DESTINATION PHOENIX

Facts at a Glance

Later, small groups of Pima and Maricopa Indians eked out an existence along the Gila and Salt Rivers, but there were no more permanent settlements until the mid-1860s when the US Army built Fort McDowell northeast of Phoenix. This prompted former soldier and prospector Jack Swilling to reopen Hohokam canals to produce crops for the garrison and led to the establishment of a town in 1870. Darrel Duppa, a British settler, suggested that the town had risen from the ashes of the Hohokam culture like the fabled phoenix, and the name stuck. Meanwhile, Charles Trumbull Hayden established a ferry crossing and trading post on the Salt River, southeast of Phoenix. Duppa, again putting his knowledge of the classics to work, commented that the location reminded him of the Vale of Tempe near Mt Olympus in Greece and, once again, his suggestion stuck.

Phoenix quickly established itself as an agricultural and transportation center. The railway arrived from the Pacific in 1887 and by the time Phoenix became the territorial capital in 1889, it had about 3000 inhabitants. Tempe, too, was growing, and in 1886 the Arizona Normal School was established here, later to become Arizona State University (ASU). Other villages began to grow; Mesa was founded by Mormon settlers in 1878, and Scottsdale followed a decade later, named after army chaplain Winfield Scott, one of its first settlers.

The lack of water remained a major stumbling block to further growth until 1911, when construction workers finished building the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, the first of many large dams to be built in the state. The stage was set for growth and grow Phoenix did.

In 1926, Phoenix's railway link became transcontinental, enabling people from the East to pour into the state in increasing numbers. Many came for recreation - to stay in dude ranches and be cowboys for a few weeks, or to relax at the luxurious Arizona Biltmore resort, opened in 1929 and still one of the finest in the West. Others came for their health; the dry desert air was said to cure various respiratory ailments. Many of these visitors stayed, including Dwight and Maie Heard, who arrived in 1895 to cure Dwight's lung complaints. He became a leading businessman and editor, and with his wife, founded Phoenix's most interesting museum, the Heard.

Downtown Phoenix is primarily a government and financial center, with little to tempt the traveler apart from the state capitol, a few museums and a score of galleries. The copper-domed old state capitol, now housing a museum of early Arizona artifacts, sits just in front of the new capitol in the heart of downtown. Most of the must-see museums are along Central Ave, 1.5 miles (2.5km) east of the capitol.

Southeast of downtown Phoenix, Tempe is home to Arizona State University. East of Tempe, Mesa is the second largest town in the valley and is home to several museums and Arizona's main Mormon Temple. Scottsdale, northeast of Phoenix and Tempe, is known for both its Old West downtown area and its swanky resorts.

The main streets dissecting Phoenix are Central Ave, running north-south, and Washington St, running east-west. Phoenix's major freeways include the northbound I-17 (Black Canyon Hwy), westbound I-10 (Papago Fwy), southbound I-10 (Maricopa Fwy) and eastbound Hwy 60 (Superstition Fwy).

Heard Museum

Off the Beaten Track

Flagstaff

Just in case you'd doubt the valley's cowpoke roots, there are almost 40 horseback riding outfits listed in the Phoenix yellow pages. Short rides, often combined with a country breakfast or barbecue cookout, are popular activities, and overnight packing trips can be arranged. And if riding the range doesn't sate the desperado in you, drop by the local shooting and archery ranges for a whiff of gunsmoke and quiverful of release.

Serious golf players probably already know that the valley, despite its desert digs, is a major American golfing center with about 100 greens - from 'pitch and putt' to PGA championship courses.

One great way to chill out in summer is inner tubing down the Salt River, which cuts through Phoenix just south of downtown. Several companies will give you information, rent tubes and provide shuttles to good places to begin your float. Tubing season is mid-April through September, and weekends draw crowds of people bent on cooling off and partying on.

Dozens of companies offer hot-air balloon flights over the valley. Flights usually lift off in the calm morning air, drift for about an hour and top off with a traditional champagne brunch.

Public Holidays
1 January - New Year's Day
Third Monday in January - Martin Luther King Day
Third Monday in February - Presidents Day
Last Monday in May - Memorial Day
4 July - Independence Day
First Monday in September - Labor Day
Second Monday in October - Columbus Day
11 November - Veterans Day
Fourth Thursday in November - Thanksgiving Day
25 December - Christmas Day

There's a fairly extensive network of Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses serving the Southwest. The Amtrak station is just south of downtown; the main Greyhound terminal is just southeast of downtown, near the airport.

All the main car rental companies have airport offices, and many have offices in other parts of the valley or will deliver a car to your door.

Valley Metro operates weekday buses all over the valley as well as a few routes on Saturday. Most stop operating in the early evening. Riders can use credit cards to pay their fare. The DASH bus system runs weekdays from downtown to the capitol, leaving every few minutes from dawn to dusk.

Three to four hour narrated bus tours are a popular way of taking in the city's major sights. Several companies also do longer tours, such as a grueling 14 hour tour to the Grand Canyon. Truer to the Western spirit are the horse-drawn carriage tours of Old Town Scottsdale. Many companies offer 4WD tours into the surrounding desert, lasting anywhere from four hours to all day and stressing themes from ghost towns to natural history to Indian petroglyphs and ruins.

• The history of the city is given in Phoenix: The History of a Southwestern Metropolis, by Bradford Luckingham; Phoenix, Valley of the Sun, by Wesley Johnson Jr; and Phoenix in the Twentieth Century, edited by Johnson.
• Roadside Geology of Arizona, by Halka Chronic, is a good, well-illustrated guide for the curious non-geologist. Geology of Arizona by Dale Nations and Edmund Stump is a more technical overview of the state's rocks, sediments and crustal creeping.
• Arizona Wildlife Viewing Guide, by John N Carr, lists scores of places to see wildlife and rates the likelihood of seeing the most important species at specific sites.
• The best introduction to the region's Native Americans is the Southwest volume (volume 9) of the Handbook of North American Indians.
• Two books trace the settlements of various Native American groups around Phoenix: Archaeology in the City: A Hohokam Village in Phoenix, Arizona, by Michael Bartlett and Thomas Kolaz; and The Historic Archaeology of Heritage Square, by Mark Hackbarth.
• Those Who Came Before, by Robert & Florence Lister, is an excellent, readable source of information about the archaeological sites of the national parks and monuments of the Southwest.
• The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Desert States, by Michael Durham, is a beautifully illustrated guide to the historic sites of the region.
• Other ethnic groups are the focus of Bradford Luckingham's Minorities in Phoenix: A Profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American Communities, 1860-1992.
• Tell your postmodern from your Pueblo with A Guide to the Architecture of Metro Phoenix, by the Central Arizona Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
• Phoenix has a major role in Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale.