Gila Bend, Arizona Gila Bend, Arizona A humorous, numerically outdated sign welcomes citizens to Gila Bend, Arizona.
A humorous, numerically outdated sign welcomes citizens to Gila Bend, Arizona.
Official seal of Gila Bend, Arizona Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Location in Maricopa County and the state of Arizona Gila Bend, Arizona is positioned in the US Gila Bend, Arizona - Gila Bend, Arizona Gila Bend (/ hnd/; O'odham: Hila Wi:n), established in 1872, is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States.
The town is titled for an approximately 90-degree bend in the Gila River, which is close to but not precisely at the community's current location. According to the 2010 census, the populace of the town is 1,922. 4 Historic Gila Bend The town of Gila Bend is situated near an ancient Hohokam village.
132 Pima citizens lived in a rancheria called Oyadaibuc or as Kino titled it San Felipe y Santiago del Oyadaibuc, near the undivided town, and other Pima lived in three rancherias up river to the north different with the Cocomaricopa or Opa.
Oyadaibuc was also visited by Juan Bautista de Anza, commander of the Presidio at Tubac and founder of the town/city of San Francisco, and by Father Francisco Tomas Garces in 1774. As late as the 1820s Maricopa were living at Gila Bend.
After the 1820s, the Maricopa, under relentless pressure from the Yuma and other tribes, and populace loss from epidemics, had been obliged to leave the Gila Bend and join the Pima in the Middle Gila region.
By the time of the California Gold Rush the Maricopa villages, were all positioned east of the Sierra Estrella, on the Gila River, below the Pima Villages.:111 112 Only Graham found corn stubble on the riverside with which to graze his cattle.:21 22 From 1849 what became the Southern Emigrant Trail passed through the region which by 1854 had acquired the name Tezotal or Tesotal, from name of the scientific name of the desert ironwood tree, (Olneya tesota) given it in the botanical report of the Boundary Survey along the Gila River led by William H.
From 1857, the place at 33 00 01.87 N 112 41 55.83 W was titled Gila Ranch and was a stagecoach water and camping stop on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and in 1858 as Gila Ranch Station, was a stage station on the more famous Butterfield Overland Mail route to California.
Gila Bend Station was positioned 17 miles east of Murderer's Grave Station and 40 miles west of Maricopa Wells Station athwart the water-less Forty Mile Desert.
Also two tanks were established, one midway between Desert Station and Gila Ranch and the other midway between Desert Station and Maricopa Wells stations, to water the horses.
In 1860 the Gila Ranch station was burnt down, but soon rebuilt.:128 132 In 1861, the Butterfield line shut down but amid the American Civil War Gila Ranch remained a stop for freighters to and from the riverport of Arizona City on the Colorado River, passing travelers, the troops of the Confederate Army that briefly passed through and then the California Column of the Union Army that invaded Confederate Arizona and occupied New Mexico Territory in 1862.
After the Civil War, from 1866 other stage routes were established in Arizona Territory and the Gila Ranch Station again was an active stage station.
A settlement, Gila Bend, burgeoning up around it from 1865 and acquiring a postal service at the station on May 1, 1871.:102 Stage and freight routes, especially from the quarrying camps and boom suburbs in central Arizona, converged here especially after the barns appeared in 1879.
In 1880, after wells had been drilled by the barns near their Gila Bend station, (that was positioned away from the river), the populace began to move to settle at a new town 4 miles south southwest of the old one near the station.
Gila Bend was the "center of a wheel", with spokes dominant in many directions throughout the region. On December 14, 2006, Volkswagen of America, Inc., leased 11,900 acres (48 km2) of territory at a cost of $55 million for 25 years, ten miles (16 km) west of Gila Bend, on which they plan to precarious a new automobile proving ground. Gila Bend appreciates a minor notability among tourists and aficionados of roadside attractions.
The band Los Lobos wrote a song called "The Road To Gila Bend", which appears on their 2006 release The Town and the City.
In 2010 Abengoa Solar secured a $1.45 BUSD loan guarantee to build a large 280 megawatt concentrated solar power Plant in Gila Bend.
Gila Bend is positioned at 32 57 0 N 112 43 29 W (32.950027, -112.724701). The town is just off Interstate 8 on Arizona State Route 85, which provides access between I-8 and Interstate 10 north of Gila Bend.
In recognition of historical routes that pass through the area, the town's website refers to Gila Bend as "The Crossroads of the Southwest". According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 22.8 square miles (59 km2), all of it land.
Climate data for Gila Bend, Arizona Gila Bend has an dry desert climate, characterized by extremely hot summers and warm winters.
The all time lowest recorded temperature in Gila Bend was 10 F (-12 C), which occurred on January 13, 1963.
Gila Bend has extremely hot summers with highest temperatures recorded for the state of Arizona, and temperatures at or exceeding 110 F (41 C) are the norm for the entirety of summer as well as the beginning of September.
The all-time highest recorded temperature in Gila Bend is 122 F (50 C), which occurred on June 26, 1990 and again on July 28, 1995.
Historic Gila Bend The Gila Bend Overpass.
Different view of the Gila Bend Overpass.
The Gila Bend Steam Locomotive Water Stop was assembled in 1900 and is positioned close to Murphy Street.
Entrance of the Gila Bend Municipal Airport.
Retired Arizona National Guard Aircraft in the chief entrance of the Gila Bend Municipal Airport.
"History and Information About Gila Bend, Arizona".
Wilson, Peoples of the Middle Gila: A Documentary History of the Pimas and Maricopas, 1500's - 1945, Researched and Written for the Gila River Indian Community, Sacaton, Arizona, 1999.
"Town of Gila Bend - The Crossroads of the Southwest".
Town of Gila Bend web site.
Town of Gila Bend.
EZELL, THE MARICOPAS, An Identification From Documentary Sources, NUMBER 6, ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS, TUCSON, 1963.
Sanders, Kirby, Butterfield Overland Mail Route Through New Mexico and Arizona, Kirby Sanders and Amazon Createspace, 2013.
Theobald, John and Lillian, Arizona Territorial Post Offices and Postmasters, Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961.
Barnes, Arizona Place Names; University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1960.
"Gila Bend, Arizona".
https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907001,00.htm Death at Gila Bend Municipalities and communities of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States Butterfield Overland Mail stations - Gila River - Towns in Maricopa County, Arizona - Towns in Arizona - Populated places established in 1872 - Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory - San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line - 1872 establishments in Arizona Territory - Phoenix urbane region - Stagecoach stops in the United States
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