Nothing about tractors

[Redbirdman 7]

Gramma and I took a few friends to see the ' Oldest House in the United States'....actually they took us! Our neighbors had friends from Illinois visiting and they wanted to see CASA GRANDE RUINS!......

Well, I been flying over this spot for 6 years and heard about it but never went there before.

It seems in the early 18oo's cowboys found this erie site of an adobe house in the middle of the desert.

Research showed it was a 1000 year old town of native Americans that had hundreds of dwellings and farm land.......

and that at least 700 years ago a 'big house' was built (Thus the name Casa Grande)

The basis of the big house was still standing in the late 1800's so as soon as the United States adopted Arizona they made this a special place and protected it. In 1932 a big roof was built over the ruins and it was made, I think, the first National Park.

The house was made of mud called 'coleechee'.....which is really like concrete. It was 3 stories high and they figure it took 3 years to build and was lived in for over 100 years.

You can see it was 'engineered' in that the walls were 3 feet thick at the base and tapered as it got taller. the floors were all logs and were long gone.

The mountain in the back is actually an extinct volcano (Its called Mr. Volcano Mountain) and I live about 10 miles North of it,

The letter "C" (meaning Cooledge) was put on the volcano (like many spots around Phoenix) in the 1940's to help WW2 pilots training at Tuscon and Phoenix from getting lost.

Of course the gates are needed to keep the morons and nincompoops out....but there was actually 'graffiti' inside on the walls from over 100 years ago when cowboys would scratch their name and a date on the wall.

After living on the East Coast for so many years and seeing all the taverns and houses that were 250 years old at the most........it was really inspiring to see a house over 700 years old .........

LEARN MORE AT THE GOV SITE

Thanks for reading, ED :WRS:

[dclarke 4,011]

Thanks Ed, I had never heard of this before.

[can whlvr 991]

wow,thats probally the first high rise in the us

[sgtsampay 117]

Thanks for sharing with us. very nice read. :hide:

[Horse'n Around 22]

Thanks for posting this Ed,great pictures. I love this place! Ed and anyone else that finds themselves with some time to spare in AZ... if you ever get the chance to, go to Walnut Canyon. Its outside of Flagstaff. Its all ancient cliff dwellings and they in a incredible state of preservation. Be forewarned it involves a fair amount of walking and there are a lot of stairs but you actually walk along on the side of cliffs and get to see and even enter some of these ancient cliff dwellings.You can make a weekend or week of it by going to Sunset Crater which is an extinct volcano and check out the lava fields and everything which is also near by. Also You HAVE to go to Meteor Crater. On your there or on your way back towards the Phoenix area check out Montezuma's Castle and Montezuma's Well. You will not be sorry you did it! Ive spent a lot of time at these places and it never gets old!

John

[Gerry w 2]

Thanks Ed, very cool! I'm going to try to use that in History class with the 6th grade this week!

Thanks to you as well John, how many of us leave the states to visit sites and never see what we have in our own country?