Produced by Louise Hope, Carlo Traverso, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr) * * * * * CASA GRANDE RUIN BY COSMOS MINDELEFF * * * * * CONTENTS Introduction 295 Location and character 295 History and literature 295 Description 298 The Casa Grande group 298 Casa Grande ruin 306 State of preservation 306 Dimensions 307 Detailed description 309 Openings 314 Conclusions 318 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate LI. Map of Casa Grande group 298 LII. Ground plan of Casa Grande ruin 302 LIII. General view of Casa Grande ruin 305 LIV. Standing wall near Casa Grande 307 LV. Western front of Casa Grande ruin 309 LVI. Interior wall of Casa Grande ruin 310 LVII. Blocked opening in western wall 312 LVIII. Square opening in southern room 314 LIX. Remains of lintel 317 LX. Circular opening in northern room 319 Fig. 328. Map of large mound 301 329. Map of hollow mound 304 330. Elevations of walls, middle room 315 * * * * * CASA GRANDE RUIN By Cosmos Mindeleff * * * * * INTRODUCTION. LOCATION AND CHARACTER. The Casa Grande ruin, situated near Gila river, in southern Arizona, is perhaps the best known specimen of aboriginal architecture in the United States, and no treatise on American antiquities is complete without a more or less extended description of it. Its literature, which extends over two centuries, is voluminous, but of little value to the practical scientific worker, since hardly two descriptions can be found which agree. The variations in size of the ruin given by various authors is astonishing, ranging from 1,500 square feet to nearly 5 acres or about 200,000 square feet in area. These extreme variations are doubtless due to difference of judgment as to what portion of the area covered by remains of walls should be assigned to the Casa Grande proper, for this structure is but a portion of a large group of ruins.