CASA GRANDE, a national reserve, technically known as a national monument, in Pinal county, Ariz., which has within its bounds some of the most noteworthy relics of a prehistoric age and people within the limits of the United States. The ruins are situated near the left bank of the Gila river about 12m. from Florence, Ariz., and 15m. north-east of the station, Casa Grande, on the Southern Pacific railway. It resembles the Casa Grande ruin of Chihuahua, Mexico, with its walls of sundried caliche (a composition of lime, earth and pebbles), and its area of rooms, courts, plazas and pyramids, surrounded by a wall. The first known white man to visit Casa Grande was the Jesuit missionary Kino, in 1694. The house was already a ruin but he described it as large and ancient and certainly f our stories high. In the imme diate vicinity were the ruins of other houses, and in the country towards the north, east and west were ruins of similar structures. The identity of its builders has been a subject of speculation from the discovery of the ruins to the present day. The age of Casa Grande is unknown but there is reason to believe that settlements on its site antedate most of the present cliff dwellings of the south-west. An agricultural economy is indicated by a net-work of irrigation canals. John Russell Bartlett described the ruins in 1854, and in 1889 Congress voted that it be protected as a govern ment reservation; in 1892 it was set apart by the government. Subsequent excavations have disclosed many facts pertaining to the life and customs of this ancient race.
See General Information regarding Casa Grande Ruins, Arizona, a bulletin of the U.S. department of the interior.