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Construction kicks off on center to showcase Mesa Grande site

Construction kicks off on center to showcase Mesa Grande site

by Gary Nelson - Sept. 4, 2012 10:22 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

Sixty years or so ago, Charles DeWitt took a couple of play-day souvenirs home to his mother.

Like almost any other Mesa kid of that era, he had been drawn to a big pile of dirt in the city's northwestern corner. And while other kids rode over the mound on their bikes, Charles decided to dig.

"I showed my mother what I'd dug up," DeWitt said. "She made me bring back both of the skulls and rebury them."

DeWitt, 70, returned to the scene of his childhood larceny Tuesday as that pile of dirt took a giant stride toward fulfilling a century-old community dream.

Mesa and Indian community representatives officially broke ground for a visitors center at the Mesa Grande ruins, which will open a modern window on a civilization that mysteriously vanished decades before Columbus set sail.

The ruins survived generations of bike-riding kids, a succession of private owners and Mesa's chronic inability to pay for anything fancier than the fence that finally was erected around them.

Finally, a series of grants from Indian communities and state historic-preservation funds provided the wherewithal.

Probably the most colorful of the previous owners was a B-movie actress named Acquanetta, who starred in such classics as "Captive Wild Woman" and "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" in the 1940s.

She and her husband, car dealer Jack Ross, bought the site from an archaeologist in 1962.Acquanetta said her interest was cultural, an outgrowth of her Native American ancestry.

By the 1980s Mesa was keen to buy the ruins, but the city and Acquanetta locked horns over the price. Mesa threatened to use eminent domain until the parties finally agreed on a $1.1 million deal in 1987.

Mesa talked about building an archaeological park almost immediately, but never dug up the dough. A group called the Mesa Grande Community Alliance was among those that kept the idea alive during the ensuing quarter-century.

"Today, we are one step closer to providing the means for generations to come to learn about those who have gone before us, who also loved and worked this land," said Stephanie Wright, co-chairwoman of the community group.

"In the past, Mesa Grande was probably one of the most important Hohokam sites in what is today Arizona, and certainly today as a ruin is one of the most important archaeological sites still extant," said Tom Wilson, administrator of the Arizona Museum of Natural History in downtown Mesa.

He said that in its zenith, Mesa Grande was "a large political and religious center that would have had a village surrounding it, and it was the place that also probably managed the great canals that were coming off the Salt River near here."

Those canals, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said, inextricably entwine the Hohokam with us, their modern successors. In both eras, he said, human ingenuity has overcome a hostile desert.

"The desert is more for Gila monsters and rattlesnakes, not for human beings," Smith said. "But through the centuries, people have defied the desert and have lived here, have flourished here, have perished here. ... The fact that a people could do this and succeed, and then perish because the desert is unforgiving, reminds us that we're more connected than we think."

Martin Harvier, vice president of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, said, "This is a special day for our community. Our people know about this place ... and there's nothing we could do about it because it's no longer in our territory."

Mesa Grande will be important for the community's young people, he said, not just for its historic and spiritual significance, but because the ancients dug their canals with sticks and baskets and built their villages by hand.

"It's important for our young ones to know that they had to work for what was built here," Harvier said.

The site's traditional roots were emphasized Tuesday when Jonah Ray, a member of the Onk Akimel O'odham Community, performed a blessing in both English and his native tongue.

His words, already barely audible, were drowned out when an airliner roared directly overhead, a symbolic jet-age counterpoint to his ancient prayers.

Wilson said the interpretive center is being kept small to preserve the site's tranquil atmosphere. There are preliminary plans, he said, for coverings to protect some of the ruins' more fragile areas from erosion. The park is expected to open in January.

Mesa Grande timeline

Circa 1100 -- Hohokam build Mesa Grande platform mound.

Circa 1450 -- Hohokam civilization vanishes.

1856 -- Anglo settlers first chronicle the Mesa Grande ruins.

1878 -- Mesa is founded.

1892 -- Elmer Ellsworth Lewis homesteads a site that includes the ruins.

1916 -- Madora Barker and her husband buy the land; after his death she takes pains to preserve the mound.

1927 -- Mesa residents parade down Main Street to support creating a public park at the ruins, which are bought that year by archaeologist Frank Midvale.

1927 -- Phoenix opens Pueblo Grande ruins.

1962 -- Midvale sells site to Jack and Acquanetta Ross; she keeps the property after the couple's divorce.

1987 -- Mesa pays Acquanetta $1.1 million for the site in hopes of creating an archaeological park.

2006 -- A grant from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community funds preliminary work; state historic-preservation funds and additional Indian grants later cover nearly the entire project.

Tuesday -- Ground is broken.

For more details, go to azmnh.org.

Officials break ground on long-awaited Mesa Grande Visitors Center

Officials break ground on long-awaited Mesa Grande Visitors Center

Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 7:47 am

By Mike Sakal, Tribune

At the age of 93, Sam Lewis still gets emotional about his grandparents’ former property in west Mesa — the one he and his family knew as home in the 1920s, long after the ancient Hohokam lived there.

When he was a boy, Lewis, the grandson of Elmer and Anna Rebecca Lewis, lived in the 1000 block of Date Street near Brown Road and 10th Street — on the Mesa Grande Ruins property — and liked running “up the hill” next to their house.

“I grew up on that hill,” Lewis said Tuesday as he pointed to the 27-foot high mound after the long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony of the Mesa Grande Ruins Visitors Center for what history preservationists deem an archaeological treasure.

Lewis was among about 100 people in attendance for the groundbreaking on the 6-acre site on Tuesday.

Lewis, of Payson, who is one of three surviving Lewis grandchildren, attended the event with his sister, Verdene Lewis Rogers, 86, of Mesa. He said, “This place was home to us.”

The Mesa Grande Ruins is one of three historically significant sites, along with the Pueblo Grande Ruins in Phoenix and the Casa Grande Ruins, containing prehistoric remains throughout the state. Mesa Grande represents the remains of one of the two largest and most complex ancient Hohokam platform mound communities in the United States.

The Hohokam (“Those who are no longer here”) built and used the temple mound site once covering about 600 acres overlooking the Salt River between approximately A.D. 1100 and 1450 when the community perished, according to the Mesa Grande Ruins Community Alliance. The community later benefited from the birth of the canal system designed by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community who built and maintained a system for a source of water for progress and economic development.

The center will be a valuable tool in teaching future generations and residents of the surrounding bustling neighborhood about the historical significance of the site and the people who settled it. The $750,000 project, which was made possible mostly through a number of grants for a 1,000-square-foot visitors center and a walking trail including one from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community, is scheduled to be completed in early 2013.

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, Salt River Pima-Maricopa community vice president Martin Harvier, Mesa City Council member Dave Richins who lives near the site, Dr. Tom Wilson, administrator of the Arizona Museum of Natural History, James Garrison, officer of the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, and Dale Marr, president and CEO of Concord General Contracting, the firm building the center, also were at the groundbreaking.

It was Lewis’ family who homesteaded the property in 1892 around the time some of his relatives were excavating on the property. After returning from a lunch break, they noticed that part of their excavating efforts had caved in, revealing more of the ruins that first became known to modern man in 1856, according to city records.

Similar to the native people who lived on the land before them, the Lewis family grew crops such as watermelon and corn, anything they could to make a living before their grandparents sold the property in 1927, said Verdene Lewis Rogers. “It was a peaceful place,” she said.

Jonah Ray, a member of the Onk Akimel O’odham Community, performed the blessing of the sacred site.

The project is about a year behind schedule as various organizations sought funds to make the project complete while downsizing the scope of the project, but Stephanie Wright, co-chair of the Mesa Grande Alliance knows it will be worth the wait.

“This has been a long time coming,” Wright said.

The Mesa Grande Ruins has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978 and more recently was designated as an Arizona 2012 Centennial Legacy site thanks to private owners like the Lewis family and state history officials who knew the importance of preserving the site, an accomplishment in itself through past decades as the property was in private ownership until 1985, they year the city purchased it.

“The private owners realized the importance and significance of the site through the years,” Garrison said. “They were the stewards of preserving the site. This was one of the most meaningful sites in Arizona because it was the center of activity. This was ‘the place.’”

Contact writer: (480) 898-6533 or msakal@evtrib.com