The most important prehistoric Indian ruin of its type in the
Southwest is now protected and preserved, for the study and enjoyment
of the people, in the Casa Grande Ruin Reservation. This contains four
hundred and eighty acres, set aside in 1892. It is near Florence,
Arizona, about eighteen miles northeast of Casa Grande railroad
station. The ruins are of undetermined antiquity. A Jesuit missionary
discovered them in 1694. As excavated so far, a great house built of
puddled mud moulded into walls and dried in the sun is the main
structure of the group. As it is of perishable character, the walls
have been gradually disintegrating, and a corrugated iron roof has
been put over the ruins to protect them from the elements so far as
possible. Considerable more repair and protection work is needed.
The main building was originally five or six stories in height and
covered a space fifty-nine by forty-three feet. Surrounding Casa
Grande proper is a rectangular walled inclosure. A number of buildings
or clusters of rooms have been excavated in this, and others as yet
unexcavated are known to be there. One hundred rooms with plazas and
surrounding walls now open on the ground floor of the reservation.
These ruins are of great historic and scientific interest, and have
strong claims for archæological study, repair, and preservation.