Who lived in the original Casa Grande – and where did they go?
by Mark Nothaft | Special for The Republic
Only in Arizona: About 2,000 ancient peoples lived and worked around the four-story ‘Great House’ at the National Monument south of Phoenix – then vanished around 1450.
A steel and concrete canopy was erected in 1932 to protect the Great House erected by the Hohokam people at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.
(Photo: National Park Service)
Just to be clear, Arizona touts the Pinal County city of Casa Grande south of Phoenix, and, the original 650-year-old Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and its towering “Great House.” They’re two separate things.
The latter remains one of the state’s great mysteries; one of many well-preserved ruins cross-crossing Arizona like Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Nation, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki near Flagstaff, Montezuma Castle in the Verde Valley and Tonto National Monument in the Salt River Basin near Lake Roosevelt.
These are the remnants of organized communities who farmed, traded and thrived for hundreds of years across the rough and rugged Arizona landscape.
