City of Mesa Police (Maricopa County)

The history of Mesa dates back two thousand years
to the Hohokam Indians. The Hohokam, whose name means
the Departed Ones, built the original canal system
that spread over 125 miles and is still used today.

The First Mesa Company, comprised of 85 members, left Utah and Idaho in September 1877. The company leaders, some of whom were polygamous, were Crismon, Pomeroy, Sirrine, and Robson. They took a different route from Jones, crossing the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry, where there is a steep cliff across the river. The leaders of the Mesa Company reached Utahville, as Lehi or Jonesville was then called, in January of 1878; the rest of the company came in February. Daniel Webster Jones invited the group to stay, but they decided to move up to the mesa. They marked off land and immediately began work clearing the original Hohokam canals; water entered the canals in April. On July 17 1878, Theodore Sirrine went to Florence to register Section 22, now called the Town Center: the square mile from Mesa Drive to Country Club and University to Broadway. There is some confusion about early names for Mesa because the Post Office used different ones, however, the town itself was always called Mesa City. Postal authorities considered the name Mesa unacceptable at first, as it was thought it would be confused with Mesaville on the San Pedro River. The first Post Office name was Hayden’s Ferry (not to be confused with Tempe), operated by Fannie Macdonald in 1881. In 1886, the Post Office name was changed to Zenos. In 1889, the Post Office Department finally allowed the name Mesa City.

Dr. A.J. Chandler, who later started the city bearing his name south of Mesa, enlarged the Mesa Canal with heavy machinery in 1895. Dr. Chandler also
built the first office complex in Mesa, on the
northwest corner of Main and Macdonald, using the
first evaporative air cooling system in Arizona.
Moreover, he started an electric power plant. The
City of Mesa purchased the utility company in 1917,
becoming one of the few cities in Arizona to own
utilities. Utility earnings enabled Mesa to pay for
capital expenditures without bonds until the 1960s.
It also provided the shared funds that allowed
construction and service projects to be implemented
during the Works Progress Administration during the
Depression. Some of the improvements were paved streets,
sidewalks and curbs in the Town Center, the first
hospital not converted from a residence, a recreation
department and park facilities, and a modern city
hall/library with expanded library hours.