The Pueblo Grande Museum

The Pueblo Grande Museum

“I hereby certify that the contents contained within are my original work and have in no way been influenced by outside works other than my own personal research.”

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The Pueblo Grande was thought to be created by the Hohokam Indian tribe about 1500 years ago. The Hohokam people were very resourceful people who creating villages which included mounds, simple structured buildings and canals.

The Hohokam Indians were a sophisticated tribe; they created a elaborate canal system that allowed them to survive through the hot summers of Arizona desert by growing crops. The canals were thought to be first created in 600 A.D. and went for hundreds of miles dispensing water to their crops. The source of water for these canals was the Salt River, located 300 meters away. These canals “are known to be the largest irrigation canals located near the head gates of a complex irrigation network”(Irrigation Network). Beans squash and corn is what was to be grown in their crops. The platform mound was the main structure in the village. The mounds were created out of soil, stone, and other materials that they were able to gather from the desert land. They then covered the mounds with a material called caliche. Caliche is a very hard material created from lime rich soil then mixed with water to make it into it’s final form. Caliche, a very hard material, was used to protect the mound from the harsh elements of Arizona. The platform had different levels, the lowest contained different rooms that had small compartments that were filled with earth. The walls were lined with extra material from the Indians day to day life, such as charcoal, bones, and even old pottery. There were many rooms in the lower level, one of the largest in Arizona was 300 x 150 feet containing 720,000 cubic feet of fill. Stone retaining walls surrounded the mound. These mounds were not difficult to construct, they required hard work and lots of sweat to build them. 35,556 eight hour work days is the time some believe it took to complete the mound. Even with the many years that have past the structures still remain showing the great detail, craftsmanship and knowledge it took create these magnificent mounds. Most archeologists believe that the mounds