To the right of the doorway and about shoulder high are a line of holes in the wall. These show where a roof, probably for shade, was socketed into the wall.
6. West Side.
Notice the series of horizontal cracks along the west wall of the Casa Grande. The cracks show that the walls were built with layers of caliche mud. Each layer was about 26 inches thick. Bricks were not used. The Indians did not make adobe bricks until taught by the Spanish priests centuries later.
Above the enlarged open doorway is a blocked one. The upper doorway was sealed by the Indians, but they left a small opening for ventilation at the bottom of the block. The large hole above the blocked doorway is where the original wooden lintel poles rotted away, causing part of the wall to fall.
Both to left and right of the blocked doorway are small windows in the north and south rooms. The left window is round and the right window is square.
In the 1880’s, Ed Schieffelin, the founder of Tombstone, Arizona, took this photograph of the Casa Grande. The structure has deteriorated little since then.
7. South Side.
Here are two more blocked doorways that originally led into the west second and third-story rooms. Doorways made by these Indians are smaller than modern entryways, but this does not mean that the people were small. During bad weather these openings could have been closed off with mats and skins, and the smaller the doorway, the easier it was to block. Moreover, it let in less cold air.
West Side of the Casa Grande