Tempe, AZ news and local guide

The Hohokam built canals for farming in the area and abandoned their settlements in the 15th century. After Fort McDowell was set up on the upper Salt River in 1865, soldiers and Hispanic workers hired to grow food and feed for it formed small camps by the river within a year, the first permanent communities in the valley since the Hohokam. They were Hayden's Ferry, named for Charles T. Hayden's ferry, the main river crossing, and San Pablo, on either side of Hayden Butte. William Kirkland and James McKinney founded the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company to water alfalfa, grains and cotton. The pioneer Darrell Duppa suggested the name Tempe, adopted in 1879, comparing the valley and its butte to the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus in Greece.

More about Tempe

From its founding in 1871 until about 90 years later, Tempe was a sundown town, where African Americans could work but had to live elsewhere. In 1965 Warren and Carol Livingston became the first African Americans to buy property there. In 1885 the territorial legislature chose Tempe for the Territorial Normal School, which grew into Arizona State University. The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad crossed the Salt River at Tempe in 1887, and the town became a market center for the farms around it. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors incorporated Tempe in 1894, and the completion of Roosevelt Dam in 1911 secured water for the valley's farmers. Sources Wikipedia: Tempe, Arizona