ENGINEERING THE PAST
SWEET HOME … MESA
Ancient Hohokams were masterful builders
Whether you’re a visitor, a transplant or a bit of both, the City of Mesa offers a Windy City-worthy welcome J E R R Y H O WA R D
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esa’s new Chicago Cubs training complex is an excellent example of modern engineering ingenuity. Beneath the site is a prehistoric canal system dug by the Hohokam people. “The ballpark, with its 21st century engineering feats, is on the same site of an engineering system from 1,000 years ago,” said Tom Wilson, director of the Arizona Museum of Natural History, located in Mesa. The canal system speaks to the massive man power of these prehistoric people. “They were very bright and ambitious people. The labor they put forth to build these canals was remarkable,” said Jerry Howard, curator of anthropology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History. The canals – reaching 45-feet-wide, 16-feet-deep and irrigating 110,000 acres of land – were dug with sticks. They were designed at just the right slope to ensure that water did not flow too fast or too slow. “Trying to figure out where to get that kind of [angle] took a great deal of brilliance,” said Howard. “It was an enormous engineering effort and a feat in terms of social and political organization.”
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art of it’s the weather; part of it’s the wide open spaces — both drive so many from the Windy City to the Valley of the Sun. “My wife Andi and I moved here 12 years ago because of the great weather and natural beauty, but ultimately, because of all the people from Chicago who were already here,” says Mesa resident Steve Rosenfield.
Mesa doesn’t play second
It’s the perfect response for folks from a sports-loving city, even if it does sound a little more Yogi Berra than Harry Caray. But it’s true; the Greater Phoenix area is the real Second City to Chicagoans. If you ask any one of them why — preferably over a Goose Island ale and an Italian beef sandwich at Diamond’s Sports Grille in Mesa — they’ll probably tell you someone in their family vacationed in Arizona one winter and never returned from the golf course. THE AR IZONA R EPUBLIC
Top: Archaeologists Carla Booker and Alexandra Howard of the Arizona Museum of Natural History work on a canal uncovered near the new Cubs Park in Mesa. The canals were built by the Hohokam people between the years A.D. 1100 to 1450 and demonstrate the sophistication and engineering prowess of this prehistoric people. Above: Jerry Howard, the curator of anthropology for the Museum, looks over a Hohokam canal site in 2005 that had been excavated north of Riverview Park in Mesa. This canal was huge, measuring 45 feet wide and 16 feet deep.
Voice of Chicago
Tim Sheridan offers another reason Chicagoans have such a strong connection to Arizona, and particularly to Mesa. “Cubs Spring Training,” he says simply, with a smile. Mesa has seen more boisterous Chicagoans in the past 62 years than Grant Park, Union Station and Harpo Studios combined. Sheridan, whose great-grandfather worked as a train conductor out of Chicago the last time the Cubs won a World Series, in 1908, has been going to the Spring Training games in Mesa since he moved here nearly 40 years ago. He has served as announcer for the games since 1984 and will continue as the Cubs’ “Voice of
A LOOK BACK
Mesa’s historic love affair with the Cubs
Hall-of-Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg was a favorite of Cubs fans in both Chicago and in Mesa. Spring” at the new stadium this year. “It’s kind of a passion,” he says. He’s been to Wrigley Field, too, but prefers the relaxed atmosphere of the Spring Training games — a unique mix of Mesa casual and Chicago flair that defines the unlikely connection between the two cities. “I love that,” Sheridan says. “It’s a more intimate atmosphere. You can go up and get autographs from players before the game. The players have a more laid-back attitude. It’s not life or death; there’s a more festive feel.”
‘You gotta see it!’
Mesa’s sunny remix of Chicago intensity even draws people from other cities, sharing nothing in common besides a love for that vibe. Lionel Kipnis was born in Los Angeles in 1934, and began going to Cubs Spring Training games on Catalina Island, the team’s spring home before moving training to Mesa in 1952. He also began vacationing in the city and grew to love the scene so much that when he married his wife in February 1963, he insisted they honeymoon in Mesa. “I told her, ‘You gotta see it!’” says Kipnis, who, together with his wife of 51 years, has been attending at least a few Spring Training games in Mesa every season since. “I still love it.” He’ll be there at the new stadium, too, even as he prepares to turn 80 in March. “I’m coming into the ninth inning of my life,” he says, with a laugh. “But I’ll keep coming to Spring Training in Mesa. There’s nothing else like it!”
UNEARTHING THE PAST
Archaeologists find remains of prehistoric society at Riverview Park
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esa’s warm, welcoming ways and sunny skies have long proved an irresistible springtime draw for the Windy City’s much loved Chicago Cubs. • In fact, while 1952 is when the team first headed to Mesa for Spring Training games, the Cubs’ treasurer, Earl Nelson, had ventured to the city a decade prior to begin touting the idea. History buffs may know other Arizona towns lobbied as early as 1917 to attract the team as well. • But it wasn’t the climate alone that brought the Cubs to Mesa. Area leaders were also instrumental, none more so than rancher and builder Dwight “Pat” Patterson, a Valley native who’d developed a love of sports as a youngster. When it looked like the team might balk at setting up camp in Mesa, Patterson convinced the Cubs’ management that Rendezvous Park in downtown was the ideal spring training home. He pulled off the feat by founding the Mesa HoHoKams civic group with other local business leaders and offering the team a generous monetary guarantee if they made the move to Mesa. The rest is history. For a look at the Chicago Cubs Spring Training homes in Mesa through the decades, see inside.
ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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esa has built a modern new training complex for the Chicago Cubs. But below the ballpark and around the baseball diamond, archaeologists have struck gold, discovering detailed remains of a prehistoric civilization.
Ancient discoveries
The findings feature an extensive irrigation system built by the Hohokam people to carry water from the Salt Scan this River to what are now Tempe, Chandler, QR Code Sun Lakes and the Gila River Indian for more Community. Other larger canal systems information that were built reached into Scottsdale, Phoenix and as far as Tolleson. They were constructed between the years 600-1450 A.D. The culture disappeared around 1450 A.D. and the present-day Pima Indians are descendants. “These are really exciting,” says Jerry Howard, curator of anthropology at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, who worked with a team to uncover the canals. “They were actually the largest irrigation systems ever constructed in the new world.” Archaeologists also uncovered Hohokam homes, called pit houses. They were nearly 100-square-feet and made out of branches and mud. The houses were built underground to insulate inhabitants from harsh heat or
Above: Hohokam canals Left: Hohokam pottery shard cold weather conditions. Nearly a dozen small and large broken ceramic pots for cooking and storage were also uncovered.
Past to the future
Many artifacts were bagged and brought back to the museum for further study while others, including homes, were photographed, documented and left in place. The finds are fascinating in part for enhancing our understanding of the Hohokam people and also for pondering present-day predicaments. Other structures built by the Hohokams are preserved at the Mesa Grande Cultural Park, 1000 N. Date St., near Country Club Drive and Brown Road. The six-acre park was recently opened to the public and includes an ancient temple mound, a small museum and a self-guided tour. The park is operated by the Arizona Museum of Natural History. “The Hohokam population grew very large and then collapsed, probably because of the overuse of water,” says Tom Wilson, director of the Arizona Museum of National History. “It is a cautionary note from the Hohokams to be considerate of water resources, to plan carefully and to not overuse them.”