History

  Winston Churchill once said, “history is written by the victors,” alluding to a reality in which often only self-serving histories are memorialized. Despite criticisms...

Lynise Grell has a knack for putting herself in other people’s shoes. She spent eight years in the U.S. Army as a military-police officer. During...

The monsoon season was particularly active in 2017, with at least four flooding events in July alone. The last week of July proved the busiest,...

Maricopa veterans Jim Bussey and Terry Oldfield were coming home from a funeral for a fellow veteran in Marana when the idea of a...

By Patricia Brock and the Maricopa Historical Society Do you know the rivers of Maricopa? The Gila River is one of the largest desert rivers...

While Maricopa Historical Society canceled or postponed much of its spring events as a precaution against COVID-19, it has quietly continued some programs, such...

By Patricia Brock and the Maricopa Historical Society Bertha Anderson Easley and her husband Jay Easley came to Maricopa in 1947. “We lived on Porter Ranch,...

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visits a Japanese internment camp in Maricopa's backyard April 23, 1943. The controversial camp housed Japanese-Americans forced by politics, prejudice and...

By Michelle Chance An estimated 200 Hohokam petroglyphs are etched into a pile of boulders that lay nestled at the base of a mountain range...

The first Founder's Day celebration was held at The Duke in honor of the 1-year anniversary of Maricopa's incorporation. The city was incorporated on Oct....

They've put on the uniforms of the United States of America's armed forces to defend our rights and our way of life. Many of them...

Maricopa’s property tax as we now know it started in 2006 when residents voted in favor of Proposition 400, a referendum that would allow...

Fred Cole served as the Maricopa postmaster from 1955 to 1982. The post office was in the Honeycutt Shopping Center until it was destroyed by fire...

  This week about 180 Maricopa 14- to 18-year-olds are re-creating the handcart trek of western pioneers across the country. The re-creation, called a Youth Trek,...

Even after Maricopa incorporated in 2003, its law and order mostly came from the county sheriff and justice of the peace. In the late...

The 1917 perspective of what used to be the town center no longer exists but for the top of the ever-present water tower. The...

A former barracks from Williams Field Air Force Base has stood the test of time and continues to change purposes as needs arise. In...

Maricopa is surrounded by desert historic sites, but it is not always easy – or legal – to get to them in a vehicle. Take,...

It was 43 years ago — May 18, 1980 — when Reed Gardner was working at the federal building in downtown Las Vegas. He...

Located down a winding, county road and bunkered beneath a small mountain in Thunderbird Farms is a hidden haven for Vietnam veterans.IF YOU GO What:...

The growth of Maricopa was dramatic between 2002 and 2006, when the city was a poster child of the housing boom. The post-recession surge...

While you prepare your Thanksgiving feast, take a moment to review some recipes that Maricopans have shared through the years.  Right out of a historic...

The Maricopa and Pima tribes farmed the lands adjacent to the Gila River and raised beans, corn, pumpkins, watermelons, muskmelons, cotton and their principal...

At War: Fresh-faced WAVES recruit did her part After the United States declared war on Japan in 1941, Mary Francis Holmes Abrahams was just 16....

The Maricopa Historical Society, hoping to illustrate the city’s diverse history and culture, has opened an exhibit featuring prominent Black figures since the city’s...

Juneteenth. It’s an amalgamation of the words “June” and “nineteenth.” Today is a celebration of freedom, culture and resilience for many in the African...

Decades before Maricopa incorporated, the center point of the community was the school. Some of these fresh faces may still be familiar to long-time...

Edgar Poe Dehart was a telegrapher at Maricopa Station. He and his family settled in Maricopa Junction from 1926 to 1936. The two-story depot...

In the early 1950s, a man named Harry Brock moved to Maricopa to begin work as a rural mail carrier. He roomed in the...

In the history of Maricopa, a man named Perry Williams is noted three ways. An entrepreneur, he built Hotel Williams in 1884 on the...