Casa Grande is a growing city with small town charm! Located midway between Phoenix & Tucson, the community of Casa Grande highlights both historic & modern amenities. Casa Grande offers a broad range of facilities and activities for residents of all ages that are available year-round. And let’s not forget if you’re hungry! Casa Grande has some of the most authentic food around. Little Sombrero, Ricardo’s, Cook E Jar, L’Grande Cafe, Big House Cafe and BeDillons are just a few of the great places to eat in this fantastic town.
The town of Casa Grande sits almost in the middle of Phoenix and Tucson and has a really interesting history, it was a planned community built to support the Southern Pacific Railroad. But the town itself was named for the ancient pueblo ruins, the nation’s first archeological preserve, and is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever discovered in North America! The ruins sit amongst an area that had a complex system of canals and historians do not know whether the “big house” was a gathering place or a marker. About 2000 ancient desert dwellers and prehistoric farmers lived on this site, and like a lot of similar sites in Arizona, researchers have no idea why or how they disappeared. The ruins are large and well preserved given that preservation activities began as early as 1883! In the 1860s, Casa Grande actually became a tourist hotspot due to the fact that the railroad line had been completed (the town was originally called “Terminus!”) not too far from town with an adjacent stagecoach line to the Casa Grande. With the increase in tourism, vandalism of the site became prolific (even graffiti!) and a custodian was hired to look after the site followed by President Harrison creating a prehistoric cultural reserve, and finally, President Woodrow Wilson made it a national monument.
Casa Grande is sometimes called the land of opportunity for businesses! It is the home of great employers like Abbot Nutrition, ACO Polymer, Frito Lay, Hexcel Corporation, Daisy Brand and so much more!
