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Maricopa County 140 years old

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Maricopa County celebrates its 140th anniversary this week

by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Feb. 12, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Maricopa County celebrates its 140th anniversary sometime within the week - the exact date is questionable.

State and county records date Maricopa County's founding to Feb. 14, 1871. But other records and researchers show that the county may have been established on Feb. 12 or Feb. 17.

"I had always heard and used February 14. When I heard of the other dates, I was really surprised," said Marshall Trimble, Arizona's state historian. "It shouldn't be a big difference. It's a day or two, or three."

At least two books cite Feb. 12 as the county's founding. A newspaper article from 1883 shows the county was established on Feb. 17. The handwritten date in a copy of a Board of Supervisors meeting minutes from 1871 looks like it could be a 14 or a 17.

The source of the discrepancy in dates is unclear, Trimble said. Mistakes like these happen in historical documents; all it takes is one historian to write down a wrong date and others citing that date in subsequent publications, he said.

Maricopa County employees will celebrate the anniversary on Monday, the date on file with the county's Office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors. Monday is also Arizona Statehood Day, when Arizona turns 99 years old.

Give or take a day or two, it has been 140 years since Maricopa County was carved out of the southwestern portion of Yavapai County in 1871, becoming the fifth county in Arizona. The creation of counties predates statehood; Arizona became the 48th state, the last contiguous territory to do so, in 1912.

Maricopa County is now the fourth-most-populous county in the nation. But the county had a modest beginning, with dirt roads, a handful of adobe buildings and hundreds of residents.

Territorial Maricopa County flourished rapidly over 41 years. Agriculture and irrigation were key to the county's growth, historians say, and the two industries attracted people to the county and to Phoenix.

Farmers favored Arizona's mild climate, because it allowed them to grow a variety of crops for a long period of time, said Jeremy Rowe, author of "Early Maricopa County: 1871-1920," which dates the county's founding as Feb. 12, 1871. Principal crops raised in the Valley were alfalfa, wheat, citrus fruits, corn and cotton, Rowe said.

More farming led to increasing demand for water, which is where the Valley's two lucrative industries came together. There were ditches along what is now Van Buren Street, providing irrigation. The Arizona Canal was completed in 1887, and the Roosevelt Dam opened in 1911 - ensuring constant, long-term water supply to the Valley, thus opening up the region to future developments.

"No water, no life. Simple as that," Trimble said.

The humble city of Phoenix soon became a force to be reckoned with. In 1870, there were 235 people living in Phoenix. By 1880, the population boomed to 1,708, Trimble said. Other cities and towns started popping up: Tempe, Mesa, Glendale. But none was as developed as Phoenix.

Phoenix was the county seat and eventually became the territorial capital. There were larger cities in northern and southern Arizona, but Phoenix's central location and rapid growth made it an appealing candidate for the territorial capital, Trimble said.

There wasn't much of a governing structure in the county's early days; there wasn't a need for one until the population grew. The three-member Board of Supervisors met on an as-needed basis, said Vincent Murray, a historian with Arizona Historical Research. The clerk of the board acted as a recorder, and the county attorney was also a district attorney, Murray said. The county sheriff wore many hats: he was also an assessor and a tax collector.

The Sheriff's Office had a contentious beginning. Two front-runners and an underdog ran in the first sheriff's election in 1871. During the campaign, the two leading candidates got into a heated quarrel over a rumor. One shot and killed the other, then withdrew from the race and left town. The underdog won by default.

"I guess the argument kept accelerating, which was quite common, especially if they were drunk. And they probably were," Trimble said. "It got off to a rocky start."

There was no organized system of law and order in the early days, Murray said. The Sheriff's Office used a rented jail space or would detain a prisoner by tying him to a rock or a tree, he said. The sheriff drafted citizens to form posses, and there were vigilantes who took matters into their own hands, Trimble said.

By the time Arizona became a state in 1912, Maricopa County looked significantly different from the way it did in 1871, Murray said. There were county buildings, including a jail, and even electricity.

"All the trappings of modern society are there (by 1912). Back in 1870, it's the Old West," Murray said.

 

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