The Strange But True Story of an
Improbable Metropolis
________
Eduardo Pagán, Ph.D.
Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History
Arizona State University

Why is Phoenix an Improbable
Metropolis?
• The rise of cities
– Prior to 19th century: water was critical
• Some cities arose along trade routes

– After 19th Century: technology becomes increasingly
important
• In travel, human comfort, and water control
• Geography is still important, but in a different way

Demographic Concentrations, 1895

Phoenix’s Debt
• Jack Swilling of
North Carolina is
often credited with
the founding of
Phoenix
• Indians and
Mexicans were
already living along the
Salt River when
Swilling arrived!

• The Piipaash and Akimel O’otham (Maricopa
and Pima) protected Swilling’s small settlement,
about four miles northwest of Hayden’s Ferry in
1867
– Swilling hoped to harvest feed to sell to Fort
McDowell
– Swilling organized companies to rebuild Hohokam
canals

Modern canals following Hohokam canals allowed for the growth of the
suburbs of Phoenix

Residents of Early Phoenix
• Mix of Civil War veterans, miners, Mexican
expatriates, and Indians
• Census records in 1870 and 1877:
– Half of the Phoenix population was from Mexico
– First newspapers were bilingual

• Mexican and Indian laborers powered the
development of infrastructure

Mexican and Indian Laborers Helped
Reconstruct Canals Along the Salt River
• Helped first survey
of 1870
• Leveled and
maintained first
public streets of
Phoenix
• Graded the roadbed
and laid the tracks
for the Maricopa and
Phoenix Railroad

Early Phoenix looked like traditional Southwestern settlements
Blacksmith and wagonmaking shop at First Avenue and Adams Street

Bi-Cultural Phoenix
• First school began
with 20 children in a
corner of the county
courthouse, 1872
• Original curriculum
taught in Spanish and
English

Ruth Sullivan and students of the Wilson School,
1900

What Transformed Phoenix?
1870: ~250
2015: 1.5 million+
______________
1. Railroads/transportation technology
2. Harnessing water

1. Railroads
• President Lincoln and Congress strongly supported the
Pacific Railway Act of 1862
– Privately-chartered, federally-backed railroads: the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific

• Transcontinental railroad accelerated the settlement of
the West by white homesteaders
– Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad connected Phoenix to the
Southern Pacific Line in 1887

Railroads Brought Two Key
Changes to Phoenix:
1. Railroads tied Phoenix to national markets
2. Railroads provided accessibility to Phoenix

Architectural Changes Reflect Cultural Changes
SOUTHWESTERN ADOBE STYLE GAVE WAY
TO VICTORIAN STYLE

Changes in Architecture:
Goldman Brother’s Emporium, circa 1880

The Maricopa County Courthouse on Washington Street between First and
Second Avenues in the late 1880s

The original Adams Hotel, built by JC Adams in 1896

The Arizona Territorial Insane Asylum on 24th and Van Buren streets,
late 1880s

Social Changes After Railroads Came:
• By early 1900s: relations between English-speaking and
Spanish-speaking Phoenicians deteriorated
– Railroads made mutual dependency unnecessary
– Mixed marriages and inter-ethnic business partnerships
became less common
– Segregation became more common

• Anglos oriented their cultural focus to their east and
west rather than to their south

2. Harnessing Water
• Floods repeatedly devastated the Salt River
Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Territorial representatives joined other Western
states to lobby Congress for assistance in
constructing reservoirs
• Newlands Act of 1902 authorized the building
of a dam along the Salt River about 80 miles
northeast of Phoenix

Floods reach the state capitol building

The “Cave Creek Flood” of 1905

• Lands north of the Salt River become more
desirable, and more expensive, because of
elevation
• Lands south of the river became less desirable
• South Mountains hem in city expansion; no such
impediment northward

The Strange But True Story of an
Improbable Metropolis
________
Eduardo Pagán, Ph.D.
Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History
Arizona State University