Arizona's Gila: once mighty river now a meandering stream

The Gila River at Winkelman, Arizona

You’d never guess it by looking at it today, but the Gila River was once one of Arizona’s greatest rivers. Today it’s a shadow of its former self.

Once upon a time, however, water flowed so plentiful through it, the Hohokams, a tribe in southcentral Arizona, diverted its waters to create the world’s most advanced irrigation system in the Third Century B.C. near what is now Coolidge, Arizona.

The Hohokams began abandoning their settlement sometime in the early 1500s. By 1550 no one was left. No one knows the real reason why they left, but there is some speculation the Gila began drying up and could no longer support their irrigation systems. Remains of the irrigation canals can be seen at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument at Coolidge.

Remains of the Hohokams' irrigation system

Today, it’s a meandering stream as it winds its way through the mountains along Highway 77 in Arizona.  It grows shallow underneath the hot Arizona sun, and sometimes completely dries up in this area. When it’s like this, it’s hard to imagine, that at 640miles long, it’s one of the longest rivers in the western United States. The river starts in New Mexico, winds its way down Arizona where, what’s left of it, empties into the Colorado River near Yuma.

Much of its route is through wilderness area that is rich in wildlife such as elk, bighorn sheep and black bears. It also is a good place to see birds such as wild turkeys and grouse.

Globe, Arizona, park showcases ancient Indian ruins

Besh Ba Gowah Archeological Park

Besh Ba Gowah is one of the more significant archeological finds of the Desert Southwest. The ruins were constructed by Native Americans at least eight centuries ago.

The people who built the 164-room stone structure were originally known as Hohokams, the same tribe that built an amazing irrigation system in 300 BC in Casa Grande, Arizona. The Globe, Arizona, Hohokams assimilated other native cultures into theirs so much so they lost their Hohokam identify. For lack of anything better, archeologists called them Salados. The Salados traded far and wide, often with tribes as far as a thousand miles away.  A collection of the Pacific Coast seashells they traded for can be seen at the on-site museum.

The Salados built a warren of rooms and buildings; some of the buildings were two stories high. Two of these buildings have been restored. Stones for the complex were hauled from nearby Pinal Creek. Except for the restored buildings, the remaining walls aren’t very high. Doorways are only a couple of feet high. Some of the rooms are small, while others are bigger. They were used as living quarters and for storage, among other uses. Today, some of the rooms are filled with wildflowers and cactus, rather than home furnishings, some of which you can see at the museum.

Globe was founded around 1875 as a mining camp. This resulted in the Apaches giving the place the name of Besh Ba Gowah, which translates as “metal camp.”

The Salados disappeared from Besh Ba Gowah around 1400 AD, about 50 years before the Hohokams disappeared from Casa Grande.

The on-site museum is small, but excellent. A 140minute video provides an introduction to the site. The museum displays artifacts, such as highly decorative pottery, found in the ruins. It also has a replica of what the ruins might have looked like when they were used by the Salados.

The City of Globe operates the museum and archeological park today. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; it is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.  It’s located at 1324 South Jesse Hayes Road. Turn onto Saguaro Drive from Highway 60. Stay on the winding round for about 1.4 miles, then make a right turn onto Jesse Hays Road and follow the signs. There’s a city park with picnic facilities across the parking lot from the ruins.

 

See more pictures of Besh Ba Gowah on mty YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/8idhAn-17Hg.
 

Besh Ba Gowah ruins as they might have looked originally

Casa Grande Ruins highlight early people's achievements

Casa Grande ruins

Ancient civilizations may have been primitive by our standards today, but they still accomplished some pretty amazing things.

Take, for example, the Hohokams, a prehistoric people who lived in the Sonora Desert.  Back in 300 BC, they built a canal system that was considered an engineering marvel in its day.  They used only primitive tools, digging a 220-mile canal system to bring water from the Gila and Salt rivers to their crops. The canals were deep enough that fish sometimes swam up them, providing another source of food. The remains of their canal system can be seen today at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument at Coolidge, Arizona.

The Hohokams were a self-sustaining people. They grew a variety of edible foods, including two corn crops a year; tobacco, and cotton, which they spun into thread and wove into clothes. They stored food and seeds in large decorative pottery containers. They hunted and they fished. They made fine jewelry.

In the 14^th century, they built a huge adobe house that was 60 feet long and four stories high. They surrounded it with lesser walls. .In the 15^th century, the Ancestral Sonora Desert People, as these Native Americans are known today, simply began to disappear. There was no one there by 1694 when Father Eusebio Kino came across this large house and compound. He called it “casa grande,” which means “great house.” Father Kino, a Jesuit from Italy, came to the New World with the Spanish in the 17^th century, and explored the southwest, founding churches t Tumacacori and San Xavier del Bac, both south of Tucson.

The large house today is under a roof to protect it as much as possible from the elements. The adobe is cracked; support beams have been added to keep it standing as long as possible.

The ruins make a good day trip from Phoenix or Tucson and can easily be combined with a visit to St.Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery.

The ruins are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, though they are closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas days. Operated by the National Park Service, the ruins are located on Highway 87 just across from Safeway Plaza in Coolidge.

You can see more pictures of the ruins on my Youtube slideshow.