Casas Grandes

History

The story of Casas Grandes starts with Paquimé. The culture that built it took shape around the year 700, reached its height between roughly 1060 and 1340, and then declined in the two centuries before the Spanish arrived. Jova and Apache groups also lived in the region.

In the mid 1500s the Basque explorer Francisco de Ibarra reached the abandoned settlement and, impressed by the size and quality of its buildings, called it Casas Grandes, "big houses". After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico, the Spanish built a chain of frontier forts across Nueva Vizcaya. The presidio of San Antonio de Casas Grandes was set up in 1687 to shelter settlers and Indigenous people fleeing south. By 1701 it had 50 soldiers, and after a reorganization in 1782 its garrison doubled, making it one of the most important posts in the province and the main seat of authority in the area. Around 1820 it became a municipality.

On March 6, 1911, Francisco I. Madero led about 800 revolutionaries against the federal garrison here. Federal reinforcements arrived, Madero was lightly wounded in the hand, and his forces withdrew to a nearby hacienda. It was a defeat, but one that became part of the early history of the Mexican Revolution.