Welcome to Mesa Arizona!
The history
of Mesa dates back 2000 years to the Hohokam Indians. The Hohokam,
whose name means the Departed Ones, built the original canal system
that spread over 125 miles and is still used today. Why did the
Hohokam leave? There are several reasons, which have been
(1) Without pumps, the water table became too high, so the salts
and minerals were not able to leach through the soil; thus the crops
were unable to grow.
(2) There were hostile Indians who drove them away.
(3) There was an extensive drought. Without darns, the water could
not be stored.
During the 1500's and 1600's several missionaries and explorers
came to Arizona (though not present day Mesa). Among them were Coronado,
Father Kino, Marcos de Niza, and Esteban (Estevan or Estevanico),
a Black slave who looked for the city of gold. Unfriendly Apache
Indians, who were east of our area, drove the Spanish away in the
1700's. U.S. Army troops had generally subdued the Apaches by the
late 1800's.
During the early part of the 19th century white explorers, the most
famous of whom was Kit Carson, came through the Salt River Valley.
In 1865, Maryville was settled north of the Salt River (and present-day
Mesa) on the site of a ferry. The ferry was used by soldiers from
Fort McDowell to travel south. Maryville had a post office, blacksmith
shop, general store, hotel and an amateur drama troupe. It was abandoned,
however, before the Lehi settlers came.
Meanwhile Mormons were settling Utah in order to escape persecution
in the Midwest. The Mormon Battalion was a contingent of U.S. soldiers
who sent much of their pay to the Mormon Church to pay for the migration.
The soldiers created a wagon trail through Southern Arizona in 1846-47
during their journey to San Diego during the Mexican War. They told
the church leaders that the Indians were friendly and that the land
was rich for agriculture. The transcontinental railroad, which opened
in 1869, increased migration to Utah; the territory was running
out of arable land. Mormon Church officials asked Daniel Webster
Jones to lead a group to Arizona. Jones had already been on a mission
to the Indians in the Valley; in 1875-76 he and others also had
explored parts of Arizona and Mexico. Jones agreed to lead the colony
but requested families which were poor with many children so they
would not leave. The Jones, Turley, Rogers, Steele, Biggs, McRae,
Williams, and Merrill families gathered at St. George, Utah, traveled
in wagons for three months, and arrived in March of 1877. The route
they took forced them to leave heavy equipment, such as stoves,
sewing machines and plows, along the way. They lived the United
Order, that is, they shared the supplies and food raised. Their
first building was a brush shed used as a school, church, and meeting
place. In July 1877, they built Ft. Utah with adobe bricks. A replica
of this structure is in front of the Mesa Historical Museum, nearby
its original location at Lehi and Horne Roads. Jones invited Pima
Indians to live with them; this was one factor which caused half
of the colony to leave. Those who left had brought more of the livestock
to Lehi; they took the livestock with them to St. David, near Mexico.
The Lehi group which was left was especially small and poor; it
had a difficult time surviving.
In September 1877, the Mesa Company, comprised of 85 members, left
Utah and Idaho. The leaders, some of whom were polygamous, were
Crismon, Pomeroy, Sirrine, and Robson. They took a different route
from Jones, crossing the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry where there
is a steep cliff across the river. In January of 1 878, the leaders
of the Mesa Company reached Utahville, as Lehi or Jonesville was
then called; the rest came in February. Daniel Webster Jones invited
the groups to stay, but they decided to move up to the mesa. They
marked off land and immediately began work clearing the original
Hohokam canals; water entered the canals in April. On July 17, 1878,
Theodore Sirrine went to Florence to register Section 22, now called
the Town Center: the square mile from Mesa Drive to Country Club
and University to Broadway. The name Mesa was considered unacceptable
at first to postal authorities as it was thought it would be confused
with Mesaville on the San Pedro River. The first post office name
was Hayden's Ferry (not to be confused with Tempe). A woman postmaster,
Fannie Macdonald, operated the first post office in 1881. In 1886,
the post office name was changed to Zenos. In 1889, the Post Office
Department allowed the name Mesa. The town itself was always called
Mesa City.
In 1891, a flood destroyed the fort and carried away acres of valuable
farmland in low-lying areas of Lehi. Because Lehi was prone to flooding,
it had a more limited land area and fewer irrigation ditches, development
grew more in Mesa than Lehi. When the railroad was placed in Mesa,
this trend was accelerated. Lehi became part of Mesa in 1970, but
it has maintained its independent, more rural character.The second
Mesa company, which came from Idaho in 1879, included the Phelps,
Hibbert, Dana, and LeSueur (pronounced Le Sweer) families. In 1880
the Rogers, Standage, and Pew families came. Because the best land
had been taken, the 1880 pioneers established Stringtown, along
what is now Alma School Road. The Standage Farm became the University
of Arizona experimental farm on Main Street between Alma School
and Dobson. The farm was recently developed into a large shopping
center.
After shelters were built and crops prepared, the settlers built
a school; Zulu Pomeroy was the first teacher in 1879.
In 1883, the 300 residents incorporated Mesa City. A. F. Macdonald
was the first mayor. Early buildings included a pesthouse adobe
structure to control smallpox, a City hall in 1883, and saloons.
The Mesa Free Press newspaper began in 1892. The Mesa Public Library
has most of the newspapers on microfilm from mid 1893. The library
also paid for the indexing of the Tribune microfilm of 1893 to 1901,
and 1916 to 1922.
In 1895, Dr. A.J. Chandler, who later started the City named after
him south of Mesa, enlarged the Mesa Canal with heavy machinery.
Dr. Chandler also built the first office complex in Mesa, on the
northwest corner of Main and Macdonald with the first evaporative
air cooling system in Arizona. Moreover, he started an electric
power plant. The City of Mesa purchased the utility company in 1917,
one of the few cities in Arizona to own utilities. Its earnings
enabled Mesa to pay for its capital expenditures without bonds until
the 1960's.
There are several important historical buildings in Mesa still in
existence. The Sirrine House, built in 1895, is an attractive brick
structure on Center, north of First Street; it was restored by the
Mesa Historical Society and the City of Mesa. The former Lehi School,
built in 1913, is the oldest standing school building in Mesa today.
Now the Mesa Historical Museum, it is located at Lehi and Home.
Some other historic buildings in Mesa's town center are the Ellis
Johnson home on West First Street, the Alhambra Hotel on Macdonald
north of Ist Avenue, and the Southside Hospital (now the TriCity
Community Center) on East Main Street.
The Vance Auditorium, on the north side of Main Street, east of
Country Club, was built in 1904. It was the largest auditorium in
the Southwest, praised as having the best dance floor in the region.
Broadway productions traveling from New York performed at the Vance
Auditorium, drawing residents of Phoenix who came via train. Later
the auditorium was purchased by the Mormon Church. The name was
changed to Mezona in 1926. Dances at the Mezona were the main entertainment
on Friday nights until 1972 when the building was demolished and
the Mezona Motel replaced it. There was a large storage facility
south of Broadway Road on Drew Street for cotton, which was an important
crop in early Mesa.. Citrus followed as a valuable commodity, especially
in northeast Mesa. There is still a citrus warehouse by the railroad
line on Broadway near Country Club.
With the exception of the decade of the 1920's, Mesa has increased
by at least 79% every decennial census. In 1990 the census showed
Mesa to have the highest growth rate of any city over 100,000 in
the United States; it grew 89% from 152,404 in 1980 to 288,091 in
1990. In 1997 its population is approximately 360,000.
From humble beginnings, Mesa has developed into the third largest
city in Arizona and the 51st largest city in the United States.
The Census Bureau now designates the Valley as the Phoenix-Mesa
Metropolitan Statistical Area. Mesa's future continues to look promising.
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