We moved yesterday. We took a little longer than usual to hit the road. I had to finish packing the trailer, clean up a few things outside, then dump and flush our holding tanks. Donna worked inside, getting the coach ready to ramble down the road. She moved a little slower than she usually does, but she managed to get everything put away. Lowell and Debi, Donna’s hiking friends, and Vern and Sylvia, our neighbors, stopped by to wish us safe travels. By the time we had the trailer hooked up and pulled out of Orangewood Shadows, it was 11:30am.
Our route took us east on US60 past Gold Canyon. The drive to Gold Canyon, which took over an hour by car through last weekend’s traffic, was covered in 30 minutes in the coach. As we continued east, I realized I had forgotten to lock the basement storage doors. I like to have the doors locked when we roll down the road as extra insurance against one accidentally opening. The traffic was light, so when we turned on to AZ79, I pulled to the shoulder and stopped to lock the basement doors.
AZ79 took us to the town of Florence. Established in 1866, Florence is the county seat of Pinal County and one of the oldest towns in Arizona. It’s also home to the largest prison complex in the state. We made a stop at the Mt. Athos restaurant in Florence, a Greek restaurant that Donna and I stopped at a couple of times before when we traveled through on motorcycles. I found parking on the street a half block away and we went in for lunch. I opted for the grilled cheese and bacon sandwich special. It was okay. Donna liked her Greek salad with gyro meat. They have moussaka, pastitio, spanokopita and other traditional Greek entrees on the menu. I probably should have ordered something Greek.
Mt Athos restaurant
After lunch, I drove west to the historic old downtown district where we picked up AZ287 and headed west toward Coolidge. Our next stop was at the Casa Grande Ruins. The focal point of this National Monument is the Great House (Casa Grande in Spanish) built in 1300AD. We found RV parking spaces in the lot in front of the park building.
Entry was $5 each as our America the Beautiful pass has expired (it would have gotten us in for free). The $5 entry included a guided tour which we took advantage of. The park ranger, Larry, was full of information and gave an interesting presentation as we walked around the Great House.
Historically, the people that once inhabited this compound were called Hohokam. There is a movement in the National Parks administration to discontinue this term (which loosely translates to vanished people) and replace it with Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert. Apparently Hohokam can also be translated to mean “all used up” and is thought to be offensive. Another frequently used term for ancient tribes in the Sonoran desert is Anasazi. That term is also thought to be misused. The story is that early archeologists asked local Navajo people what the name of the tribe that once lived in the desert south of their land was. They answered Anasazi – which means ancestors of our enemy. The preferred term today Ancestral Puebloans.
The monument covers one square mile. I mentioned touring the compound. Although the Great House is the focal point, there are many ruins of smaller structures in the park. Our guide referred to it as an ancient gated community as it had a wall surrounding the dwellings. His theory was that this was a community of artisans, people that learned to spin and weave cotton, make jewelry and other items for trade. They stayed in a walled community to safely store their goods and keep the riff-raff out.
Wooden beams in the Great House have been scientifically dated to have originated in the early 1300s. This ancient civilization brought timber from the mountains up to 60 miles away and built dwellings from caliche – a sort of concrete made from sand, clay and calcium carbonate. They used tons of this material, shored up with the timbers to build the four-story Great House.
Great House viewed from the east
View inside the Great House through an opening in the wall
Donna in front of a smaller ruin in the compound
This civilization also practiced agriculture. They built canals to divert water from the Gila River to their fields of corn and cotton. Seven hundred years ago, the Gila River was a mighty watershed, not the dry riverbed it is today. Something happened by 1400AD and these people vanished.
In the 1800s, the stage coach from Florence to Tucson ran right next to the Great House. The stage would stop to rest their horses here. For a small fee, passengers were allowed to dig artifacts and take them. The site was abused for decades. Even after it was a protected archaeological site, many mistakes were made in recovering and documenting artifacts. Much of the history is lost forever. In 1932, a cover was built over the Great House to preserve and protect it from heavy rain and constant exposure to the sun.
This National Monument is an interesting stop and well worth the price of admission.
From the ruins, we drove west on AZ87, then followed AZ187 southwest to AZ387 south to the town of Casa Grande. By the way, the Casa Grande National Monument isn’t in the town of Casa Grande – it’s in Coolidge, Arizona. We checked in at the Casa Grande RV Resort where we stayed in early January. The park management was very accommodating. I asked for a pull-through site and told them I preferred not to drop the trailer. The issue here with the long pull-throughs is the location of the sewer and utilities. They’re located at the rear of the site. With the length of the trailer and our rig, it’s a long run for sewer, water and electrical power. They offered me a great solution. The had back-to-back sites intended for back-in use. They told me I could utilize both sites combined as a pull-through for the same price as a regular pull-through. Can’t beat that!
We’ll be here for a week while we decide on our next move.
