Phoenix historian traces city’s roots during Goodyear lecture

By Mary Goldmeer
Mail

The story of Phoenix began not in steel and sprawl but in ditches and dreams, according to Steve Schumacher, the official historian for the Phoenix Mayor’s Office, who spoke Thursday morning at Goodyear City Hall about the city’s earliest days.

The lecture, “Phoenix Beneath the Surface," was hosted by the P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center as part of its ongoing effort to promote regional history and cultural awareness across the Southwest Valley.

Schumacher, a West Phoenix native and the first person appointed to his role, underscored the importance of preserving local history, not just in Phoenix, but throughout the Valley.

“We all share the same desert, the same water, the same past,” Schumacher said. “I think the entire Valley is one entity, really. And it's important that all of us: whether it's Goodyear, Avondale, Litchfield Park or Phoenix, pay attention to our history.”

That sense of shared heritage was key to the Heritage Center’s mission in hosting the event. The nonprofit, based in Litchfield Park, is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the southwest Valley, especially the legacy of Paul Weeks Litchfield and the development of the region through agriculture, aviation, and community building.

Schumacher’s lecture focused on Phoenix’s early formation from 1867 to 1871, a period that saw the transition from empty desert to formal settlement. But long before Jack Swilling and other pioneers arrived, Schumacher said, the region had been home to a thriving civilization.

“The Huhugam people were here for more than 1,000 years,” he said, referencing the Indigenous canal-building culture whose presence shaped the Salt River Valley from around A.D. 400 to 1450. “At their peak, there may have been 50,000 people living across the Valley.”

The Huhugam canal systems, some still visible across the Valley, enabled large-scale desert farming. After the Huhugam vanished, the land remained largely uninhabited until Swilling, a former Confederate soldier and miner from Wickenburg, rode through the area and saw potential in the ancient ditches.

“Swilling was an entrepreneur and a capitalist,” Schumacher said. “He thought, ‘If I can dig canals like the Huhugam did, divert water from the Salt River, and grow crops, we can sell those to the miners and the cavalry.’ That’s how it started.”

Swilling’s first attempt to irrigate the land was near present-day Tempe, just north of Tempe Butte, but the project failed due to limestone bedrock. The group moved downstream and found more workable land in what is now downtown Phoenix.

“They learned very quickly that this part of the Sonoran Desert, if you put water on it, things grow,” Schumacher said. “It was an Eden out there.”

Early settlers planted fruit trees, dug irrigation ditches, and established one of the region’s first flour mills. Schumacher detailed how Swilling’s associate William Hellings spent $75,000 transporting used mill equipment from San Francisco to the Valley, a massive investment in the promise of growth.

But the selection of a permanent townsite wasn’t immediate. Schumacher walked attendees through the three failed proposals before Phoenix’s eventual location, bounded by Van Buren Street, Seventh Avenue, Seventh Street and Harrison, was chosen in 1870.

The name “Phoenix” itself was suggested by British pioneer Darrell Duppa, who saw a symbolic connection between the city’s rise and the mythological bird that is reborn from ashes.

“What we’re creating here is like the Phoenix bird,” Schumacher said, quoting Duppa. “Our Phoenix is rising from the Huhugam ruins.”

To wrap up his lecture, Schumacher emphasized that history isn’t just about facts and dates, it’s about memory, meaning, and honoring those who came before.

“Years from now, we’ll all be memories,” he said. “Do you want people to remember you in a positive way? Of course you do. So let’s do the same for our pioneers. Let’s show them the respect we’d want shown to us.”

He also advocated for more formal historical recognition across the region.

“I’d love to see every city in the Valley identify someone as a point of contact for local history,” Schumacher said.

The P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center, which hosted the event, is working to do just that in the southwest Valley. The center is at the historic La Loma Homestead in Litchfield Park and aims to connect residents to the agricultural, industrial, and cultural stories that helped shape the region. This event was one of several public lectures organized to bring that history to life for residents today.

For information about the P.W. Litchfield Heritage Center, visit pwlheritagecenter.org To learn more about Phoenix history and Steve Schumacher’s work, visit phoenix.gov/mayor.