March 8, 2020 Casa Grande National Monument & San Xavier Mission

 Second day in Tucson, we headed out to Casa Grande National Monument.  It was east of Tucson and even though most of the drive was highway, this area of the country is really beautiful.

Casa Grande is a building of the Ancient Sonoran Desert People.  It was a central market place.  This location was at one time along several trade routes. Even though it was in the desert, the people knew how to find/produce food and medicine.  They knew how to build shelter.  They knew how to survive.  Over time, the desert came to be a little drier, a little hotter and eventually it was no longer sustainable to the growing population.  Many of the local modern tribes can trace their ancestry to the people of Casa Grande.

Early in the days of exploration, wagon trains often stopped here.  It was a landmark.  People of that time carved their names all over the structure.  You can see the names defacing this historic structure.

The park service has done a number of things to try to preserve what is left.  They have reinforced the base so that it wouldn't erode when the spring rains come (it rained a bit the day we were there) and they have built a large roof over the top of the structure.  Again, it helps preserve it from bad weather.  Other structures are left more to the elements.  There was a game field and the ruins of a number of smaller structures.  Up in the rafter of the large roof was a mating pair of owls.  I love the owls.  I took a stupid amount of pictures of the owls.

We had lunch at a picnic table and did one more pass around the park so the kids could see the owls and headed west back to Tucson.  We decided on one last stop and after looking at options, we decided on the San Xavier Mission.  This wouldn't have normally been on my list.  Its not part of the National Park Service and that's where I'm getting the majority of my list.  This is an active church that was founded in 1692 and the current building was completed in 1797.  Since that time, its survived changing nationalities multiple times, an earthquake, a lightning strike and many years of wear and tear.  There have been multiple repairs over the years but a full overall restoration didn't happen until 1992 when the put together a 5 year plan.  There is a documentary film showing in one of the rooms where you can watch what it took to save the building.  I loved that film, it was very interesting.  They talked about the process of saving the original cracked paint on the walls.  As many of the walls have murals, you can't just run down to Home Depot and slap on a new coat.  The process was fascinating.  Many modern techniques can't be used with the old adobe, and original materials and techniques have to be used.  This was a great stop.