Original Site of Phoenix

Maricopa County · North side of East Van Buren (U. S. Highway 60-70-80-89) at 28th Street. · location approximate

Original SITE OF PHOENIX In the winter of 1867-1868, a party led by Jack Swilling dug a canal from the Salt River to irrigate fields in this vicinity. Helling's Mill, on the bank of the canal, plus a few neighboring stores became the center of Phoenix Settlement. Three years later, a new townsite was surveyed and established to the west.

Named in the Arizona Department of Transportation's 1997 list of markers standing in its right of way. That 1997 list covers only state highway right of way, so it does not reach markers on city streets, on tribal land, or in state and national parks.

1958 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The book proposed 100 markers for Arizona's highways and records 14 as cast when it went to press.

Arizona still marks its history under the same law: the State Historical Advisory Commission approves a marker, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records certifies that its text is authentic and historically correct, and the Arizona Department of Transportation erects and maintains the markers on state highway right-of-way. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records ↗

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Marker data: Historical Markers in Arizona, Vols. I-II (Arizona Development Board, 1958), text by Bert Fireman

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