25 October 2019

Back to The Future of The Mesa Grande Ruins in 2012

The $250,000 1200 sq-ft Visitor Center 2012
If nothing else, other than fearless, your MesaZona blogger is tenacious helping to get more of this story told about a 6-acre site here in central Mesa - it looks like a pile of dirt by air now. In reality - in "The Short Swift Time of The Gods on Earth" - it was a Temple Mound, one of the most important cultural centers of The Hohokam [Papago/Pima] Indigenous Peoples who inhabited the territory and cultivated the lands in The Salt River Valley for millennia and centuries before 'The Pioneers' arrived from Utah in oxen carts to colonize Arizona. Referred to as THE RUINS, Mesa Grande as one of the last places to show how the Hohokam created an irrigation network . . . The City of Phoenix set aside 1,500 acres in 1929 for The Pueblo Grande Museum
________________________________________________________________
Lucky for everyone that 10,000 tons of that dirt did not get trucked-away to build an underground parking garage! (some people might get that reference)
________________________________________________________________
Mesa Grande ruins to open visitors center this fall             


 

 "Grub with Grubb" Oct. 26 at Mesa Grande Cultural Park
Mesa Grande Cultural Park, 1000 N. Date, is celebrating its seasonal re-opening and highlighting the addition of new Native American objects from the Evelyn and Lou Grubb collection Saturday, Oct. 26 from 10 a.m. to noon.

New exhibits featuring Native American baskets from the Evelyn and Lou Grubb Collection (The Grubb Family Trust donated their collection to AZ Museum of Natural History here in Mesa in 2015/2016)
_________________________________________________________________________
 
It's at Papago Park (another historic site)
Looks like it could be a great design for a museum, but it's not ....it's a $6M golf course and club house, with an alfresco restaurant named "Lou's Grill"
The 1950's car dealer celebrity liked to play golf.
However as noted in an earlier post Lou and his wife did many good things . . .
But let's it all down to 'a dull roar' and focus on a high-quality experience . . [see below for that reference from Jerry Howard]

Please read the history plaque


_________________________________________________



(not included in EVT 2012 article)



It was not "the community" at large


Omar Turney Canal Map 1929



Pueblo Moroni, with many small reservoirs and  temples

__________________________________________________________________________________
The canals did more than water Hohokam corn, squash and beans. The network took silt and nutrients from the Salt River and distributed the enriching material across the Valley.
“They basically turned the desert soils into some of the best agricultural soils in the world,” Howard said.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Website