History of Pinal County

The first Territorial legislature of Arizona was held in Prescott following a proclamation issued by Governor John N. Goodwin for an election which was held on the 18th day of July 1864.

The proclamation was issued in accordance with an act of congress providing for a temporary government for the Territory of Arizona on February 24, 1863.

The Territory was divided into four council districts which, by legislative act, became the counties of Yavapai, Yuma, Mohave and Pima.

A bill was introduced to the legislature on January 26, 1871 creating the County of Pinal. It lost by 1 vote (7 to 8). Reintroduced three days later, it was referred to “a committee of five” (3 from Yavapai, 2 from Pima counties). The petition was approved by a vote of 9 to 6.

The Committee reported favorably upon the bill to create the County of Pinal on February 6, 1871.

The bill was considered by a Committee of the Whole, was amended to include Wickenburg. The bill passed 12 to 4. The bill and report were referred to the Yavapai delegation. A second petition was presented by Salt River Valley citizens on the same subject. Everything stalled for a couple of years. Ah, the legislative process!

Pinal County was formed Feb. 1, 1875 from parts of Maricopa and Pima counties. Name may have been derived from the Pinal Apaches or from the pine groves in the lofty mountains (Will C. Barnes, Arizona Place Names.)

There was a slight modification in 1877 to correct boundary error and, in 1881, Pinal lost the Globe District of southern Gila County.

Names of Pinal County Mines

American Flag, so. of Oracle, established in late 1870s.
Apache Mine
Copperosity – southern slope of Vekol Mountain.
Deer Creek, part of the San Carlos reservation, coal discovered in 1880s
Goldfield Mine, near center of northern border of Pinal County. Youngberg was the post office there.
Jack Rabbit, originally Tat Momoli where first Pimas held foot races, silver discovered 1875.
Lost Dutchman Mines – never found, near Apache Junction in the Superstition Mountains.
Magma Mine – magma signifies a type of molten rock material turned into igneous rock. First named Silver Queen, recorded in 1871, because it was not big enough to be king.
Old Mammoth Mine – located on the San Pedro River (which flows NORTH out of Mexico) in 1873. Molybdenum production (aluminum) began in 1936.
Owlhead Mine – established 1879 by William H. Merrit. Name describes two nearby buttes. Ray Mines – town built in 1909, swallowed up by open pit mining by Kennecott Copper Company around 1964.
Reymert – w. of Superior.
Silver Bell Mine
Silver King Mine, near Superior – Four farmers discovered it March 24, 1875, U.S. 80/89, 60/70.

Silver Queen Mine, near Superior.
Silver Reef Mine – in Silver Reef Mountains so. of Casa Grande.
Troy, first named Skinnerville – named for Troy-Manhattan Copper Mine.
Vekol Mine – Pima for “grandmother”, silver mine abandoned by 1912.
Yellow Bird - claim located here in 1863, first ore mined was silver, near Mammoth.

Place Names in Pinal County, Arizona

Arizola – coined by Mr. Thomas from Carthage, MI from the first four letters of Arizona plus his daughter’s name Ola.
Bapchule – Indian name meaning “squaw with long pointed nose”. There things named for noses include Dos Narices Mountain, 12 miles west of old Camp Grant on Arivaipa Creek. Barkerville – post office for the Barker Ranch on old stage route from Tucson to Florence. Barony of Arizona – located in Casa Grande, home of the famous forger Peralta-Reavis who claimed water and mineral rights according to an ancient Spanish Land Grant.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum – U.S. 60/70 near Superior. Don’t miss it.
Box Canyon – near ghost town of Price.
Casa Blanca – “White house”, a prehistoric ruin near old Pima villages. Named for Ammi White who had a stage station here in 1858. Said to have had the first steam operated flour mill.
Dock – no longer a railroad point or nose.
Blackwater – a stage station as early as 1875.
Blue Water – a stage station established in early 1859.
Chuichu – means “caves”.
Hormiguero – means “ant hill”.
Kearny – constructed by Kennecott Copper Co in 1958, named for General Philip Kearny who explored along the Gila in 1849-50.
Eloy - started after 1819, appeared on maps in 1921. Legend says someone on the railroad cried “Eloi! Eloi! (Spanish) why has thou forsaken me?”
Florence - first settler, Levi Ruggles, Indian agent in 1866, named in 1868 by Gov. Richard McCormick for his sister. Has been county seat since formation of the county.
Kelvin – Riverside state station established 1877 on Flobe-Florence Road/also known as Ray Junction because Ray Mining Company reduction works and office headquarters were there.
Kenilworth – west of Florence 7 miles on Gila River, named for old castle famous from Sir Walter Scott’s novels.
Maricopa/Maricopa Station – where So. Pacific passengers disembarged to take the stage to Tucson, Tombstone or north to Phoenix, Prescott, etc.
Maricopa Wells – principal station on the Butterfield Overland Stage Route and last stop for water before setting out for Gila Ranch, 40 miles farther west.
Morgan’s Ferry – best known crossing of the Gila on the road from Prescott to Tucson.
Poston Butte – named for Charles Debrille Poston who came to Arizona in 1857, “Father of Arizona” responsible for creation of the territory by an act of President Lincoln. Earlier name, Stiles Hill for Billy Stiles father, Tombstone train robber.
Rabbit – a post office for Rabbit Ranch w. of Mammoth.
Randolph – named for long-time vice president of the So. Pacific RR, Col. Epes Randolph.
Sacaton, formerly Tusonimo – derived from an Indian word referring to coarse, generally inedible forage that grew to the height of a mule’s back, first Pima settlement known as “the corner” because it was situated where the new and old stream branches of the Gila join. In 1857 extreme end of the stage line to Yuma.
San Manuel – company copper town established in 1953.
Sasco – derived from the initials of So. Arizona Smelting Company.
Stanfield - first named Summerland. Stanfield was a homesteader who gave 80 acres to form a school district.
Superior - first named Hastings, later (around 1910) Silver Queen property taken over by Magma Copper. Renamed for the Arizona and Lake Superior Mining Company.
Wymola – one of first places named on the So. Pacific RR between Red Rock and Picacho.
Zelweger – east of Florence, named for a cattleman there.

Pinal County Geographic Names

Adamsville – ghost town now on private land, U.S. 80/89, near Florence.
Agate fields – foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains, State Route 187, near Chiuchu.
Apache Leap – on U. S. Highway 60/70, near Superior where, in 1870, a cavalry detachment from Camp Pinal caught 75 Indians on the edge of the cliff, from which they jumped rather than be captured.
Arivaipa Canyon - Pima meaning “girls”.
Butterfield Trail – U.S. 60/70, historic stage trail from Tucson north of Picacho to Sacaton, west to the Estrella Mountains and on to Gila Bend.
Crystal Cave – 10 miles SE of Winkelman, discovered in 1929.
Casa Grande National Monument, U.S. 87 near Coolidge. First national monument. Father Kino performed mass inside the ruin in 1694.
Camp Grant – State Route 77 near Winkleman. Site of the Aravaipa Apache Massacre (of Sobaipuri Pimas) toward the end of the 18th century, and of the Apaches in the Old Camp Grant Massacre.
Coolidge Dam – in 1962 the largest multiple dome dam in the world, U.S. 70, named for Calvin Coolidge at dedication on March 4, 1930. Lake covers a large Apache burial ground.
Donnelly Wash – spring visited by Father Kino in 1697, near present day Price.
Elephant Trees (Busera Microphylla) – rare prehistoric species, State Route 187 near Chuichu.
Greene’s Reservoir – William Cornell Greene endeavored to dam the Santa Cruz River near where it joined the Gila River about 1909. Washed out, dikes remain, causes flood waters in Eloy, Red Rock and northward along the Santa Cruz Wash between Stanfield and Casa Grande.
Old Coke Ovens – along the Gila River east of Florence, U.S. 80/89.
Peppersauce Wash – 1880s a well-traveled trail between Oracle and the Apache Mine camp.
Picacho – pass where the only Civil War battle fought in Arizona occurred. Camping for emigrant trains.
Poston’s Butte – Top of “F” Mountain, site of Charles D. Poston’s grave.
Prehistoric writings/Petroglyphs – Sand Tank and Sierra Estrella Mountains.
Queen Creek Gorge – U.S. 60/70, near Superior.
Saguaro Forest – State Route 84/93, near Picacho.
Superstition Mountains – Pima legend re: great flood, the foam of which caused the broad white streak in the limestone along the face of the mountains. Spanish “Sierra de la Espuma”.
Table Top Mountain – landmark of western Pinal County.
Tom Mix Wash – so. of Florence, where Tom Mix was killed when his car crashed.
Tat Momolikot Dam - The Tohono O'odham tribe lost their consistent supply of irrigation water after the Tat Momolikot Dam, built in 1974, began controlling flood waters—or did it?
Weaver’s Needle – near Apache Junction, may have been named for Pauline Weaver, scout.
White Horse Pass – in Silver Reef Mountains near Chuichu, white looks like a horse’s head.
Whitlow Dam – on Queen Creek, U.S. 80/89, 60/70, near Florence Junction.