Hundreds of years before any of the cities in the eastern part of our country were so much as clearings in the wilderness, a well-established, civilized community occupied the land we now know as Phoenix.  

The Pueblo Grande ruins, which were occupied between 700 A.D. and 1400 A.D. testify to our city's roots.

 

Although the wide Salt River coursed through the Valley of the Sun, there was little rain, and no melting snow to moisten the brown earth from river to mountain range on either side.  

The former residents were industrious, enterprising and imaginative.  They built an irrigation system, the major part of which was some 135 miles of canals, and agriculture flourished.

The ultimate fate of this ancient society is a mystery, but the accepted belief is that it was destroyed by a prolonged drought.  Roving Indians, observing the Pueblo Grande ruins and the vast canal system these settlers left behind, gave them the name of "Ho Ho Kam" - the people who have gone.

 

Metro Phoenix & The Valley of the Sun