds. now hardly distingutshable from
the desert sands. bear indisputable evil
dence of having been at some far remote
period, the abode of busy industries. Mr..
Morrison says he is convinced that the
Casa Grande was not used either for re-
ligious OF warlike purposes. The 81
periority of its architecture, it having out
lived all the other structures by which il
was surrounded, the numerous smal
apartments into which it was divided
and the elegance of the interior finish, al
point to the conclusion that it was tn
palace of the king, or chief, who governed
the primitive Americans who inhabited
these vast domains ages before Astec o
Toltec.
The most ancient of the traditions o
the Pimas and Papagoes, who yet liv'
here where their fathers have lived TO
centuries, allude to them as ''the ruins.
The earliest historic records we have o
Casa Grande was given by the famou
Spanish cavalier and explorer, Cabe2a d.
Baca, who discovered it during his jour
ney across the continent about 1887.
few years later the famous explorer, Dol
Francisco de Coronado, Governor of New
Galicia, who led an expedition into New
Mexico, describes the ruins as being fou
stories high, with walls six feet in thick
ness. As proof of its great antiquit.
he says the Pima Indians then, $50 year
ago, had no knowledge of the origin, o
history of the town which had existed
there. II had always been 4 ruin to then
and to their ancestors.
Fathers King and Mango, who VISITED
the place in 1894, found the remains o
the great edifce. They also gave an ac
count of twelve other ruins in the vi
cinity. Father Pedro Fout, in 1777
found them in much the same condition
He describes the main building as al
oblong square facing the cardinal point
of the compass. The exterior walls eX
tended from north to south 420 fee
aud from east to west 260 feet. "W
thus see,n says Mr.. Morrison, "wha
havoc the storms Of 10 years hav
made aud the necessity for immediate
action to save the remnant from com
plete destruction" The ruins are re
Qarded as one Of the most interesting re
mains of the prehistoric age 10 be foun
on this continent.