LEGENDS OF THE LOST

legends of the lost Could Some of Aztec Emperor Montezuma's Golden Treasure Be Buried at Casa Grande?

In 1519 Spanish invaders led by Hernan Cortes fought their way to Tenochtitlan and confined the Aztec Emperor Montezuma to his palace. Montezuma, who was both emperor and god by Aztec tradition, and who believed the Spaniards were descendants of the god Quetzalcoatl, sent word to lesser rulers in the mining regions of his empire to come to the capital and to deliver tribute to the conquerors. But did the Aztecs also spirit some of their treasure out of reach of their oppressors, with or without the knowledge of Montezuma? And did some of the treasure end up hidden in the land that would become Arizona, among ruins left by another ancient civilization? One persistent legend says Aztec treasure was buried in the ancient Hohokam ruin called Casa Grande (“great house” in Spanish), sitting 1,200 miles north of Tenochtitlan near today's Coolidge, Arizona. There are vague stories of an olla (clay pot) filled with gemstones, including emeralds— or stones that looked like emeralds. Some yarns, including a muddy story in Desert magazine in November, 1966, say the treasure had been gathered by the Hohokam and not imported from Mexico. The Hohokam were a prehistoric people who irrigated farms along the rivers of central Arizona. Hohokam is a Pima term that translates loosely as “those who have gone.” The stashing of Aztec gold could have happened, if the treasure were spirited away before the Aztec empire collapsed. Within a few weeks of his capture, Montezuma was killed during an attack on his palace as he exhorted defenders not to fight the invaders. There's little documentation to support the story of treasure buried at Casa Grande. In the 1933 book Lost Mines of the Great Southwest (subtitled “Including Stories of Hidden Treasures”), author John D. Mitchell related the tale. He offered few specifics, and he attributed those to the oral tradition of the Pimas who now occupy a part of the former Hohokam territory. Mitchell noted that in 1932, a buried treasure worth millions was unearthed from ruins at Monte Alban, Mexico. However, a history of Mexico by Robert Ryal Miller suggests that the riches were Toltec treasure in a Toltec archaeological site— right where it should be. Thomas Penfield, another expert on lost and hidden treasures, says the tale of such a find at Casa Grande is almost certainly “pure legend.” Nevertheless, he included it in his Book Dig Here! and referred to the treasure of Monte Alban. So the legend persists. And as with any good legend, fable, or tall tale, there's enough could-be in the story to make it alluring. Dean Cook, an Arizona folk songwriter, concludes one of his songs about hidden treasure by saying he'd “rather have the story than the gold.” Anyway, you can't go digging around Casa Grande ruins today. The structure has been a national monument since 1918, protected by the National Park Service. The ruin also is protected by a tin roof on tall supports, so weather won't finish destroying it. However, there are plenty of other prehistoric sites around where treasure might have been hidden. Some apparently were tall structures, like Casa Grande, but their unprotected walls shriveled away. By 1520 the Hohokam who had built Casa Grande were gone from the area, probably vanquished by adverse weather conditions or worn-out soil. Many believe they evolved into today's Piman peoples. The complex Hohokam civilization had developed over 1,600 years. The people built networks of canals to carry water from the area's rivers to farm desert land. They grew cotton as early as A.D. 300. The founding of modern Phoenix, some 40 miles north of Casa Grande, was inspired in part by these ancient irrigation systems. But in their final century or so, the society of the Hohokam languished and "vanished" — that is to say that as archaeologists trace the Hohokam through their artifacts, they are not sure what became of the ancients after the late 1400s. They have not found a final link to today's Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples. The first European to record visiting Casa Grande was Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, the indefatigable Jesuit missionary whose name is synonymous with Spanish exploration of southern Arizona. He brought both Christianity and cattle to the Piman peoples. Kino first visited the ruin in 1694, and he visited nearby Pima villages in 1697, while companion Lt. Juan Mateo Manje measured the ruin and wrote down a description. Neither found any treasure.

The land south of the Gila River became part of the United States in 1854, when the Gadsden Purchase was ratified by Congress.

Casa Grande was set aside as a federal preserve in 1892, and archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution probed the ruins during the 1890s. They found walls four feet thick at the bottom of the ruin, built to support the earthen walls above. Upper floors were supported by cedar posts floated down the Gila River from the mountains.

The top of the 40-foot tower was apparently used as a look-out, for in the waning days of the Hohokam, some of their neighbors apparently were not so friendly. Holes in some walls aimed shafts of sun-light to tell the Hohokam when to plant, or perhaps when to celebrate a harvest. Similar line-ups existed in other cultures as a sort of religious calendar.

The Smithsonian researchers put an end to a prevalent theory that the towering structure had been built by a north-ern branch of the Aztecs, or the Toltecs before them. But these and other archaeologists who followed them found not treasure but evidence that the Hohokam had traded with the peoples of ancient Mexico. The Hohokam built ball courts usually identified with more southerly tribes, and feathers of tropical birds were found in their ruins at Casa Grande and elsewhere. In fact, Hohokam traders "exported" some of this Meso-American culture north to the prehistoric Sinagua and Anasazi ruins of northern Arizona.

Plenty of Hispanic and American adventurers poked through the Casa Grande ruins before the site became a national monument. There's a signature on a wall of Paulino Weaver, a mountain man and guide who led many early American parties through the region; he apparently signed his autograph in 1832. If these early visitors found any treasure from the Aztecs or other civilizations, they kept it to themselves.

The treasures found by archaeologists were in the form of pottery, arrowheads, and decorative or religious fetishes in the shapes of people and animals. They tell researchers much about the Hohokam, but not all they'd like to know.

Somewhere out there, where the ancients farmed and built their buildings, there may be hoards of Aztec treasure. And if not, we've still got a mighty fine legend.