February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014

I read about several Indian ruins in Phoenix so we thought we would explore them today. Our first stop was Mesa Grande Cultural Park. Here in the middle of a residential neighborhood sits a football-sized raised platform of the ancient Hohokam Indians.

We walked around the heavily eroded platform mound reading the many storyboards. Archeologists don’t know whether the platform was the site of a temple or the residence of the local chieftain. Although they lived here for a millennia, the Hohokam suddenly abandoned their homes around the year 1500.

From Mesa Grande we drove a few miles away to Park of the Canals. There we had a picnic lunch Aimee made. Afterwards we walked to see an old canal that the Hohokam used to irrigate the land. In their day, the Salt River used to flow year round and they built a thousand miles of canals to water this Valley of the Sun. And they were all hand dug with stone tools! After trying to dig a few holes in my very rocky Tucson yard, I am impressed. I am not the only one. The American Society of Civil Engineers awarded the Hohokam an award for excellence in prehistoric engineering (obviously posthumously).

The Hohokam thrived by turning the desert into an oasis. When settlers arrived after the Civil War, they cleaned the canals out and reused them to grow cotton. They knew they were building atop an old civilization so they named their town Phoenix, after the mythological bird that arose from ashes of its predecessor.

From Mesa we drove to Pueblo Grande near the Phoenix airport. It is similar to Mesa Grande except with a Movie, a nice museum and nicer walking path. Seeing all the pottery, basket, and loom artifacts on display, Aimee thinks she would have enjoyed living as a Hohokam squaw. She loves crafts. I have to remind her that she wouldn’t be able to buy supplies at the local Indian craft store, she would have to gather and make them.

Since it is still early we drive through the nearby Papago Park. In this large desert park sits the municipal zoo and botanical garden. Also is a geological oddity, a rock window atop a small rock hill. We climb up to the top of Hole-in-the-Rock that was used for astronomical observations by the Hohokam.

Having enjoyed the awesome weather one last time, we park at the airport, change into long pants, retrieve our parkas and walk to our flight back to the chilly Midwest. Aimee and I look at each other and wonder why we are leaving.