The Arizona sentinel., 1889-09-28
Casa Crande.

SECRETARY NODI0 has tTdllSilllCC0u "
the Director of the Geological Survey,
report by Special Agent Morrison
on the condition of the Casa Grande
Great House, ruins in Pinal county,
Arizona, with instructions that nect s.
sary steps be Immediately taken to
repair and protect the ruins, under the
authority granted in the act of March
2, 1889, appropriating $4,000 for that
purpose. Special Agent Morrison
says the front of the main building
measures sixty feet, and the width is
forty three feet; the height of the first
story is thirteen feet, second story
nine feet and third and fourth stories
eight feet. 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 indestructl
BILE concrete made of fine gravel,
sand and cement, closely resembling
the granolithe now used in Washing
ton. The walls both inside and out
are plastered with cement, which yet
clings to them with wonderful ten
acity, that on the inside being as
smooth and glossy as the best hard
finished interiors of the present day. |
The lower story is nearl y filled up with |
|crumbling debris and the sand of the
plains. The holes in which the ceiling
timers were placed are plainly visible,
but every particle of wood has been
carried away by relic hunters, and the
disintegration Of the walls has been
so rapid of late years that if measures
are not Immediately taken to strength
en- them, the entire mass will soon
fall into q shapeless ruin.
The report says that for miles
around the mysterious Casa Grandes
many great mounds, now hardly dis
tinguishable from the desert sands,
bear indisputable evidence Of having
been at some far remote period the
abode of busy industries. Morrison
says he is convinced that the Casa
Grande was not used for either religi-
Gus or warlike purposes. The supe
riority of its architecture lit having
out-lived all other structures by which
it was surrounded), the numerous
small apartments into which it was
divided and the elegance of the in
terror finish, all point to the con,
clusion that it was the palace Of the
King or chief who governed the print
tive Americans who inhabited those
vast domains ages before Aztec OF
Toltec. The most ancient of the ira
ditions Of the Pimas and Papagoes,
who yet live here where their fathers
have lived for centuries, allude to
them as "the ruins"
The earliest historic record we have
of Casa Grande was given by the
famous Spanish cavalier and explorer
Cabeza de Baca, who discovered it
during his journey across the CONT
nent about 1887. A few years later
the famous explorer Don Francisco de
Coronado, Governor Of New Galicia,
who led an expedition into New
Mexico, states that the Pima Indians
then $3.50 years ago) had no know
ledge of the origin OR history of the
town which they believed had existed
there. 1t had always been a ruin to
them and their ancestors. Fathers
kino and Mango, who visited there in
1894, also gave an account of twelve
other ruins in the vicinity. Father
Pedro Fout in III found them in
much the same condition. He de-
scribes the main building as an oblong
square, facing the cardinal points of
the compass. The exterior walls ex-
tended from north to south APO feet,
and from east to west 26O feet. owe
thus see" says Morrison, "what havoc
the ITO years have made, and the
necessity for immediate action to save
the remnant from complete destruc
ton. The ruins are regarded as one
of the most interesting remains of the
prehistoric age to be found on this
continent.