“The Pima, Maricopa, and Tohono were here, and an occasional Spanish explorer, but not much else,” said Cindy Myers, director of the Phoenix Museum of History. The Native Americans were hunters-gatherers, so they were not established in any particular place. “The Apaches were still active in the mountains, so there wasn’t much traffic. The southern route was more popular.” (Our Valley is in Central Arizona.)

Of course, if we go waaay back, the earliest residents of the Salt River Valley, where Phoenix is located, were probably the Hohokam Indians around 1100 A.D. They built the first known irrigation systems and thus made the desert livable. Since then, modern canals and dams have kept the desert livable and ensured the continuing development of the “Valley of the Sun.”

Southern Arizona had seen the first missions established at Tumacacori and San Xavier del Bac, and a presidio was set up in Tucson in 1776. The missionaries who established the missions didn’t get much farther north, opting instead to head for the Pacific Ocean.

Phoenix was established as a town of 320 acres on the Salt River in October 1870. The name Phoenix was suggested by an Englishman who likened the new town, which had risen up from the dust of the ancient Hohokam civilization, to the legendary Phoenix of Egyptian lore.

By 1876, it had all changed, Myers said. Phoenix and Tempe had been founded (as had Maricopa County), businesses were going on, and farms were thriving, with all sorts of crops.

Just like now, people from California were settling central and northern Arizona. A small group of Mormons were in Tempe, before Mesa was established. And the first contact with the outside world was in place, at the Goldwaters store.

For more Arizona Facts, Fun Facts and Arizona Maps, check out my Arizona Facts. One fact is that Arizona joined the “Union” as the last contiguous state in 1912, and is known as the “Nation’s Valentine”, because it joined the union on February 14th. For more on how Phoenix grew “Out of the Ashes” visit this site.