Here’s a bit more about Santa Rita’s history. A long time ago, during the Late Preclassic period, more and more people started living at Santa Rita. But there weren’t any big ceremonial buildings like the ones across the bay in Cerros. When the Early Classic period started, Cerros became less important, and Santa Rita became a leader in the region. They built huge and impressive buildings. Even though things slowed down a bit in the Late Classic period, Santa Rita is still an amazing place to visit.

In 1900, a guy named Thomas Gann explored Santa Rita for the first time. He found out that many of the original 40-50 mounds had been taken apart to use the stones for houses and roads. That’s really sad, but the reports Gann wrote are super important for understanding Santa Rita’s history. And guess what? He found colorful paintings on the outside walls of one of the buildings. Those paintings are like a treasure because they tell us a lot about Santa Rita’s past.

But here’s the sad part: many of the buildings at Santa Rita are gone now, and it’s hard to know how many there used to be or how big they were. Some of the buildings were taken apart because people used the stones to build modern houses. Others were stolen by people long ago. Still, Santa Rita was super important in the past because it was a key place for trading. Its location was perfect because it was close to two rivers, the New River and the Rio Hondo. These rivers were like highways for trading back then.