Data Collection Report - Flood Control District of Maricopa County

In addition to the large habitation sites in the vicinity of the project area,the Hohokam were also responsible for the construction of a largesystem of irrigation canals throughout the Salt River Valley. One of thelargest networks within this system was first identified by Omar Turneyin the 1920's as a group of large canals that he designated as “the secondcanal system” (he recorded the first canal system in the Tempe-Chandlerarea). From their head at the Salt River immediately south of PuebloGrande the canals flow in a west to northwesterly direction away fromthe river. Later studies of the canals indicate the main channels in thesecond canals system were as long as 16 miles, and may have irrigatedup to 20,000 acres during the Colonial period. Maps of the canalsforming the second canal system from both Omar Turney, FrankMidvale, and other researchers show segments running through theDurango ADMP project area. Figure V-2 shows the major sites andcanals recorded in the Durango ADMP project area.Cultural Resources In the Project AreaThirty-five sites have been recorded in the Durango ADMP project area.Five of the sites are historic and include the St. Johns canal, an unnamedcanal segment, a farmhouse, and two well sites (see the Historic Sectionfor a discussion of the history of this area). The remaining thirty sites areprehistoric. These sites include large, primary villages, smaller villages,and artifact scatters. Little is known about most of these sites exceptwhat was recorded several decades ago. Based on the sites that havebeen identified in the Durango ADMP, the eastern half of the projectarea contains abundant evidence for prehistoric irrigation canals, largevillages, and smaller sites. In the western half of the project area,comparatively few archaeological remains have been identified. Twolarge villages have been recorded in the western half of the project areanear the confluence of the Salt, Gila, and Agua Fria Rivers, the CashionRuin and the La Cienega Ruin. Although this region has been disturbedby modern agricultural activities, there are undoubtedly significantsubsurface remains at the sites.Five large primary villages have been recorded in the project area. Thesevillages represent some of the most significant prehistoric resources inthe Phoenix metropolitan area. From east to west, these sites include LasColinas, Pueblo del Rio, Pueblo del Alamo, the Cashion Ruin, and the LaCienega Ruin. These sites were recorded by early researchers, in the1920's through the 1940's. Las Colinas was reported to have at leastfour platform mounds (and possibly as many as ten), a ballcourt, andmany buildings that covered an area of 2 to 3 square miles. Excavationsat this site were carried out by the Arizona State Museum between 1982and 1984, in advance of freeway construction. The part of the site thatwas excavated yielded the remains of a platform mound, a ball court,irrigation canals, a reservoir, and hundreds of other features that includedhouses, burials, cooking pits, and trash pits. The site was inhabitedduring the Sedentary and Classic period, between about A.D. 900 and1400. The Sedentary period occupations include several house areas andassociated cemeteries. Much of the Classic period habitation evidencehad been stripped away by historic development and agriculture and theexcavations concentrated on the platform mound, associated houses, andscattered burials.The Cashion Ruin was investigated in 1978 and 1979 by the Museum ofNorthen Arizona for a pipeline related to the Palo Verde Nuclear plant.This site is on the northern edge of the Salt River, at its confluence withthe Gila River. The site was mapped by Omar Turney and later by FrankMidvale, who reported that it contained many trash mounds, houses, andthree ball courts. It was associated with a canal or series of canals thatwere several miles in length. The excavations there recovered evidenceof houses, burials, cooking pits, and many other pit types. Agriculturalplowing had leveled the mounds but many of the subsurface featureswere found to be intact. Dozens of cremations burials excavated by theMuseum revealed numerous red-on-buff pottery vessels, stone censers,palettes, and other mortuary accompaniments. The occupation appearsto have been primarily during the late Colonial and Sedentary periods,between A.D. 800 and 1100. Frank Midvale mapped two other siteseast of the Cashion Ruin. Near the east edge of the Cashion Ruin, in thecenter of Section 29, he mapped the Hacha Piedra Ruin. In the northernpart of Section 28, he mapped a site he referred to as Pueblo Poniente.Little is known about these sites except that Pueblo Poneinte may dateto the Classic period, based on Midvale’s notation that polychromepottery was present.Maps of features at other important sites, Pueblo del Rio, Pueblo delAlamo, and the La Cienega Ruin, were drawn by the early investigatorsbut no formal excavations have been done in recent times. These sites allappear to have been most intensively occupied between about A.D. 700and 1200. Development of this region in the 1940's for agriculture hasresulted in the leveling of most of the surface features at these villages.Nonetheless, it is very likely that subsurface features are abundant atthese sites.Prehistoric Themes EvaluationImportant themes for prehistoric sites in the Durango ADMP projectarea are many, but major topics include: 1) Settlement Patterns and SiteDevelopment, 2) Canal Irrigation Systems, and 3) Ceramic Exchangeand Interaction, and 4) Public Education relating to Prehistoric Land Useand Agriculture.DIBBLE & ASSOCIATES 45 DURANGO ADMPDATA COLLECTION REPORT