Casa Grande Ruins Trail _15 cents if you take this booklet home_ CASA GRANDE RUINS NATIONAL MONUMENT ARIZONA [Illustration: Map of Compound A] SAFETY You are in a desert area. Sometimes the desert can be harsh. Cactus spines can hurt. Intense heat can cause varying degrees of discomfort. Poisonous animals, though rare, are here. Know your own limitations, and exercise caution. NATIONAL PARK AND MONUMENTS Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, one of more than 280 areas administered by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, was set aside because of its outstanding archeological values. This area belongs to you and is part of your heritage as an American citizen. The men and women in the uniform of the National Park Service are here to assist you and will welcome the opportunity to make your visit to Casa Grande Ruins more enjoyable. The National Park Service was created in 1916 to preserve the National Parks and Monuments for your enjoyment and that of future generations. Federal law prohibits activities which would destroy any of the works of nature or man that are preserved here. These include such activities as hunting, woodcutting, collecting—even taking of small pieces such as broken pottery. Please help preserve Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, and remember: A thoughtless act on your part can destroy in a few moments something that has been here for centuries. Please stay on the designated trail. DON’T FORGET YOUR CAMERA Casa Grande Ruins Trail The Casa Grande Trail is about 400 yards long and an easy walk. Numbered stakes along the trail are set at points of interest, and corresponding numbered paragraphs in this booklet explain the features. You may enter the Casa Grande (Big House) only on a ranger-conducted guided tour. 1. From about 2,000 years ago until about A.D. 1450, people living in this area developed and expanded a stone-age civilization that the archeologists call the Hohokam (Ho-Ho-Kahm) culture. Hohokam means “those who have gone” in the language of the nearby Pima Indians, who are probably descendants of these prehistoric people. The Hohokam lived in this region for many centuries before building walled villages like this between A.D. 1300 and 1450. Primarily farmers, raising corn, beans, squash, and cotton, they developed extensive irrigation canal systems that took water from the Gila (Hee-la) River. About A.D. 1450, this village and others like it were abandoned. We do not know why. When the Spaniards explored this area, they found Pimas, living in open villages and irrigating their farmlands, several miles to the west. 2. Village Wall.