Phoenix Apartment Reviews

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Phoenix Information

Later, small groups of Pima and Maricopa Indians eked out an existence along the Gila and Salt Rivers, but there were no more permanent settlements until the mid-1860s, when the US Army built Fort McDowell northeast of Phoenix. This prompted former soldier and prospector Jack Swilling to reopen Hohokam canals to produce crops for the garrison and led to the establishment of a town in 1870. Darrel Duppa, a British settler, suggested that the town had risen from the ashes of the Hohokam culture like the fabled phoenix, and the name stuck. Meanwhile, Charles Trumbull Hayden established a ferry crossing and trading post on the Salt River, southeast of Phoenix. Duppa, again putting his knowledge of the classics to work, commented that the location reminded him of the Vale of Tempe near Mt Olympus in Greece and, once again, his suggestion stuck.

Phoenix quickly established itself as an agricultural and transportation centre. The railway arrived from the Pacific in 1887 and by the time Phoenix became the territorial capital in 1889, it had about 3000 inhabitants. Tempe, too, was growing, and in 1886 the Arizona Normal School was established here, later to become Arizona State University (ASU). Other villages began to grow; Mesa was founded by Mormon settlers in 1878, and Scottsdale followed a decade later, named after army chaplain Winfield Scott, one of its first settlers.

The lack of water remained a major stumbling block to further growth until 1911, when construction workers finished building the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, the first of many large dams to be built in the state. The stage was set for growth and grow Phoenix did.