Today it is important to take a look at our heritage that goes back for centuries reminding us that even though generations of The First Peoples (The Salt River-Pima Maricopa "Indians")are relegated to live on reservations directly north of the current man-made boundaries, you can see by the pre-historic map above.
We now live on territories where thousands lived for centuries way before a few hundred settlers came to expand what they thought was their Kingdom of Deseret ruled by a religion - The Church of Jesus Christ of The Latter Day Saints. Other religions from Spain attempted to colonize The New World in the late 15th Century that explains the Spanish place names you see on the map: Let's take a closer look
Note the section markings on an enlargement of the lands south of the Rio Salado or The Salt River
> Note section 22 south of the Salt River: MESA (on the east-west line of what's marked as a sedimentation basin)
> Note the names of areas marked with dots and squares: PUEBLO or CASA or PLAZA
These are areas of existing settlements where the people who lived were before, digging canals and cultivating the land did leave evidence and artifacts of their lives in what the map-marker called "pre-history".
> Please note the area Pueblo de Lehi Why you might ask? Simply because . . . The time is right TODAY with all the engaged public debate over the expanded development plans for the Mesa LDS Temple Area ( a twenty-acre tract at what is now the corner of Main and Hobson Streets just outside the original town site) and the current media narrative of 'preservation vs progress' or 'balancing-the-past-and-the-future' simply leaves out or ignores whose past is here in Mesa now? We need to re-discover and un-bury more of that - The time is right TODAY to restore our lost history.
It's the right time right now when the grounds around the Mesa Temple are getting cleared and other buildings in the area getting demolished to ask for a commitment to look more deeply into what could be more of Mesa's lost history. It's the right time to ask for a team of archeologists when the grounds are dug-deep for a three-story underground parking garage - what lays buried in the earth might be more authentic in keeping to preserve and protect Mesa's history.
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In the 1920's there was a drive to preserve and protect the historic site When this effort started is unknown but the first public event was a parade down Main Street organized by the chamber of commerce in 1927. This was the year that Pueblo Grande, the other great mound of the Hohokam, opened to the public.
What else happened here in Mesa in 1927?
On October 23,1927 the LDS Temple was dedicated, although it had been planned on some twenty acres just east of the original town site. The construction of the LDS Temple achieved the realization of many generations of LDS pioneers. The earliest recorded donation for the Temple dated back to 1897, when a Graham County widow donated $5.00 to the construction fund when it was thought a temple would be erected in the town of Pima.
Mesa LDS official began actively promoting the idea in 1912. By the end of World War One over $200,000 had been collected for construction. Church officials visited Mesa after the war and on September 24, 1919 selected a twenty-acre tract at what is now the corner of Main and Hobson Streets just outside the original townsite.
Preliminary planning took place from 1919 to 1921.
Mesa Grande Cultural Park on Brown Road
Mesa Grande by air from the northwest.
Many such efforts followed and community support for a public facility has remained very strong through the years. In the early 1950s Frank and Grace Midvale organized the Mesa Grande Archaeological Society to promote the opening of the mound. This organization was transformed in 1955 into the Mesa Archaeological and Historical Society.
The new group held its first organizational event at Mesa Grande where over 200 members joined... A major force in the community, the Mesa Archaeological and Historical Society attracted prominent speakers including governors and legislators, . . . Today, this is the Mesa Historical Society which operates the Mesa Historical Museum. Those with archaeological interests began what is now the Southwest Archaeology Team, which is affiliated with the Arizona Museum of Natural History and continues to work on the Mesa Grande platform mound. . .
What it takes is a line-up of different people with different interests, some of them are women in this section:
Pioneers of Preservation
> Acquanetta Ross
The people of her faith should honor this woman: her faith will remain permanent in the country as long as it embraces women as true as she."
Acquanetta was one of the most colorful people in the history of Mesa Grande. Acquanetta was a well-known movie actress, billed in Hollywood as the "Venezuelan Volcano". She is perhaps best known for playing the title role in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman with Johnny Weissmuller, but she appeared in many other films.
Acquanetta married Jack Ross, a three time gubernatorial candidate and owner of a car dealership. Acquanetta appeared in television ads for the dealership and became a beloved local celebrity.
Acquanetta's mother was Native American and Acquanetta grew up in the Arapaho community in Montana. She had strong feelings for Mesa Grande and worked for many years to preserve the mound and to open it to the public.
In the 1970s, she worked tirelessly with the Mesa Historical and Archaeological Society and the City of Mesa to open the mound to the public.
Having failed to get adequate support for the project, she played the key role in the 1980s in getting Mesa Grande into public ownership.
More fascinating details in this story >> http://arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org
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Acquanetta married Jack Ross, a three time gubernatorial candidate and owner of a car dealership. Acquanetta appeared in television ads for the dealership and became a beloved local celebrity.
Acquanetta's mother was Native American and Acquanetta grew up in the Arapaho community in Montana. She had strong feelings for Mesa Grande and worked for many years to preserve the mound and to open it to the public.
In the 1970s, she worked tirelessly with the Mesa Historical and Archaeological Society and the City of Mesa to open the mound to the public.
Having failed to get adequate support for the project, she played the key role in the 1980s in getting Mesa Grande into public ownership.
More fascinating details in this story >> http://arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org
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To preserve the mound, Madora Barker sold it to archaeologist Frank Midvale in 1927.
> Frank J. Midvale
Frank Midvale's intense interest in archaeology began at a very young age and carried through his entire life. Funding his work through teaching and other jobs, Midvale roamed the Arizona desert recording Hohokam sites and mapping the prehistoric canal systems.
His notes on file at ASU preserve valuable information on sites now long destroyed by modern construction.
Following his early experiences with archaeology in the 1920s, Midvale directed excavations of a platform mound at the site of La Ciudad covered today by Saint Luke's Hospital, for Dwight Heard, a wealthy Phoenix business man and founder of the Heard Museum
Following his early experiences with archaeology in the 1920s, Midvale directed excavations of a platform mound at the site of La Ciudad covered today by Saint Luke's Hospital, for Dwight Heard, a wealthy Phoenix business man and founder of the Heard Museum
In 1927 Midvale purchased Mesa Grande from Ann Madora Barker to preserve the site. With his wife Grace, he founded a group that ultimately became the Mesa Historical and Archaeological Society, which originally was dedicated to the preservation of Mesa Grande. Unable to open Mesa Grande to the public, Midvale transferred the mound to Jack and Acquanetta Ross in 1962.
Midvale hoped that they had the influence to accomplish his dream of opening an archaeological park. The preservation of Mesa Grande and his irreplaceable notes on Hohokam sites stand as Frank Midvale's lasting legacies.
