Casa Grande, Arizona – Week 2

Everything slowed down considerably during our second week in Casa Grande, including the weather. Temperatures got down into freezing territory at night and rarely worked up to “comfy” during the day so it seemed like an excellent opportunity to check out the Historical Society Museum in Casa Grande. The museum is housed in an addition to an old church made of native stone taken from the Gila River. The displays are exceptionally tidy and coherent, not all willy-nilly like so many small museums.

The tour kicks off with a brief movie about the Casa Grande ruins located near Coolidge. A self-guided tour then led us through displays of pottery and baskets, dioramas of early Casa Grande, the segregated school operated by Rebecca Dallis, bits and pieces of old farm equipment and a display of women’s dresses dating from the ‘50s and ‘60s. It’s a bit off-putting to see items of clothing similar to what one wore to the Sweetheart Ball now gathering dust in a museum. My, how time flies.

And, as is usually the case, we came upon an Interesting Character referenced in a museum display. This chap, James Addison Reavis, was known as The Baron of Arizona and was a scam artist of some magnitude. Laying claim to huge portions of central Arizona and parts of New Mexico with nothing more than forged land grant documents takes some kind of chutzpah. Check the link above to learn more about “Baron” Reavis.

Driving on the outskirts of Casa Grande and then heading north toward Phoenix, one cannot help but notice acres and acres of cotton. Huge bales outline the fields and wisps of it cling to roadside plants. It easy to think of the desert as infertile but in reality all it lacks is water. Throw in some irrigation and you can grow just about anything that requires a long growing season and plenty of sun. Such as cotton. We had a big light-bulb-going-on moment when a museum display put a name to the area’s cotton crop….it’s known worldwide as Pima Cotton, first grown in the region by the Native American tribe known as the Pimas. Duh. Why we didn’t figure that out without help is beyond me.

One of the highlights of our (well, mine anyhow) stay in Casa Grande was the opportunity to hang out with Bonnie, a former member of the Fulltimers Chapter. She’s a wonderful beader and kindly invited me along to participate in her park’s beading group. Naturally I managed to mess up both projects attempted – performance anxiety, I guess – but came away with sufficient knowledge about both techniques to replicate them in the privacy of my own home at a later date.

It wasn’t much of a drive to our winter den in Apache Junction and we were on-site and semi settled in shortly after noon. Our Wyoming buddies, Russ and Rochelle, are here and entertained us for dinner and a rousing game of Aggravation. It’s so nice not to have to think about making dinner after a hard day on the road!

This is our time to see doctors and dentists and attend to all those pesky housekeeping chores that can’t be done when on the move so road reports may be few and far between over the next few months. In case we don’t chat again soon, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.