Ten things worth knowing about Avondale

Every city has a few stories its residents love to tell visitors. Avondale has more than most, from a stagecoach stop with a different name to the survey marker that Arizona's land surveys are measured from. Here are ten worth keeping in your back pocket for the next time someone asks what is special about living here.

Names and beginnings

1. Avondale used to be called Coldwater. Billy Moore, the man the city considers its founding father, settled beside the Agua Fria River in 1880 and named the place Coldwater, after the river and a nearby spring. He ran a stage stop, a general store and a saloon for travelers heading between Tucson, northern Arizona and California, and served as postmaster from 1901 to 1905. When the post office moved near Avondale Ranch in the early 1900s, the ranch's name took over and Coldwater faded from the map. It hasn't vanished entirely: Coldwater Coffeehouse & Bakery on Western Avenue carries the old name in Old Town, and a neighborhood along the river is called Coldwater Springs.

2. The city is 80 this year. Avondale was incorporated on December 16, 1946, and D.W. "Dorsey" Chisum served as its first mayor. To mark the anniversary, residents spent the summer writing letters and gathering photos for a time capsule that will be sealed in the new Old Town Plaza at Western Avenue and Dysart Road and opened at the city's 100th birthday in 2046.

3. Billy Moore Days has been running since 1954. The local Chamber of Commerce started the celebration in 1954 to honor the old pioneer, and the city now runs it every October with a carnival at Festival Fields Park and a parade through Old Town. This year's Grand Marshal was Judge Joe "Pep" Guzman, who joined the Avondale City Council in late 1983 and founded a youth recreation program that gives scholarships to West Valley children.

Rivers, hills and weather

4. Three rivers meet here. The Salt, the Gila and the Agua Fria come together in Avondale at Tres Rios, which is simply Spanish for "three rivers." The confluence supports a riparian habitat with trails and waterways for bird watching. The city restored the Tres Rios Base and Meridian Wildlife Area in the past year and brought back the Tres Rios Nature Festival, with its next edition set for February 27, 2027.

5. Arizona's land surveys start on a hill in Avondale. Monument Hill, beside Phoenix Raceway, holds the initial point of the Gila and Salt River Meridian, the reference mark from which survey lines across the state are measured. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, the first Avondale site to earn that listing.

6. Locals know where to get sandbags. Monsoon season runs from mid-June through the end of September, and the storms can bring high winds, walls of dust and street flooding with little warning. Avondale keeps free sandbags at every fire station and at the Municipal Operations Service Center, and residents sign up for Avondale ALERT to get warnings by text, phone or email.

Roads and fields

7. A quiet park on Main Street was once a highway rest stop. Dessie Lorenz Park, named for a former mayor, was first built as a rest area for travelers on U.S. 80, the highway that ran through Avondale. Today it offers shaded benches and walking paths on East Main Street, just south of Western Avenue, a small reminder that Old Town grew up serving people on the move.

8. The city looks after a farmworkers' cemetery that is now nationally recognized. When the 1918 flu pandemic struck, Goodyear Farms set aside land to bury the Mexican farm laborers and their families who had come to work the area's cotton fields. The Goodyear Farms Historic Cemetery is still an active burial ground, hosts an annual Día de los Muertos celebration, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October. That farming past shows up in small places too: neighbors named Las Ligas Park for the rubber bands farm laborers used in the nearby fields.

Speed and sport

9. Avondale is a racing town. Phoenix Raceway has been racing since 1964 and hosts two NASCAR race weekends a year. Look for its saguaro-themed LED flag stand. The track also serves as the city's backyard: the Fourth of July fireworks go up over it, and this April the city held a pitch competition there in which startup founders made their case from the back seat of a pace car on the track.

10. An NFL Hall of Famer grew up here. Randall McDaniel, the former Arizona State lineman, grew up in Avondale and played football at Agua Fria High School. The sports complex at The BLVD that hosts regional youth tournaments carries his name.

Next time a visitor asks about the place, start with Coldwater and work your way to the racetrack. You will have a story for every stop.