68 CASA GRANDE, ARIZONA [ETH. ANN. 28 
an inclosure for cattle. For miles around these in all directions, the plain is strewn 
with broken pottery and metates or corn-grinders. The pottery is red, white, lead- 
color, and black. The figures are usually geometrical and formed with taste, and in 
character are similar to the ornaments found on the pottery from the ruins on the 
Salinas and much farther north. Much of this pottery is painted on the inside, a 
peculiarity which does not belong to the modern pottery. In its texture too, it is 
far superior. I collected a quantity of these fragments, from which I selected the 
larger pieces. 
HUGHES'S NARRATIVE 
Casa Grande was thus described by Lieut. John T, Hughes? in his: 
account of Doniphan’s expedition in 1847: 
After a march of 6 miles on the 10th of November, passing over plains which had 
once sustained a dense population, they came to an extensive ruin, one building of 
which, called the “Hall of Montezuma,” is still in a tolerable state of preservation. 
This building was 50 feet long, 40 wide, and had been four stories high, but the floors 
and the roof had been burned out. The joists were made of round beams 4 feet in diam- 
eter [sic]. It had four entrances—north, east, south, and west. The walls were built 
of sun-dried brick, cemented with natural lime, which abounds in the adjacent coun- 
try, and were 4 feet thick, having a curved inclination inwards toward the top, being 
smoothed outside and plastered inside. About 150 yards from this building to the 
northward is a terrace 100 yards long and 70 wide, elevated about 5 feet. Upon this 
is a pyramid, 8 feet high and 25 yards square at the top. From the top of this, which 
has no doubt been used as a watch-tower, the vast plains to the west and north-east, for 
more than 15 miles, lie in plain view. These lands had once been in cultivation, and 
the remains of a large ascequia, or irrigating canal, could be distinctly traced along the 
range of dilapidated houses. 
About the same day they came to the Pimo villages on the south side of the Gila. 
Captain Johnston observes: “Their answer to Carson when he went up and asked for 
provisions was, ‘Bread is to eat, not to sell—take what you want.’ The general asked 
a Pimo who made the house I had seen. ‘It is the Casade Montezuma,’ said he, ‘it was 
built by the son of a most beautiful woman, who once dwelt in yon mountain. She 
was fair, and all the handsome men came to court her; but in vain.—When they came 
they paid tribute and out of this small store she fed all people in times of famine, and 
it did not diminish.—At last as she lay asleep a drop of rain fell upon her navel, and 
she became pregnant and brought forth ason, who was the builder of all these houses.’ ” 
Later AMERICAN REPORTS 
HINTON’S DESCRIPTION 
The observations of a party of which Mr. Richard J. Hinton was a 
member, who visited Casa Grande on December 13, 1877, are thus 
recorded by him,? the description being accompanied with a full-page 
lithograph illustration of Casa Grande: 
The Casa Grande itself is the remains of a large building, the walls of which are 
composed of a species of gray concrete or groat. They still stand in a crumbling and 
almost disjointed condition, for a height of from 30 to 45 feet, the inside wall being 
the highest. The exterior walls at their thickest part are 4 feet 6 inches thick. The 
interior walls at different points are well preserved, and show a uniform thickness oi 
1 This account is taken largely from Capt. A. R. Johnston’s narrative, given on pp. 64-05. 
2 Richard J. Hinton, Hand-book to Arizona. r 
