What is now called the Valley of the Sun was once the center of another urban civilization. Their name for themselves is lost to us but the Akimel O’odham people of historic times called them the Hohokam, meaning “those who have gone.” The Hohokam (ho-ho-KAHM) began to settle this are in about the year 400 CE. They built canals to irrigate their fields with the waters of the Salt River. In time the civilization grew and spread through the valley with many satellite communities and as many as 50,000 inhabitants. 
They constructed sunken ovals that are believed to be ball-courts and also large temple mounds. When they disappeared en masse from the valley in about 1450, they left behind their mounds and 1000s of miles of canals branching out from the river in all directions. It was these canals that inspired Jack Swilling to develop the valley for agriculture. He happened upon the valley and its ruins in 1867 while working out of the mining town of Wickenburg farther north. He envisioned an agricultural paradise. The land is fertile, just dry. If ancient people could irrigate the desert, he thought, so could he. Swilling’s English friend, “Lord” Darrell Duppa, suggested the name “Phoenix” for the tiny farming town because of the city’s “rebirth” from the remains of an ancient one through a return to canal irrigation.
Today many of the canal and settlement remains of the Hohokam are under the streets of this urban phoenix. One place where the past has not been black-topped over is at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park. The site preserves the largest temple mound in the Valley and the museum houses a large collection of Hohokam artifacts. Not only did they grow the “three sisters” (corn, squash and beans) but they were astute exploiters of the desert environment. The saguaro cactus has edible fruits and a wood-like ribbed structure that can be used for fencing and all kinds of tools. The Hohokam also participated in an extensive trade network. They imported shells from people who lived near the ocean, worked the shells into rings, bracelets and other jewelry, then exported the finished products all other the southwest! Amazing! These long-distance connections may explain some the cultural connections to the temple-building, ball-playing Mesoamerican tribes that have been noted for the Hohokam.
Outside, are the actual ruins. Pueblo Grande was the largest settlement in the Valley and it had the largest ball court and the largest temple mound. The mound is close to the river and right next to one of the main canals so there is likely a connection between the authority represented by the mound and the canals themselves. Parts of the mound were once 20 feet high, and then buildings built on top of that. One room features a curious northeast-facing doorway that has been suggested to be part of a solar observatory for keeping track of the seasons. There were also some re-created Hohokam dwellings know as pithouses. The floor was slightly sunken and a wooden frame and roof built around the pit. Matt thinks we should have one of our own someday. He says we could use it like a cabin for camping on our back forty… when we have a back forty.
It was interesting to go see this spot were human occupation of this whole area really began, long before the United States was a going concern. The only downer to the day was that the cash register was down in the gift shop so after we had picked out some postcards and a book of native American recipes we were told we couldn’t buy them. Why didn’t the lady sitting there tell us this before we spent ten minutes browsing the shelves. Also, she was totally unapologetic about it.
When we got home we soon forgot our annoyance because we made the best dinner ever. When we say that, we think it really means something. We made a vegetable sauce that was eggplant, broccoli, zuccuni, onions and garlic sautéed and then simmered in red wine vinegar. To this we added a cheese sauce made from a block of parmesan cheese. This cheesy, vegetably sauce was spooned over a base of tomato-basil fettuccini. To top it off we had Italian marinated chick’n patties (a fake-meat product). Wow, wow and wow.
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