to our knowledge concerning the Casa Grande.

[Footnote 1: Jour. of Amer. Ethn. and Arch., Cambridge, 1892, vol.
ii, page 179 et seq.]

DESCRIPTION.

THE CASA GRANDE GROUP.

The Casa Grande has been variously placed at from 2 leagues to 2 miles
south of Gila river. The writer has never traversed the distance from
the ruin to the river, but the ruin is about a mile from Walker ranch,
which is well known in that neighborhood, and about half a mile from the
river. This question, however, is not of much importance, as the ruin is
easily found by anyone looking for it, being located directly on one of
the stage routes from Casa Grande station, on the Southern Pacific
railroad, to Florence, Arizona, and about 9 miles below, or west of, the
latter place.

The name Casa Grande has been usually applied to a single structure
standing near the southwestern corner of a large area covered by mounds
and other debris, but some writers have applied it to the southwestern
portion of the area and even to the whole area. The latter seems the
proper application of the term, but to avoid confusion, where both the
settlement as a whole and that portion which has formed the theme of so
many writers are referred to, the settlement will be designated as the
Casa Grande group, and the single structure with standing walls as the
Casa Grande ruin.

Probably no two investigators would assign the same limits to the area
covered by the group, as the margins of this area merge imperceptibly
into the surrounding country. The accompanying map (plate LI) shows this
area as interpreted by the writer. The surface covered by well defined
remains, as there shown, extends about 1,800 feet north and south and
1,500 feet east and west, or a total area of about 65 acres.

[Illustration: Pl. LI: Map of Casa Grande Group.]

The Casa Grande ruin, as the term is here used, occupies a position near
the southwestern corner of the group, and it will be noticed that its
size is insignificant as compared with that of the entire group, or even
with the large structure in the north-central part of it. The division
of the group into northern and southern portions, which has been made by
some writers, is clearly shown on the map; but this division is more
apparent than real. The contour interval on the map is one foot--a
sufficiently small interval to show the surface configuration closely
and to bring out some of its peculiarities. Depressions are s