Maricopa Historical Society

By Patricia Brock, Maricopa Historical Society

Three trains were in daily operation from Phoenix to Maricopa in the early 1900s, and Maricopa was quite a busy station. During a trip to Tucson in 1900, Tom Gregory, a Maricopa resident and manager of the Edwards Hotel, told the Arizona Daily Citizen, “For three months, we have had our hotel filled to the attic every night and the other hotel is crowded, too. The depot has its usual number of loungers, and the Pullman accommodations have been generously patronized. Maricopa has never been so busy. The crowds going to Phoenix (population in 1900 was 5,544) this winter have been greater than ever. And … if Phoenix continues to advertise as it has in the past year, the crowds will be even greater. I believe that Maricopa (population 160) has the finest winter weather on earth and is the perfect place for invalids with its pure desert air.”


This item appears in the September issue of InMaricopa.