Arizona Museum of Natural History to open Mesa Grande Ruins Welcome Center

After 30 years of effort to preserve the Mesa Grande Ruins in Arizona and open them up to the public, archaeologist Jerry Howard may finally see all his hard work come to fruition when the Arizona Museum of Natural History opens up a welcome center at the site.

According to the Arizona Republic, the legendary center of a long ago thriving Hohokam Village, the Mesa Grande ruins welcome center is part of Arizona’s Centennial Project, an effort by the state to designate historical areas “legacy projects,” protecting, or restoring them, for posterity.

The Mesa Grande ruins, a large temple mound that sits on the south side of the Salt River, was connected to Phoenix’s Pueblo Grande, the two prehistoric villages sitting a scant 8-miles apart at the head of major irrigation canals, the largest system of its kind in prehistoric North America.  The Mesa Grande ruins will be combined in an exhibit with the Pubelo Grande at the Museum of Natural History, offering visitors a much clearer idea of the massive scope of the Hohokam civilization, Suzzane Fish, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, told the Republic.

The plan is to build a 1,200 square foot welcome center, that would be open from October to May.  They hope to debut the facility by this February.