428 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. $ 2 



that have come down to us it appears that they lived in rancherias 

 and cultivated farms, Ihe whole valley being artificially irrigated. 

 Their chief, named Coro, accompanied Kino down the river past 

 these rancherias, the names of which he mentions. In 1694 the 

 contest between Sobypuri and Apaches had begun, but the former 

 still held possession of the valley. Later, however, the Sobypuri 

 having been forced from their homes, the tribes along the San Pedro 

 Valley became hostile to Europeans, and the valley ceased to be a 

 line of communication between Mexico and the Gila. For over 150 

 years following this expedition the trail to the north from Mexico 

 passed along the Santa Cruz River by way of Tucson and through 

 the gap at Picacho into the deserts of the Gila. 



An examination of the configuration of the San Pedro Valley 

 from a point 15 miles south of Monmouth to the junction of the river 

 with the Gila has led me to believe that Padre Kino, after following 

 the San Pedro many miles, left it opposite where old Fort Grant now 

 stands, and marched west until he came to the Gila, not far from the 

 present site of Florence. The place where he turned away from the 

 river was probably the rancheria called Victoria del Ojio, not far 

 from the ruin at the mouth of the Arivaipa, which empties into the 

 San Pedro, but in his diary he says that on the i6th of November, 

 "after mass," he followed down the river 6 leagues until he came to 

 the junction with the Gila. We cannot definitely say whether the 

 rancherias mentioned by Kino stood on the same site as the ruins 

 now found in the valley, but it is believed they did. He speaks of 

 the houses as being made of "palos" or "petates," or a kind of jacal 

 structure, which we have reason to suppose housed the common 

 people at the Casa Grande ruins. Probably the buildings with stone 

 walls found in the San Pedro were structurally the same as those 

 .the author has called massive walled rooms at Casa Grande and 

 served for citadels, granaries, or ceremonial buildings 1 rather than 

 habitations for the people. 



The existence of ruins along the San Pedro has been known for 

 several years, but their character and the kinship of their former 

 inhabitants have been a matter of speculation. A more exact knowl- 

 edge of these ruins being desirable, the writer included them in his 

 comparative studies and made a brief visit to the lower course of 

 the river in April, 1908, when he examined several of the more 



1 Kino speaks of one building as a "capilla," chapel, as if it were different 

 from others, but whether it was a massive walled house or not does not appear 

 evident from his brief mention. 



