Local legends are always fun. This one is very scary.
In Casa Grande (just northwest of I-10 meeting I-8, south on Thornton Rd which is a washboard dirt road) there's a place called "The Domes." This conglomeration of weird-shaped buildings was originally built as a semiconductor factory that never opened. What is left is a bunch of very long and Kiva-shaped buildings that are open to the elements. And to transients.
There are lots of legends about HohoKam indian spirits, shadow people, and murders having happened there. None of that was corroborated, but it seems like bad things should happen there. It is very bleak, very eerie. In fact, it's just so weird that Zak and the Boyz from "Ghost Adventures" had to check it out. They ran into an indigent.
People have reported black magic rituals, a rape and murder, black figures darting between the buildings, tapping on cars, weird sensations, and weird vibrations. A story about The Domes can be found in Julie Ferguson's and my book, "Abandoned Places: Abandoned Memories (Desert Edition)"
The place appears to be just haunted by indigents who from time to time make it their hideout, but the landowners now rent it out for $300 to people who want to have parties in this crumbling "city." Sounds reverberates inside and ricochets and the racquet is insanely creepy. A simple footstep sounds like a giant walking. It's riddled with graffiti and honestly has some strange feelings but the land in Casa Grande in general has an odd feel as if the ancient extinct tribe of HoHoKam left some kind of spiritual energy behind.
The first time I went there, indigents had set up a house with all kinds of furnishings inside. As I approached and looked in and my eyes adjusted to the dimness in comparison to the blazing desert sun, I saw a bed of sorts, table, and then a guy running towards me yelling, arms in the air in fists. His screaming voice was amplified to a deafening tone inside the kiva.
I ran and caught my shirt on the barbed wire on the way out.
I felt compelled to go back a few times just to photograph this interesting place before it completely came down.
As you can see, the place is photogenic.
It's definitely one of Arizona's weird and freaky spots.
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