What is the history of Casa Grande, Arizona?

Some 110 years ago, Casa Grande was a small cluster of hastily assembled adobe and tent buildings along the railroad tracks. The permanent population of six made their living by moving freight between the train station and nearby mines. Southern Pacific stopped work on the rail line it was building from Yuma across southern Arizona in the summer of 1879. Supplies piled up at this desert stopping point and by the time the railroad moved on, the tiny town stayed. The community took the name "Casa Grande" (meaning "large house") from a five story Hohokan Indian adobe building located 20 miles to the east of the town.
Casa Grande was built in the early 1300s, and in the late 1300s the Hohokam Indians began to abandon their villages. Archeologists do not know all the reasons for the decline and end of the Hohokam culture. Recent findings indicate that a series of devastating floods in the 1350s and 1380s may well have played a part in the breakdown of the Hohokam economy and political systems.
The early Spanish explorers of the 1600s and 1700s found small farming settlements in what had been Hohokam territory. The early Spanish named the Indians of southern Arizona the Pima and Papago. In their language they are the Akimel O'Odham and the Tohono O'Odham. They may be descendents of the Hohokam Indians.
Many Tohono O'Odham (Papago) people live on a large reservation west of Tucson and south of Casa Grande. The largest Pima reservation is the Gila River Indian Reservation to the north between Casa Grande and Phoenix.
By 1882, Casa Grande boomed as a railhead to mines, reaching a population of 5000 people, many of Mexican descent. The population also included Chinese workers, Native Americans and Anglos. Between 1884 and 1914, downtown Casa Grande burned three times. With each of the fires the town might have died except that the merchants and business leaders came together each time to rebuild.
In the 1890s, a national mining slump almost killed the town, and by 1902, Casa Grande's business district decreased down to a mercantile store, saloon and two smaller stores. Agriculture saved the community from becoming another southwestern mining ghost town. First came small scale agriculture and farm trade, along with livestock and vegetables, crops such as alfalfa, wheat, barley, citrus and cotton becoming important export commodities. The railroad linked farmers from Casa Grande and the surrounding areas to consumers.
Casa Grande bustles with activity today. Downtown retailers and factory outlet merchants, cotton farmers and agribusiness leaders, government employees, miners and industry workers all contribute to Pinal County's largest city. Visitors, and even most residents, seldom realize that this striving, energetic city easily could have been just another Arizona ghost town.

Casa Grande was a small town in the 80's Peart Park the park in the middle of the town was the biggest at that time some say under it is the old cemetary ? but I am not sure the CG ruins is actually in Coolidge a 20 min drive away from Casa Grande it is a monument and means alot but it is basically just a monument that is all that is left of it so sad:o(
but CG is growing now more than ever it will soon be getting a major Mall with all the ammenities of Phoenix .

Casa Grande was founded in 1879 during the Arizona mining boom and became Incorporated in 1915. It was named after the Hohokam ruins at the nearby Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.

A major railroad terminated in Casa Grande, which was originally named "Terminus".

One of the founding fathers of Casa Grande was Thompson Rodney Peart, Went by the name of "T.R. Peart" Born in woods N.D. married to Lillian Cordelia Weaver.The Peart Center and Peart Road are named for T.R.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Grande%2C_Arizona

cant really tell you the history but now casa grande is approaching 50,000 and has a prmoenade mall (with like 20 stores) and is very busy and bustling with activity. it can be pretty spread out at times but we have 3 mcdonalds and 2 frys 1 walmart and a bunch (i mean a bunch of stuff) at the mall like kohls, target, bed bath and beyond, zoomiez, ross, harkins, dillards, petsmart, michaels, rue 21, sports authority, best buy, jc penny, marshalls, payless, staples, etc. Its a growing city!