Southern Adventure: Casa Grande, Cacti and Quilts

We went to the Casa Grande ruins yesterday. It is about an hour southeast of Phoenix. These are the remains of an ancient Hohokam farming village as well a Great House. The Great House is what I thought of when we decided to go. We had seen the site about 30 years ago (yikes!) and we remembered it as just the Great House with an administration building of some kind and a cactus garden. Now they have excavated the buildings of a community including homes and a playing field.

The Great House is four storeys tall and 60 feet long. Its walls face the four compass points. Openings align with the moon and stars at particular times. What the buildings exact purpose was remains a mystery. In order to protect the structure from the elements, a steel and concrete canopy has been built over it. The other walls of buildings have been covered with a cement coating. Also the bases of the buildings are about 7 feet below where you walk and are filled in to preserve the walls.

The Hohokum people had a distinct culture by 300 CE. They lived in permanent settlements, made pottery and traded. They developed irrigation canals and since they are in a dry region, learned to tap into the groundwater. There is evidence that they traded with tribes from the West Coast and from Mexico.

Around 1150, the people began to congregate in larger communities and open arrangements of housing gave rise to walled communities. The Great House has been dated as prior to 1350 and its size indicates that indicates that this village may have been more important than most.

The Hohokum culture seems to have lasted until the 1400s. When missionaries came through in the late 1600s, all they found was the empty shell of a village. The nearby Pima Indians told the missionaries that their ancestors were “ho-ho-KAHM”,meaning all gone or used up. In the late 19^th century, souvenir hunters threatened to destroy the site and in 1892, Casa Grande became the nation’s first archeological preserve.

In this area of Arizona is part of the Sonoran Desert and is home to the saguaro (saw-WAH-row) cacti. These are the cacti with “arms” that you see in the cowboy movies and the Peanuts cartoon strip. I just love looking at them. They seem to be like snow flakes: each one is different. I wondered why some had many branches and some only a few so I bought a book at Casa Grande that would answer my questions. (Frequently Asked Questions about the Saguaro, Janice Emily Bowers, Western National Parks Association, Tucson, Arizona)

They first branch when they are about 15 feet tall and have reached their maximum girth. Some believe that the appearance of the branches is random while others think that they grow more towards the south. The faster a cactus grows, the more branches it sends out. Fast growth is associated with wetter climates. In areas that are really dry, the cacti may never branch. The more branches a cactus has, the more fruits and seeds it can produce. Of course, the more seeds there are, the likelier it is that a few will germinate, grow to maturity and reproduce themselves. Over a lifetime a large saguaro might shed 40 million seeds.

These cacti are susceptible to drought and frost and the habits of animals. Despite the prickles, small animals eat them. Large animals such as cattle, trample the small plants. Catastrophic frosts seems to be the biggest threat. The expansion of the large cities threatens their habitat. For some time, the existence of the saguaro seemed to be at risk. In the last part of the twentieth century, a survey of the saguaro populations determined that there had been a dramatic turnaround. I sure hope that this means that they will be around for a long time!!

I went to the Tucson Quilt Show last Friday with a tour. $59 for the bus trip and admission to the show. This will only be interesting to a few of you no doubt. It was a good show but no better than the Saskatoon Show other than there were more vendors. I took a few pictures and also got the DVD to look at all the quilts again. The pictures aren't great since it is hard to get a clear shot in a crowd.