On January 9th we visited Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, the site of the archeological remains of an ancient Hohokam farming village. At the center of the site is the "Great House", remains of a structure estimated to have been 4 stories high and 60 feet long. It was constructed of desert subsoil mud called caliche, timbers from huge juniper, fir, or pine trees carried from the rivers as far as 60 miles from the site, and large cactus found on the desert.
Smaller pit houses were also located around the large structure. The entire village seemed to have been surrounded by a mud wall. (The tour guide joked this was probably Arizona's original "gated community")
The Hohokam were hunter-gatherers who likely inhabited this area from 300 to the 1400's. They drew from Mesoamerican civilizations, traded their pottery and jewelry for shells, mirrors, copper items, and Macaws from Mexico. They learned to channel water from nearby rivers through intricate irrigation canals and grew corn, beans, squash, tobacco, cotton, and agave. Other sources of food were the desert plants and animals found around the settlement.
The Great House was constructed so it's four walls faced the four cardinal points of the compass. Circles and other openings in the walls aligned with celestial events, like the setting sun on the day of summer solstice, or different phases of the moon and stars during the year.
The village seemed to have been abandoned in the 1400's; it was discovered in the late 1600's by missionaries; then found again in the late 1800's. Travelers to the west in search of gold carved their names and other graffiti in the soft stone. In 1892 it was designated an archeological preserve to be protected from further damage.
The site is now maintained by the National Park Service.
On February 9th we drove to Queen Creek, AZ to observe a working olive mill. The Queen Creek Olive Mill is a small family owned company that is experimenting with growing olives in Arizona, then using those olives to produce a high quality extra virgin olive oil. The grove of approximately 2000 trees is an assortment of varieties including Classic Tuscany (Lechino, Frantoio, Pendolino, and Grappolo); the Mission Olive; Spanish Manzanillo, Sevillano, and Arbequina; Italian Baroni; California Lucca; and the Greek Kalamata.
On Jan 6th we joined a group from the RV park on a "tag-a-long" tour to a local cotton farm. We spent the afternoon observing equipment used to harvest and bale cotton, and went into the field to see the plants. A tour guide then gave a presentation about the ginning process, where seeds are removed and the raw cotton is cleaned and re-baled for sale. Quality of the cotton is determined by length and uniformity of the cotton fiber, as well as the color and brightness. Sale price is negotiated according to the quality of the fiber. Textile mills purchase the bales and perform the carding and weaving into fabric. Cotton seed is also sold and has several uses...it can be saved and treated for future planting, the kernels can be pressed into cottonseed oil, and the hulls used for livestock feed.
