Phoenix, AZ news and local guide

In 1867 Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran prospecting at Wickenburg, saw the old canals in the Salt River Valley. He formed the Swilling Irrigation and Canal Company and planted crops to feed the mining camps. Darrell Duppa, one of his party, suggested the name Phoenix, for a city rising from the ruins of an earlier civilization. Yavapai County recognized the town on May 4, 1868. In 1870 settlers picked a new townsite three miles west and laid it out in the grid that still shapes the city. Maricopa County was created on February 12, 1871. In the first county election, two of the candidates for sheriff fought a duel, and the survivor had to withdraw. President Grant issued a land patent for the townsite on April 10, 1874. By 1875 Phoenix had a telegraph office, 16 saloons and four dance halls. Governor John C. Fremont signed the bill incorporating it as a city of about 2,500 on February 25, 1881. The railroad arrived in the 1880s, and the territorial capital moved from Prescott to Phoenix in 1889. Sources Wikipedia: Phoenix, Arizona