Interesting places to explore in Buckeye

Most people know Buckeye for its fast-growing neighborhoods and its stretch of Interstate 10. Look a little closer and the city keeps an unusual collection of places: a small history museum, library walls with hidden animals, a cemetery founded by veterans, petroglyphs by the Gila River and a runway that turns into a festival ground. Here are eight worth a second look, and how to visit each one.

The Buckeye Valley Museum

Start with the town's own story. The Buckeye Valley Museum, at 116 E. MC 85, holds pre-Columbian pottery, historic photographs and objects from Buckeye's earliest years. Admission is free. It opens on Wednesdays, Fridays and some Saturdays, and closes every June through August, so plan a visit for the cooler months. It also hosts a speaker series; this fall's talks include one on the history and conservation of the Lower Gila River.

Before you go, listen to a few of the oral histories on the museum's web page. Recorded for the Arizona Memory Project, they capture fifteen longtime residents on subjects as varied as nuclear power plants and prisoners of war.

Monroe Avenue and the Ware Building

Downtown Buckeye exists where it does because of the railroad. When the Arizona Eastern line arrived in 1910, the business district was moved to sit near the station, and by 1912 the main buildings were up. The town itself takes its name from the Buckeye Canal, laid out in 1885 and named for an early partner's home state of Ohio.

Walk Monroe Avenue and you can still see that era. Barbon Asadero, a mesquite-fired Mexican steakhouse, now occupies part of the historic Ware Building on Monroe, and its dark, fire-lit dining room is one way to spend time inside one of downtown's older walls. A block away, Casa de Leyva serves family recipes in a cantina setting, and Cafe 25:35 at 409 Monroe Avenue is a good breakfast or lunch stop before a museum morning.

Public art along Miller and Monroe

Buckeye's public art is easy to miss because much of it sits on ordinary street furniture. The city's traffic box program wraps signal cabinets in artists' designs on themes of heritage, mountains and rivers, with the biggest concentration along Miller Road and Monroe Avenue. The city has also commissioned sixteen banners for the light poles around Town Park from local artist Jessi Kerr, whose work appears on the boxes at Miller and Lower Buckeye roads. The art is outdoors and free to see from the sidewalk.

Two library artworks

Inside the Downtown Library on North 6th Street, the programming room has a mural by Arizona artist Bekah Unsworth that rewards close looking. Characters seem to step out of books, a tree in the shape of a woman holds a reading child, and Sonoran animals are hidden throughout in an "I spy" game. Look for local touches such as cotton fairies and a cowboy kid riding a rainbow fox. The Buckeye Friends of the Library paid for it.

At the Coyote Branch on West Yuma Road, Lauren Lee's hanging mobile, "The Joy of Reading," is made of translucent disks carrying patrons' favorite books and quotes. Both libraries are free to visit during open hours.

The Louis B. Hazelton Memorial Cemetery

On West Broadway Road, the city cemetery is a quiet piece of local history. It was founded in 1938 by American Legion Hazelton-Butler Post 53 and named for the first young man from Buckeye to die in World War I; the Legion handed it to the town in 1947. It is still watered by flood irrigation from the Roosevelt Irrigation District. Visitors are welcome to pay respects, and the city holds its Memorial Day ceremony here each year, next on May 31, 2027.

Skyline Regional Park

The city's 8,700-acre mountain preserve in the southern White Tanks, at 2600 N. Watson Road, is free to enter. Its trail names hint at the terrain and its past uses, from the Quartz Mine Trail to Pyrite Summit and the Watson Overlook Loop. Go in the cool season, carry plenty of water, and time your walk for the late afternoon light over the valley.

Robbins Butte and the Gila River

South of town, the Gila River supports a ribbon of green that surprises first-time visitors. The city's visitor guide describes Robbins Butte Wildlife Area as a 1,600-acre riparian habitat where ruins and petroglyphs hint at people who lived here long before the canal, with wide views from the top of the butte. Treat it as a wild place: bring water and leave any rock art untouched.

Buckeye Municipal Airport and the Helzapoppin' arena

Two working venues double as destinations once a year. Buckeye Municipal Airport, at 3000 S. Palo Verde Road, has a 5,500-foot runway and a skydiving operation, and each February it hosts the ticketed Buckeye Air Fair, with an airshow and vintage and military aircraft. In January, the Buckeye Equestrian Center on South Miller Road hosts the Helzapoppin' PRCA Rodeo during Buckeye Days. Helzapoppin traces back to 1935, when the local chamber of commerce started the celebration; cowboy singer Gene Autry once came to the festivities.

Taken together, these eight places tell Buckeye's story from ancient rock art to the airfield. Most cost nothing to see, and nearly all are a short drive from Monroe Avenue.