Savvy-Boomers

Last weekend our family took a couple of hours to explore the Pueblo Grande Museum which is just a little over a mile from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.  It really is an Indian village that was occupied for several hundred years from about 1000 AD to 1450 AD which is around the time Columbus discovered the Americas.  It consists of an indoor museum and the remains of the homes and outdoor ball court that was used for various types of competitions by the early inhabitants of the area.  The existence of this village in the desert Southwest was made possible by an elaborate series of canals that enabled the inhabitants to grow crops and support a population that may have been as large as 3500 people.

 The museum is located 40^th Street and Washington slightly North and East of the airport.  The admission fee was $5.00 (I am a senior) and there is a discount for kids too. The inside portion of the museum gave a complete history of the various people who occupied the area and explained how they lived in this arid climate.  They developed an extensive trading network which reached all the way to the Pacific Coast and into Northern Mexico. 

 You can take the one kilometer walking trail around the outside of the village and see the remains of the homes they lived in along with a platform mound and a ball court.  There’s even a small garden which will give you an idea of the types of crops that were grown here.  The trail can be very hot in the summer so be sure to take along an umbrella to keep off the sun.  There are only a couple of shaded rest areas along the trail and you should take along a bottle of drinking water. 

 The Pueblo Grande Museum and Archeological Park sponsors hikes into the surrounding mountains with a trained guided who can tell you all about the plants and animals that are native to the area and explain about the petroglyphs you’ll see along the way.  In October there will be a guided hike into the South Mountain Park and the fee will be $10.00. It will be on a Saturday morning to make it convenient for those who are working during the week.  For more information contact Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department at 602-495-0901 or online go to www.pueblogrande.com