The Hohokam people were puebloans who settled in the area that would later become the busy city of Phoenix around 450AD. They built a mound and their homes on top of that. This industrious people built an extensive canal system from the Salt River and used the water to irrigate their crops of maize, squash, etc. They had a rich social network and we can still see a large ball court where they played games. The Hohokam disappeared around 1450 AD and no one really knows why they left the area - possibly because of drought over several years forced them to migrate elsewhere but there is no evidence of them anywhere. We visited the Pueblo Grande Museum and learned more about the early people in the Valley of the Sun.