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Hohokam, the greatest irrigation farmers of the Desert!

The Hohokam culture built some of the largest and most advanced canal systems in all of pre-Columbia’s North America. The farming started 4,100 years ago.

At the Casa grande ruins, you will gaze upon a large 4 story ruin, made out of what is called Caliche, built about 700 years ago. Casa grande in Spanish means “Big house”

The openings in the ruin align with the sun and moon st different times during the year

Archaeologists believe these were called plazas, where women may have prepared food and weave baskets.

The Hohokam name is borrowed by the 0’odham language and used by archaeologists to identify the group in the Sonoran desert.The Hohokam were genius hard working farmers and grew corn, pumpkin, beans, and many other crops. It is quite amazing that the Casa grande ruin was made out of caliche and has stood the test of time!

These cacti and plants of the desert were also eaten.

The structure of a Hohokam home is as in this image

Inside the visitors center, you will learn about this culture, in this image is a depiction of what it would’ve looked like.

The Hohokam were skilled artisans and used Concho shells to make jewelry and make other goods for their markets to trade.

A paint pot, is a 4 hole pot ceramic that contains original paint used by the Hohokam to adorn their faces and body.

Beautiful pottery found at the Casa grande ruins dug up by archaeologists.

They definitely knew how to use all natural resources to survive and definitely had a great irrigation system !! Their irrigation canal in Phoenix was by far the most complex and a portion of these canals was actually renovated for the Salt River Project.