Mesa ( ) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. The population was 504,258 at the 2020 census. It is the third-most populous city in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson, the 37th-most populous city in the U.S., and the most populous city that is not a county seat (except for independent cities Washington, D.C. and Baltimore which are not part of any county). It is the most populous city in the East Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area. It borders Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler and Gilbert on the south along with Queen Creek, and Apache Junction on the east.
At least ten colleges and universities were located in Mesa, as is the Mesa Arizona Temple, one of the first LDS temples constructed outside of Utah. The city is home to the largest relief airport in the Phoenix area, Mesa Gateway Airport, located in the southeastern corner of the city.
History
The history of Mesa dates back at least 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam culture. The Hohokam built the original canal system. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World. Some were up to wide and deep at their head gates, extending for as far as across the desert. By 1100 CE, water could be delivered to an area over , transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis. By 1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals, many of which are still in use.
After the disappearance of the Hohokam and before the arrival of the early settlers, little is known; explorers did not venture into this area. By the late 19th century near present-day Mesa, U.S. Army troops relocated the Apache, opening the way for settlement.
In March 1877, Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones and Henry Clay Rogers left St. George, Utah. Jones had been asked by Mormon officials to direct a party of people in establishing a settlement in Arizona. They traveled south and settled on the north side of the present Mesa area. This settlement was initially known as Fort Utah and later as Jonesville. It was located near Lehi Road. In 1883, it was named Lehi at the suggestion of Brigham Young, Jr.
About this same time, another group dubbed the First Mesa Company arrived from Utah and Idaho. Their leaders were Francis Martin Pomeroy, Charles Crismon, George Warren Sirrine and Charles I. Robson. Rather than accepting an invitation to settle at Jones's Lehi settlement, they moved up onto the mesa that serves as the city's namesake. They dug irrigation canals and used some of the original Hohokam canals. By April 1878, water was flowing through them. The Second Mesa Company arrived in 1879 and settled to the west of the First Mesa Company because of more available farmland. This settlement was originally called Alma and later Stringtown. It was located near Alma School Road.
On July 17, 1878, Mesa City was registered as a townsite. The first school was built in 1879. In 1883, Mesa City was incorporated with a population of 300 people. Dr. A. J. Chandler, who would later go on to found the city of Chandler, worked on widening the Mesa Canal in 1895 to allow for enough flow to build a power plant. In 1917, the city of Mesa purchased this utility company. The revenues from the company provided enough for capital expenditures until the 1960s. During the Great Depression, WPA funds provided paved streets, a new hospital, a new town hall and a library.
After the founding of the city, the elected official that most impacted the municipality was George Nicholas Goodman. He was mayor five different times during three different decades (1938–1942, 1946–1948, 1952–1956) (see: List of mayors of Mesa, Arizona). As mayor, he was directly involved in the process of acquiring land for both Falcon Field and Williams Field.
Geography
Defining east and west Mesa
Mesa stretches from Price Road in the west to Meridian Road in the east and has a land area of . Mesa employs a grid system for street numbering that is different from that used in Phoenix and other portions of the metropolitan area. Center Street, running north to south, bisects Mesa into eastern and western halves and serves as the east and west numbering point of origin within Mesa. Streets west of Center St., such as W. University Drive or W. Main St. are considered to be in West Mesa, whereas streets east of Center St., such as E. University or E. Main St., are considered to be in East Mesa.
Climate
Located in the Sonoran Desert, Mesa has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), with mild winters and very hot summers.
{|style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:1.2em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
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!Colspan=14|Climate data for Mesa
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!Month
!Jan
!Feb
!Mar
!Apr
!May
!Jun
!Jul
!Aug
!Sep
!Oct
!Nov
!Dec
!style="border-left-width:medium"|Year
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!Mean daily daylight hours
|style="background:#F0F011;color:#000000;"|10.0
|style="background:#F7F722;color:#000000;"|11.0
|style="background:#FFFF33;color:#000000;"|12.0
|style="background:#FFFF44;color:#000000;"|13.0
|style="background:#FFFF55;color:#000000;"|14.0
|style="background:#FFFF5D;color:#000000;"|14.5
|style="background:#FFFF55;color:#000000;"|14.0
|style="background:#FFFF4C;color:#000000;"|13.5
|style="background:#FFFF3B;color:#000000;"|12.5
|style="background:#FBFB2A;color:#000000;"|11.5
|style="background:#F4F419;color:#000000;"|10.5
|style="background:#F0F011;color:#000000;"|10.0
|style="background:#FFFF36;color:#000000;border-left-width:medium"|12.2
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!Colspan=14 style="background:#f8f9fa;font-weight:normal;font-size:95%;"|Source: Weather Atlas
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