New life in Indian ruins
Construction kicks off on long-sought center to showcase Mesa Grande site
Sixty years or so ago, Charles DeWitt took a couple of playday souvenirs home to his mother.
Like almost any other Mesa kid of that era, he had been drawn to a big pile of dirt in the city’s northwestern corner. And while other kids rode over the mound on their bikes, Charles decided to dig.
“I showed my mother what I’d dug up,” DeWitt said. “She made me bring back both of the skulls and rebury them.”
DeWitt, 70, returned to the scene of his childhood larceny Tuesday as that pile of dirt took a giant stride toward fulfilling a century-old community dream.
Mesa and Indian community representatives officially broke ground for a visitors center at the Mesa Grande ruins, which will open a modern window on a civilization that mysteriously vanished decades be-
fore Columbus set sail.
The ruins survived generations of bike-riding kids, a succession of private owners and Mesa’s chronic inability to pay for anything fancier than the fence that finally was erected around them.
Finally, a series of grants from Indian communities and state historic-preservation funds provided the wherewithal.
Probably the most colorful of the previous owners was a B-movie actress named Acquanetta, who starred in such classics as “Captive Wild Woman” and “Tarzan and the Leopard Woman” in the 1940s.
She and her husband, car dealer Jack Ross, bought the site from an archaeologist in 1962. Acquanetta said her interest was cultural, an outgrowth of her Native American ancestry.
By the1980s Mesa was keen to buy the ruins, but the city and Acquanetta locked horns over the price. Mesa threatened to use eminent domain until the parties finally agreed on a $1.1 million deal in1987.
Mesa talked about building an archaeological park almost immediately, but never dug up the dough. A group called the Mesa Grande Community Alliance was among those that kept the idea alive during the ensuing quarter-century.
“Today, we are one step closer to pro-