From Hohokam canals to the Fiesta Bowl Parade: the landmarks and traditions that tell Phoenix's story

Phoenix carries its origin story in its name. The settlers who arrived in the 1860s found the remains of a much older civilization, and they built their town on top of its work. Much of that layered history is still there to visit, and the city keeps adding traditions of its own.

The first builders

Long before the city, the Ancestral Sonoran Desert people whom archaeologists call the Hohokam farmed the Salt River Valley. By the city's count, the people of the village known as Pueblo Grande built about 135 miles of canals. That village is preserved today as S'edav Va'aki Museum, beside Sky Harbor International Airport, on an archaeological site about 1,500 years old. The museum took its current name in 2023. The O'odham name refers to the site's large platform mound, its central place in the valley and the canal system that surrounded it.

Preservation started early here. In 1924 Thomas Armstrong bought the platform mound and donated it to the city, which added the canal remains known as the Park of Four Waters that same year. In 1929 Phoenix hired Odd Halseth as its first city archaeologist, by the museum's account the first in the nation. The site is now a National Historic Landmark, and every December the museum foundation's Indian Market, first held in 1977, brings more than 100 Native artists to the grounds.

A territorial town takes shape

In 1867 Jack Swilling organized an irrigation canal company, and water flowed through its canal in March 1868. That year Darrell Duppa suggested the name Phoenix, for a town that would rise from the ruins of an earlier civilization. Settlers chose a townsite in October 1870, the first lots sold that December, and the city was incorporated in 1881. In 1889 the territorial government moved to Phoenix from Prescott.

Heritage Square, on Block 14 of the original townsite, offers the clearest picture of that era. Its centerpiece, the Rosson House, was built in 1894 and 1895. The city acquired it in 1974 and opened it as a museum in 1980, and guided tours still lead visitors through its rooms.

Statehood and the Capitol

The Arizona Capitol was dedicated in 1901. Roosevelt Dam, dedicated in 1911, secured the valley's water, and on February 14, 1912, Arizona became a state. The Capitol housed the Legislature until 1960 and executive offices until 1974. Restored and rededicated, it opened as the Arizona Capitol Museum in 1979, and its copper dome remains the centerpiece of the state government complex.

Downtown, the Orpheum Theatre opened on January 5, 1929, when Phoenix was a town of about 48,000. Architects Lescher & Mahoney gave it an atmospheric interior of Spanish-style buildings beneath a painted sky. The city bought the theater in 1984, saving it from demolition, and reopened it in January 1997 after restoration.

Two castles on the edges

Two very different castles date from the same years. On the east side, Alessio Carraro began building a hotel in 1929 as the centerpiece of a planned resort, and the stock market crash ended those plans. In 1931 E.A. and Della Tovrea bought the hotel, and Della lived there until her death in 1969. Many locals know Tovrea Castle as the wedding cake house for its tiered silhouette. The city bought the castle and its cactus gardens in 1993, restored it and opened it for tours.

In the South Mountain foothills, Boyce Luther Gulley spent his last 15 years, from 1929 until his death in 1945, building the Mystery Castle for his family, chiefly his daughter, Mary Lou, using largely salvaged materials. She began giving tours in 1948 and continued until her death in 2010. A nonprofit foundation maintains it today.

A city that grew up fast

During World War II, Luke, Williams and Falcon fields brought military personnel to the area, the city became an industrial center, and growth followed. By 1950 Phoenix had about 105,000 residents. Today it covers more than 500 square miles, is home to more than 1.6 million people and ranks fifth in population among the nation's cities.

Traditions locals keep

• The Arizona State Fair began in 1884 as a territorial fair and has been held at the fairgrounds at 19th Avenue and McDowell Road since 1905.
• The Cultural Coalition's MIKIZTLI Día de los Muertos festival held its 15th edition downtown in October 2026, with a large community ofrenda, mariachi and ballet folklórico, and a procession led by towering skeleton puppets.
• ZooLights turns the Phoenix Zoo's trails into a holiday light walk, running from late November into mid-January in the 2026–27 season.
• The Fiesta Bowl Parade has marched through central Phoenix for more than 50 years with giant balloons, floats and marching bands. Its 54th edition heads down Central Avenue on January 2, 2027.

Reading the layers

The pleasure of Phoenix history is how close together it sits. In a single day you can stand beside a Hohokam platform mound as jets climb out of Sky Harbor, tour a Victorian house on the original townsite, and catch a show beneath the Orpheum's painted sky. Each stop adds another chapter to the same story.