The Hohokam people lived in the Mesa area for nearly 1,500 years. Hohokam, (a Pima Indian word meaning ‘‘those who have disappeared’’), first appeared around 1 CE initially growing beans, squash, corn and cotton serving a very small population of less than one thousand. Around 600 CE, the Hohokam population grew too large for sustainable living. As the population grew further from the river, the Hohokam began to construct canals for irrigation. Using digging sticks, the Native Americans excavated 12 foot deep canals, fanning into a larger network of smaller canals.

Because of their extensive excavation abilities, the Hohokam were considered to be engineering geniuses. Their ability to push water effectively for several 100 miles over a flat desert landscape, while evading hills and valleys complimented their legacy. Creating a stabilized canal system they transported water through minimal changes in elevation and overcame natural ebbs and flows that rivers create. In areas of excessive water(flow), the Hohokam would widen the channel. In areas of inadequate water(ebb), the channel would be narrowed, increasing velocity of water. This increase in velocity, decreased sediment buildup, discharge into fields and evaporation. If they allowed the water to stagnate, those three elements occur.

To maximize potential of water to exit the river into canals, the Hohokam developed several techniques. A weir, or partial dam, forced water into the headgate of the canal, creating maximum force, and more efficiently carrying water to the local farms. The headgates were made out of wood and giant rocks, withstanding the river's immense strength. The Hohokam canal stretched nearly 500 miles and would serve up to 50,000 natives at any given time. There is no universally accepted evidence on why they disappeared, only speculation. The most viable reason was outgrowing their capacity to sustain life in the desert. Especially during periods of environmental stress, all but vanished by 1450.

The Hohokam effort to build irrigation canals became the foundation of economic and urban development of Arizona. Jack Swilling, a Mexican War and Confederate States Army Veteran, headed west in the late 1850s to work as an ox-train teamster. Ten years later, a central Arizona gold rush brought many miners near the Salt River. Needing a constant supply of water, the miners and soldiers observed the landscape. Upon discovering the Hohokam canals, Swilling analyzed their potential and restored them as a viable water delivery source. With sixteen other miners, he received a loan to create ditches, minimizing watershed, to successfully raise wheat, barley and corn. He redirected the delivery of water from the Salt River via the canals and ditches (modern day 32nd Street and Van Buren Street), to sell to miners in Wickenburg and infantry stationed at Ft. McDowell. The Swilling Irrigating Canal Company, as his company came to be called, revitalized the irrigation system and enticed more people to settle in the area. Englishman ‘‘Lord’’ Darrell Duppa, recognized the symbolism of a new agricultural civilization rising from old Hohokam canals. He said: ‘‘A city will rise phoenix-like, new and beautiful, from these ashes of the past,’’ and renamed the new community Phoenix.”

Around the 1880s, Charles T. Hayden, father of Carl, was an early Arizona settler who observed the many farmlands the canals serviced and was also compelled by the success of Swilling Irrigation and Canal Co. On a business venture, Charles was on a freighting trip to Wickenburg when a severe storm and flooding of the Salt River forced him to wait several days. The delay gave opportunity to examine the surrounding land, where he envisioned a thriving agricultural community. As the foundation for the farming was laid out, Charles observed corn and vegetables successfully growing by the Swilling ditch. With an increase in settlers and an entrepreneurial mind, he began to entertain the idea of a gristmill.

Nearing the end of the nineteenth century, local promoters recognized that a more stable water supply was needed to continue population and economic growth. With high variable flows, the Salt River, and many rivers alike, were subject to very low flows followed by substantially large floods. There was also a substantial amount of water loss that was a pressing issue. In 1891, flood waters raged through the heart of the agricultural valley, destroying irrigation headgates and canals. One local resident commented: ‘‘Chocolate in color, hideous in its roaring fury, the torrent spared nothing in its path.’’ The floods were followed by a severe drought between 1898 and 1904, resulting in the loss of thousands of crop acres. Men would patrol the river with rifle in hand, ensuring locals were not taking more than their fair share. But from this environmental near-disaster came a successful regional movement to build an upstream dam to retain, stabilize and protect the area from flooding.

Carl Hayden was directly affected by this flooding and witnessed his father's business take a substantial loss. Fighting for his father's vision, he traveled to Washington to lobby for the Salt River Project as Congress debated the Federal Reclamation Act in 1902. He was Arizona's primary influence on federal policy making in natural resource development, water reclamation, and land-use management. Due to his vision and effort, Carl is considered Arizona's most important individual in reshaping it from a pioneered settlement to a modern urban state.

Tonto Basin became the ideal location for a dam, but securing the finances to build it would prove difficult. Local ranchers and farmers created the Salt River Water Users Association (SRWUA). They pledged their lands as collateral to obtain a loan large enough to allow the building of the Tonto Basin and Roosevelt Dam. In 1902 a National Reclamation Act was passed into law allowing government loans to reclaim the West with irrigation projects. By creating the Theodore Roosevelt Dam and improving existing Hohokam canals, the government sought to improve water retention and delivery velocity of water by modernizing the canals. They did this by laying cement and replacing the head gates with a more reinforced cement delivery.

SRWUA would restore Canals and build dams by the use of hydroelectric generators. The generators allowed the government to slowly pay the local farmers for their investment. In 1917 the operation of the canal system was turned over to the Salt River Water Users Association, later developed into Salt River Project (SRP). The SRP succeeded in supporting a growing population. Receiving government loans, during the next 30 years, SRP would erect the following dams and canals respectively: Mormon Flat Dam in 1925, Mesa Dam in 1927, Stewart Mountain Dam in 1930, Bartlett Dam in 1939, Horseshoe Dam and Sixth Storage Dam, 1946. These dams allowed for maximum water retention and manageable delivery. The canals that SRP created are, The Grand Canal (22.43 miles), Consolidated Canal (18.95 miles), Eastern Canal (14.73 miles), Western Canal (13.61 miles), South Canal (9.91 miles), Tempe Canal (9.76 miles), and New Crosscut Canal (3.4 miles), serving more than six million today.

While the canals were technically created to deliver water to a desert metropolis, they have historically been associated with recreation as well. Being considered a part of Arizona’s social fabric, the canals were popular places for walking, running, biking and horseback riding. Reducing the need for heavy equipment, SRP released white amurs, a kind of Asian carp. This cleaned up the moss and weeds that were associated with dirtying the water with algae. The Arizona Canal, near Scottsdale, displays art, holds special events, and contains pedestrian bridges, landscaped walkways and easy access to canalside shops and restaurants.

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The rise of Arizona and the 59th Avenue Residential Historic District in Glendale run within the same train station but on different tracks. The rise and stumbles of both state and street can be better looked at through a timeline rather than a picture. The homes built within the soil of the state hold with them the highs of a new state and the struggles of becoming a new state. The homes did not only hold a place for families and communities to grow but also the history of what the state went through to become what it is today.

The beginning of the 59th Avenue Residential Historic District was marked by Isaac Eyer planting the famous row of palm trees on his North Central Avenue property in 1895. However, the ground broke for 59th Avenue earlier in 1887, which was before Arizona was a state, when W.J. Murphy and other local pioneers knew they had something special. These men created the Arizona Improvement Company to provide water and land to settlers in Glendale, allowing for the area to become more livable. This development for settlement in Arizona, however, was only possible with the establishment of canals, like the Arizona Canal, and much like 59th Avenue, Arizona had help in its infancy to allow people to settle here. The Hohokam people used a vast number of complex water canals that birthed life into the Valley. This would be the ground work that was needed to allow people to settle within the desert. Just as the canals were important to Arizona’s future, they also played an integral part of 59th Avenue's history. Without the water south side of the Valley, it would have been a tremendously difficult time getting a reliable source of water.

The water that breathed life into the future of the state allowed for a rich soil to be used by cotton famers who first occupied the land that would become 59th Avenue. It was through the homes they built that gave way to the timeline of the state's history. From the first Bungalow style home built in 1923 to the last Ranch style home built in the 1950s, the homes told a story that reflected what Arizona went through to become what it is today. The early years of the state relied on cotton and cattle farming, so much so that at one point Arizona was home to the largest cattle purchase the West Coast had seen to drive most of the economic demand (The Copper Era. Page 1 Volume 9).

This was the aspect that, from the onset, enticed the farmers who settled on Lot 16 which later became 59th Avenue. This influx in settlement was short lived, however, as the Great Depression hit once settlers started to build homes; thus, the growth in population slid off during the late '20s and early '30s. This marked the rise of the Bungalow style home within these properties that, in a way, represent the lives of the residents. Bungalow style homes hit their peak in the late 1910s and went out of style by 1919. The odd part is how many were built within Arizona in the 1920s. Bungalow style homes were clean and simple, which was a turn away from the gaudy Victorian style in the late 1890s that reflected the people and the young state. Life in Arizona for cotton and cattle farmers at the time was simple until the Depression. The other style at the time was the Period Revival Homes that popped up during the mid-1920s. This reflected a scar that was left by WWI and the influences that Europe brought over.

Once the dust settled, the next boom in both state population and 59th Avenue population was in the 1950s. At this point, two major army bases had been placed within ten miles of the residents' homes. The Ranch style home would represent the start of a decline in home individuality, and with that, the individuality of Arizona went with it. Ranch style homes were the first step in what would lead to the cookie cutter homes, and it represented a time when Arizona jumped into the major city ranks. The layouts of the surrounding neighborhoods changed from there on out. The times reflected periods in Arizona that shaped both community and state.

The 59th Avenue Residential Historic District is notable for Eyer's line of palm trees that extended along the street for about one-third of the district's length. In a way, the palm trees resemble the entity of Arizona as they were present before the people, cars, and homes. With all the change that happened around the trees, they still hold roots in what 59th Avenue and Arizona were in the beginning, but they are still the defining factor in the face of the future.

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Beardsley originated around a railroad station that honored Will H. Beardsley.

Beardsley began developing an irrigation project in the 1880's. For years it served as a sheep shearing point on the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad. Beardsley was also the original junction of the branch of the SF and PP Railroad to McMicken. The junction was later relocated to Ennis 4.5 miles east of Beardsley. His company, The Agua Fria Construction Company, also built a canal named the Beardsley Canal, from Lake Pleasant to ranches as far as 30 miles away.

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Gravity draws water from the mountains east and north of the Salt River Valley into the gently sloping landscape of the Phoenix metropolitan region. Ancient Native Americans whom we call the Hohokam built canals to harness this water to irrigate their crops. The Valley's modern canals are an extension of this ancient system. The Arizona Canal was built to provide water for farmers in the northern valley, while the Grand Canal's supplies water to farmlands in the west valley. The “Old” Crosscut Canal was built in 1888 to bring water from the Arizona Canal to the Grand Canal.

The Salt River Valley Water Users' Association (SRVWUA, later, Salt River Project or SRP) formed in 1910 through a contract between valley water users and the United States Reclamation Service. It constructed the "New" Crosscut Canal in 1912-1913 to . The SRVWUA recognized the value of the canal not only for providing water but also for creating electricity from the energy created as water dropped 112 feet before pouring in to the Grand Canal. In 1913, the SRVWUA constructed the Crosscut Hydro Generating facility. SRP selected the location for the canal and the power plant because two major electric distribution lines passed nearby that connected the “Arizona Falls” Hydro Generating Plant with the south side of the system and the main power lines from Roosevelt Dam to Phoenix adding the electricity produced by the Crosscut facility to the growing system.

In response to population growth and increased demand, SRP expanded and diversified its electricity-producing capabilities in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The relatively small hydro generating plants at Crosscut and Arizona Falls became secondary to larger power plants that burned coal or natural gas. Nevertheless, Crosscut continued to provide important benefits to SRP's power system by generating power during "peak" times, like the summer, when residents ran their air conditioning to deal with the heat.Today, the hydroelectric generation plants is on standby, ready to go to work when its needed.

The Crosscut canal also serves other needs. It supplies water to the Tempe water treatment plant, Papago ponds, Phoenix Zoo, and creates a pleasant stream and riparian area for the park. It remains a testament to the importance of water for life in the desert--for drinking but also for lighting our homes and powering our modern lives.

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WaterWorks at Arizona Falls plays with the serious subjects of water and power to bring new life to the historic falls along the Arizona Canal. SRP and the Phoenix Arts Commission commissioned the project from the internationally-renowned team of public artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder.

In collaboration with landscape architect Steve Martino, Harries and Héder sought to bring "into focus the role of water in the history of Phoenix and in the future of green-energy" and to explore "water as both a utilitarian commodity and as a beautiful transformative substance."

Built to accompany a new hydro-power plant, WaterWorks still uses the water that comes from the high country 60 miles east of Arizona Falls through five dams and storage reservoirs. WaterWorks revels in and reveals the pre-industrial and industrial past to remind us how water and electrical power have been harnessed to fuel the rise of desert metropolitan cities.

Harries and Héder's 1992 Wall Cycle to Ocotillo along State Route 51 was one of the first large public art projects of the Phoenix Arts Commission. Their 2003 WaterWorks provides both a personal and communal place to ponder the gravity-fed journey of water, the power of water, and the power of this particular place.

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Arizonans often joke that whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting. Water's value to the state was made evident by the 1934 "war" with California as well as by longstanding disputes with neighboring states over the allocation of the Colorado River. The network of Phoenix-area canals was built over time to take advantage of every drop of water diverted to the desert. This network is larger than the network of canals in either Amsterdam or Venice!

The Salt River Valley canal system began with the extensive irrigation projects dug by the Hohokam. Their canals were rebuilt and extended in the nineteenth century by the Salt River Project (SRP). The Roosevelt Dam provided Arizona's first source of hydropower, used originally for its own construction and then for the wider Valley, setting in motion the "reclamation principle" of power as the paying partner of water. The hydropower at Arizona Falls also provided some of the Valley's first electricity.

The water carried in the canals originates as snowpack in the mountains more than 60 miles east of Phoenix. The canals south of the Salt River were the first to be irrigated into verdant oases. Built from 1883 to 1885, the Arizona Canal has provided the lands north of the Salt River with water for cultivation, and the old and new crosscut Canals tied the north and south canal systems together by 1913.

The 1968 passage of the Colorado River Basin Project Act authorized the construction of a 336-mile long Central Arizona Project canal system. The CAP canal diverts water from the state's western border to the Phoenix and Tucson areas and was completed in Phoenix in 1985 and in Tucson in 1993.

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"Mother and daughter, father and son, may all be found splashing about in the cooling water of the Salt River canal, commonly known as the 'Town Ditch,' almost any evening now. There are regular canal 'beaches' where Phoenicians congregate in great numbers daily, while along its length throughout the city can be found little boys and girls, big boys and girls, youths, matured and even quite elderly people finding the keenest enjoyment in the swift-running waters." In the summer of 1921, the Arizona Republican raved about the Valley's newfound form of entertainment.

Arizona can't tout oceanfront property, but that didn't stop Valley residents from enjoying the beach. All along the canals, families came to take a dip and enjoy a picnic year-round. "Swimming parties," where revelers built bonfires to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, were popular among young society. Automobiles converted to dressing rooms-- a phenomenon that prompted the Arizona Republican to remark, "The sight of bathing parties nonchalantly disrobing along the roadside has become so common as to attract little or no attention."

Arizona's climate allowed the fun to continue year-round. Sometimes 300 to 400 recreationists lined the canal "beaches," but the canal wasn't always fun and games. The canals flowed fast and deep, claiming casualties who underestimated the current. Public health was also an issue as some used the canal as a bathtub. In 1910 the Osborn district was struck by a typhoid epidemic that doctors blamed on bathing in the canal.

The increase in automobiles on the road also led to an increase in the number of people who drove their automobiles into the canals.

“Advertisement for Arizona Weather”, an aptly titled Arizona Republican article from 1911, described how some boys swam across the canal for juicy sandias, Spanish for watermelon. Passing Phoenicians smiled and continued, but "their friends from the frozen states. . . thought that the fact of seeing lads eating watermelons while swimming in the latter part of the November, to be exact it was the 19th, was an event worthy of commemoration."

Recreation on the canal continued in later decades. In the 1930s and beyond, teenagers often congregated on its banks and the truly brave would "freeboard" the canal, carefully balancing on a homemade board while being pulled along by an old Model T.

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George “Cavie” Cavalliere passed through Scottsdale on a work detail and ended up establishing the town’s first blacksmith shop, still in operation today. Crossing the southwest for several years in a mobile tin trailer while dredging portions of the Arizona Canal Project, he and his wife Mary Alice chose Scottsdale as the place to set down roots, raise their family, and start a business. Cavalliere is emblematic of the hard-working civilian workers that formed the nucleus of Scottsdale’s earliest enterprising residents.

Federal programs like the National Reclamation Service led workers like Cavalliere to the region and laid the groundwork for stimulated population growth in Scottsdale and other towns dotting the Southwest. From 1904 to 1909 Reclamation workers dredged canals, dug tunnels and reservoirs, constructed roads and bridges, and laid telephone wires, providing much needed water sources and linking towns in the American Southwest to the rest of the nation. Despite its problems and critics, the efforts to “reclaim” desert land and make it suitable for habitation and farming during the first decade of the twentieth century helped towns like Scottsdale to become enduring communities.

After their work was complete, many Reclamation engineers and laborers remained in the region and settled in western towns and hamlets. These hard-working civilians brought a strong work ethic and practical skills to their new communities, and their prior work in construction, excavation, and maintenance made them valuable assets. Cavalliere came to the Scottsdale region after his Reclamation work ended in 1909, and he made a name for himself as a local business owner when he opened his blacksmith shop on Second Street and Brown Avenue—what was then considered the edge of town.

Still in operation under Cavalliere family management, the business opened by "Cavie" evolved with the times. When cars increasingly replaced horses and the ranching industry in Scottsdale declined, the blacksmith shop add farm equipment and auto repair, as well as ornamental iron-making, to its menu of services. Cavalliere, like many Reclamation workers who settled and seized new work opportunities in western states, performed much needed services in early Scottsdale and contributed to the backbone of industry and innovation that enabled Scottsdale to grow from a fledgling community to an established residential and commercial center.

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