GREAT WEEKENDS

On the Road to Casa Grande Even Getting There Can Be an Adventure

When it was founded as a railroad town in 1879, Casa Grande boasted a permanent population of six souls. Today 21,000 folks call the place home, and most live by the philosophy that anyone who comes around and doesn't have a good time, well, it's their own darn fault.

My sentiments exactly. Where else can you stay at a resort hotel that's a virtual love letter to baseball, or dine on prime rib in the middle of a cactusgarden, or visit an ancient Indian ruin, and then shop till you drop at not one but two factory outlet malls on the same day?

garden, or visit an ancient Indian ruin, and then shop till you drop at not one but two factory outlet malls on the same day?

Casa Grande sits just off Interstate 10 about 45 miles south of Phoenix, and the usual directions on how to reach it often go: Get on the freeway, drive till you get there, then stop.

But for me, getting to - and around Casa Grande constituted a major portion of aneclectic break from routine. Getting off to a good start from Phoenix, for example, encompassed a visit to the Wild Horse Pass Casino on the Gila River reservation. Not to gamble but for breakfast, a satisfying allyou-can-eat affair that sets you back only $2. Just don't stop at the slots on the way to the dining room unless you're really feeling lucky.

A few miles down the road, the Gila River Arts and Crafts Center offers another diversion.

The center, shaped like a coiled snake, encompasses a museum that explores the history of the Gila River community. An excellent gift shop displays high-quality crafts by artists from the Pima, O'odham, Maricopa, Apache, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni tribes with lower prices than you'll find in more tourist-oriented shops in larger cities.

If you followed my advice and resisted the siren call of the slots, you'll have enough cash left to make a shopping stop. Two choices, the Tanger Outlet Center and Factory Stores of America sprawl within a couple miles of each other, adjacent to 1-10easy to get to and plenty of parking. Between them they provide almost 60 stores to help ease wallet bulge and guarantee you go home with more stuff than you brought-everything from clothing and shoes to housewares. Luggage, too, probably, so you'll have more room to stash your purchases. But you'll need a home base for your fun in and around Casa Grande. The town offers more than 500 hotel and motel rooms, but for my money, you can't beat the Francisco Grande Resort and Golf Club. And you don't even have to like golf, although the hotel boasts it has the finest course in the county-it's also the longest PGA course in the state-and during the summer months offers guest packages that include unlimited play.

For many, though, the Francisco Grande's attraction is the hotel itself, and its history. Located four miles west of downtown, the resort was developed in the early 1960s by San Francisco Giants owner Horace Stoneham as a spring training facility for his team. The eight-story hotel contains 112 rooms and suites, some as large as 1,500 square feet. But there's more: The overhang on the main building was designed to resemble the brim of a player's cap. The swimming pool is shaped like a bat and the wading pool like a ball. The parking area mimics the shape of a baseball diamond. The Giants left Casa Grande for Phoenix in the spring of 1970, and the playing fields also are gone. But the baseball theme remains, and it's not hard to find someone on the property who's willing to recall those halcyon days when Willie Mays slept there at night and roamed center field during the day.

There are plenty of choices for eating out, too, from fast food joints to something as out of the ordinary as downtown's BeDillon's, where history and botany share the menu with the prime rib and seafood. The restaurant occupies an 80-year-old former private house surrounded by a cactus garden with more than 100 prickly specimens from around the world.

The restaurant's "museum" holds a collection of Hohokam pottery, early American firearms, rudimentary farming and hunting implements, books, newspaper clippings, and tools from the cowboy trade. This is the kind of eatery where you hope your order doesn't come too soon, allowing more time to spend browsing the exhibits and mini botanical garden.

When visiting Casa Grande there are two things you can't miss: Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and if you hit the right weekend in February the O'odham Tash celebration.

First, the monument, located 20 miles east of downtown, and the explanation of the town's name which means "big house" in Spanish. The structure was erected in the early 1300s by the Hohokam, who were probably ancestors of Native Americans still living in southern Arizona. Centuries after the Hohokam left the area, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino discovered the Casa Grande Ruins, which may have been used to study the sky so the people could plan their ceremonials or plant their crops at the most auspicious times. A huge steel canopy now protects the major structure on the site, a three-story adobe, making the thing look, from a distance, like a giant UFO hovering above the desert. The monument also preserves an impressive collection of artifacts, including water jars and bowls, even some corn and wild beans.

And now, O'odham Tash. This annual spectacle, scheduled for February 12-14 this year, combines a huge Native American rodeo with ceremonial dance contests, a big parade, a powwow, and an arts and crafts fair. Indians from across the nation turn the community into a colorful splash of traditional dress accented by the whirl of rodeo rides. The festival, pronounced "o-au-tumn tash," draws more than 900 rodeo participants and countless dancers and artisans, and has been hailed as "one of the most important events of the year" by American cultural officials. One visit, and you'll see why.

If you've got any energy left at the end of your stay, a good way to round up your visit is a stop at the Casa Grande Historical Society's excellent little museum in Heritage Hall, an old fieldstone building that served as a church for many years. Here, tours, lectures, workshops, and kid's programs explore the area's history, the railroad years, the shift to an agricultural-based economy. Maybe you'll leave, as I did, with a better understanding of a desert town where ancient ruins and mega outlet malls coexist with a showplace hotel that wears a baseball cap.

WHEN YOU GO

LOCATION: 45 miles south of Phoenix.

WEATHER: Average temperature in February: high, 71° F.; low, 39°.

LODGING: The Francisco Grande Resort and Golf Club, 26000 Gila Bend Highway, (520) 836-6444, offers a peek at Casa Grande's baseball history along with great golf. National-chain motels include the Holiday Inn, 777 N. Pinal Ave., (520) 426-3500; and Best Western Casa Grande Suites, 665 Via Del Cielo, (520) 836-1600.

RESTAURANTS: Don't miss Dillon's Cactus Garden Restaurant, 800 N. Park Ave., (520) 836-2045; closed Sunday, Monday, major holidays. For a taste of the Southwest, try local favorite Serrano's Old Town Mexican Cafe & Cantina, 321 N. Florence St., (520) 836-5432. For a great cowboy meal, stop by the High Chaparral Steakhouse/ Cottonhill Saloon, 1148 E. Florence Blvd., (520) 836-6002.

ATTRACTIONS: Wild Horse Pass Casino, toll-free (800) 946-4452. Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, (520) 723-3172. Gila River Arts and Crafts Center, (602) 963-3981. Factory Stores of America, toll-free (800) SHOP USA. Tanger Outlet Center, (520) 836-9663. O'odham Tash Native American celebration, Feb. 12-14, (520) 836-4723. Arizona State Open Chili Championship, March 6, toll-free (800) 916-1515. Historical Society, 110 W. Florence Blvd., (520) 836-2223.

MORE INFORMATION: Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce, 575 N. Marshall St., toll-free (800) 916-1515 or (520) 836-2125.