Settlement, Growth, and Water Security for Southwest Cities - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 445

the newly created Clark County. The city benefited greatly from state legislation that legal-
ized gambling in 1931 and the signing of the Boulder Canyon Project Act in the same year
by Calvin Coolidge. This act began the largest, most ambitious government construction
project; the Hoover Dam.

26.4.4 Phoenix

While the Spanish explorers paid attention to other southwestern regions, the Salt River
Valley was largely undisturbed throughout the colonial period. In 1865, the U.S. Army
established Fort McDowell about 20 miles north of the Salt River to defend the area from
hostile Indian attacks. About the same time, a former soldier, John William (Jack) Swilling,
saw great potential in rekindling the old Hohokum canal system to irrigate the valley.
Swilling, aware of the potential for revitalizing the land, called the settlement Phoenix,
after the legendary bird that rose from the ashes with new life. In April of 1870, a 320 ac
parcel was issued to the town site of Phoenix. In 1881, the town site was incorporated into a
city and John T. Alsap served as the first mayor of Phoenix. The completion of the Roosevelt
Dam and the Arizona and Grand canals fueled the interest in settlement of the Salt River
valley, which allowed settlers to irrigate large tracts of land once limited by the availability
of reliable sources of water for agriculture and development.

26.4.5 Tucson

Tucson was founded by Hugh O'Connor in 1775 under the direction of the Spanish Crown
to locate and establish an outpost along the Santa Cruz River. O'Connor selected a site
on the east side of the Santa Cruz River to establish Presidio San Augustin. Tucson was
a name taken from the Indian designation of a local landmark spring located at the base
of the modern day Sentinel Peak. Tucson was added to the United States in the territory
that was acquired in the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. Tucson was the territorial capital from
1867-1877 when it was relocated to Prescott. Over the next decade, the Tucson delegation
worked feverishly to regain the territorial capital each time the legislature met. In 1885,
Tucson was awarded a $25,000 appropriation to found the University of Arizona. However,
the local residents were shocked that they were awarded the university rather than the ter-
ritorial capital as a prize and almost forfeited the award until a benefactor stepped forward
with the required land contribution for the new university (Table 26.1). 4

TABLE 26.1
Southwest City Characteristics

Desert City Characteristics

Feature El Paso Albuquerque Las Vegas Phoenix Tucson

Year city founded 1873 1885 1905 1881 1885

County El Paso Bernalillo Clark Maricopa Pima

Elevation 3710 5000 2174 1117 2389

River Rio Grande Rio Grande Virgin Salt Santa Cruz

Annual rainfall 8.81 in. 8.88 in. 4.13 in. 7.6 in. 14.10 in.

Average temperatures 77/49 71/42 81/54 85/57 84/57

Nearby mountain range Franklin Sandia Spring South Mountain Santa Catalinas

Desert community Chihuahuan Chihuahuan Mojave Sonoran Sonoran