The Maricopa and Pima tribes farmed the lands adjacent to the Gila River and raised beans, corn, pumpkins, watermelons, muskmelons, cotton and their principal crop, wheat, in the 1800s. Father Bonaventure Oblasser described the Pima fields from Florence to the Estrella Mountains as a continuous agricultural scene with one field following another. He states that it “presents the appearance of one immense garden… and all under irrigation.”

The mode of bringing these crops to market in the 19th century consisted of horse- and mule-drawn wagons. Today, those wagons have turned into 18-wheel transfer trucks.

 

 

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