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Inside the Walls of Casa Grande
photographs and video by Arlene de Leon
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CASA GRANDE NATIONAL MONUMENT is halfway between Phoenix and Tucsonm Arizona. It's name means Big House. For my class project, I visited there in December, 1996. My teacher, Liz Warren, had heard that there was a labyrinth design on the inside, but she had never seen it. We called the monument headquasters, and requested permission and an appointment to see the inside (normally visitors are not allowed inside).

For my project, I used my videocamera to record my observations at Casa Grande and we have digitized a few of the clips below. Some of my first thoughts inside as I saw all of the different rooms were "where did people sleep? where was their kitchen? how many lived here?"

quicktime movie 180k	The ranger explained that very few people were allowed inside the ruins, so I felt very special to have this opportunity.
quicktime movie 530k	Once inside we looked around the lower room. I first noticed a labyrinth pattern etched into the wall. Nearby I saw another one that looked more like a spiral. I looked it up in a book and the closest one I could find meant "water".
quicktime movie 244k	We went to the upper part of the structure and saw places where a soldier in the 1880s had left his initials on the walls
quicktime movie 430k	The ranger pointed out the etching in the walls of "P Weaver", Pauline Weaver (for whom Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Mountains is named) who visited here in the 1800s
quicktime movie 212k	On the outside of the structure, support beams had to be inserted to keep the walls standing. I was amazed at how straight the walls were that these peopl constructed with very few tools.
quicktime movie 356k	The ranger pointed out a place on the wall where the builders (or someone else at the time!) imprinted their hand into the soft adobe material.