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Casa Grande Research Paper

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The Big House, the largest prehistoric native American structure in North America, is a four-story building constructed by ancient Sonoran Desert people, the Hohokam. The Hohokam were native American tribes that vanished in the 1400’s leaving behind archaeological evidence of a sophisticated culture revealing advanced canal systems, and the “Casa Grande,” a big house in the Sonoran Desert valley. Missionary, explorer and mapmaker Eusibio Francisco Kino, was the first European to discover the site in 1694 and named it “Casa Grande”. After the railroad came through in 1879, travelers would scratch their names into the walls, some took artifacts, even pieces of the wall were taken as souvenirs. In 1889, Congress voted to take action to protect the site from vandalism and looting. It has been protected since 1892 by the General Land Office and then it was transferred to the National Park Service in 1918. This …show more content…

“He recorded in his journal that the Casa Grande is a four story building, as large as a castle and equal to the largest church in these lands of Sonora. Close to this Casa Grande there are thirteen smaller houses, somewhat more dilapidated, and the ruins of many others, which make it evident that in ancient times there had been a city here.” (“Casa Grande Ruins NM: An Administrative History (Chapter 2),” n.d.) From this time onward, the Casa Grande received a notoriety that led many travelers to come to the Great House to behold the work of a vanished civilization and to speculate on its origin and meaning. The Great House has stood up well for hundreds of years considering the environment in which it lies. However, after the advancement of the train in 1879, travelers would stop by and rummage through the site looking for souvenirs. Many would carve their names in the walls and some would take sections of the

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