History of Casa Grande

Part I: History of Casa Grande, AZ:  In Arizona It's Always About Water

Located mid-way between Tucson and Phoenix, the desert lands split by the mighty Gila River, is the community of Casa Grande. Despite the harsh climate of the Sonoran Desert, there are indications that farming occupied Native Americans long ago. Evidence of the Hohokam are found almost everywhere in western Pinal County.

In the early days of white settlement, mining of silver, copper and lead brought many men to the Casa Grande area. But it was the rich soil and the availability of water to irrigate the Lower Santa Cruz Valley that proved to be its greatest strength and economic engine. Annual rainfall in central Arizona ranges between 3 and 15 inches as opposed to the area above the Mogollan Rim. There, upwards of 25 to 30 inches of precipitation each year, much of it as snow, was common.

Below the desert surface in Pinal County lie ancient aquifers that hold groundwater. The Gila River, which flows from east to west, once could be diverted into canal systems but today is dammed and flows mostly underground. The Santa Cruz River flows out of Mexico through Tucson and empties into the Casa Grande Valley. Seasonal floods from the Gila and the Santa Cruz rivers are important, but these fast moving waters are difficult to anticipate or control.

Water law in Arizona is different from Spanish and English law. In Arizona, surface water allocation is determined by “the doctrine of prior appropriation,” otherwise known as “first in time, first in right.” Miners moved water for use on mountains and hillsides. Disputes over water arose because those closest to the water, primarily Native Americans, objected to others “taking” their water. The miners decided that first-come, first-served—for that is how they viewed themselves—was a fair rule to apply. When the farmers came and mining waned water was transported via canals, much as the Hohokam did. Later, farmers dug wells and used pumps to move the water from the aquifers to the surface to irrigate their crops. Prior appropriation became law in 1864 and this rule was upheld by the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court in 1888.

According to A.F. “Pete” Peters, the town of Casa Grande based its existence chiefly upon an agricultural economy almost from its inception. “By 1918, farms were scattered, surrounded in part or entirely by desert land. Soil was often good and water shallow in depth. The Gila River tribe farmed several thousand acres near Sacaton, just a few miles north-east of Casa Grande, and there was some farming near Florence, the county seat. In those days, people cut down mesquite trees, put them in the river and built brush dams to divert the water.”

K.K. Henness, one of the first University of Arizona agricultural agents assigned to Pinal County in the 1930s, said in an oral interview for the Casa Grande Valley Historical Society, “People in Casa Grande were few. Some lived on homesteads until they could receive a patent from the government. To supplement their income some kept small flocks of poultry and others had jobs in town and drove distances daily to work.”

As an indication of the strong feelings about water use, there’s a story about Angela Hammer, who lived with her family at Vekol Mine south of Casa Grande as a child. In 1913, she returned to Casa Grande and, with her business partner, Ted Healy, began publishing The Casa Grande Bulletin. The partnership didn’t last because the two disagreed over the issue of how water should be brought into the valley. Ms. Hammer went on to publish The Casa Grande Dispatch independently from 1914 until 1916, making her one of the first female newspaper publishers in Arizona.

Again from Pete Peters: “When they first started irrigating this land, they built wells 4 to 6 feet across and about 20 feet deep. I believe some of the wells may have been 1,400 feet deep!” Since electrical power wasn’t yet available, engines pumped groundwater for irrigation. A sump pump was placed at the bottom of the well while the engine sat above ground. An oil depot located on the Southern Pacific Railroad line in Casa Grande provided fuel for the pumps.

During the First World War, the federal government encouraged Arizona farmers to plant cotton, a very water-intensive crop. The Casa Grande Valley Water Users Association was formed in 1911 to solidify local support and to lobby Congress for sustainable, affordable water but progress was slow.

In spite of low prices from 1920-1923, cultivation of long-staple—particularly Pima—cotton continued to increase. First the San Carlos Association in 1919, then at a Farm Bureau meeting at George Kinne’s farm on May 14, 1921, plans were initiated to secure electric power for pumping. In 1922, the Florence-Casa Grande Water Users Association was organized to increase pressure on the federal government to achieve the same goals. By 1923, with a loan of over a million dollars from the War Finance Corporation to the Arizona Pima Cotton Growers Association, Casa Grande’s first cotton gin began operating.

At last all this effort produced results. Construction of the San Carlos storage dam and reservoir on the Gila River in 1924 was followed by completion of the Coolidge Dam and related facilities in 1930. However, the promise of the San Carlos Project was a disappointment. It was 11 years before the San Carlos Reservoir behind the dam reached full capacity. Pumping of ground water climbed as high as 69% when the reservoir was low. “By the 1930’s,” Pete said, “good tractors allowed people to till 3, 4, even 5 rows at a time. But that takes a lot of water. Some of these areas literally dropped, getting lower. Ditches cracked. The ground cracked because the water below it was being pumped out.”

Meanwhile, the cotton reduction programs of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, begun in 1933, helped stabilize prices but New Deal crop subsidies made small operations less and less profitable. Smaller farms began to disappear and large ones expanded.

Casa Grande in the Early Years 1883

From its initial settlement, the citizens of Casa Grande represented many nationalities. On August 28, 1883 the first child was born in town whose parents weren’t Mexican or Indian. That was also the year that Don Sing arrived by ship from China. He sailed into San Francisco and moved quickly on to Tucson where he stayed for several years. In about 1890, he came to Casa Grande to work in the store of a Chinese merchant. As was true of many Chinese, he had left a wife and family behind to come to America. After a few years in Casa Grande, he returned to China to bring back some of his children. When he returned in 1896, he bought his former employer out for about $250. He established a little mercantile store that sold clothes and staples, not fresh food items. Judge Jimmy Don, Don Sing’s grandson, said in an interview in 1992 that he thought his father, Don June, was 8 or 9 years old when he came to Casa Grande.

As one would expect, a number of Mexican families came north in the early days. The Armenta family rode into Arizona Territory in 1880. Ramon Cruz, Sr. came to Casa Grande as a fourteen year old boy in 1890. According to his son, Albert, he came alone. He was a common laborer who took work with the railroad. After a time, he began working part-time for a grocery store in town. It took him only four or five years to start his own grocery store and trading post. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared the Casa Grande ruins the first national reservation/national monument in 1892. And in 1895, the Casa Grande Hotel opened on the corner of Main Avenue and South Washington Street where it was available to those arriving by train from the east.

Marie Wells described the interface between town and the Papago Indians. “When I came here there were a dozen or so small round-topped brush huts in what is now Elliott Park. These belonged to the Indians who came in from the reservation south of us. They lived in these little houses while they were in town. The men would bring in a wagon load of wood to sell to the people. Wood was about the only fuel except kerosene that was used for cooking and heating. The women went from house to house and found jobs washing. Washing clothes wasn’t easy. It was all done in a tub on a washboard. I remember Grandmother Forbach had an Indian doing her laundry for her. The woman would just walk in the back door and say ‘Veyhokee’ which meant ‘I’m hungry. I want something to eat.’ So Grandmother would feed her and then she would do the laundry. Other Indians would do this, too. Grandmother was a great friend of the Indians.”

Ida Wegman married William Henry Sell on November 27, 1914 in Kansas. Her father, who had come to Arizona to look for land to homestead, convinced the young couple to come to Arizona to homestead, too. Ida knew little about the West. Her images included Indians in war paint and primitive conditions. Her first impression of Casa Grande was less than positive. Ida and baby Lila arrived on the train from Kansas on November 27, 1915. Ida recalled how frightened she was. The house and well Bill and Ida’s father, William Wegman, had begun during the summer of 1915 was not quite finished. Bill was delayed coming in from the homestead and so Ida and the baby took a room in the Casa Grande Hotel on Main Street. Ida had seen many Mexican men in the lobby of the hotel and she believed they were hostile Indians who would kill her and Lila. The wife of hotel owner Bill Courtright assured her that she was safe and helped her through her three day wait until her husband came for her.

Arizona was the 48th and last of the contiguous states. It was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912. 1912 was the year the first school, a wooden building that housed grades 1 through 8, was built in Casa Grande. Ramon Cruz, Sr., by then a prosperous businessman in town, was one of the three school board members

“When I came here in 1913, the 19th of February, I got my first look at Casa Grande,” recalled Mark McNatt. “I got on a train in Fort Worth, TX. It was three days and nights on the road. If there was a diner on the Pullman car, I didn’t know it. I didn’t look for it. When I got off the train and looked across Main Street over here, it looked very small. We had board sidewalks made of 1 x 6’s. If you walked up and down the street at night, you’d better feel your way—you might break a leg, because some of the boards were missing. The town may not have looked like much, but that year seven married women met in the home of Lillian Peart to organize a current events club. Culture was coming to Casa Grande.

In 1914 most of the downtown area burned. McNatt goes on, “The fire! I have a picture of the building where the saloon burned. We were eating lunch at Gus Kratske’s, and I saw this blaze and I said, ‘We’d better get out of here. This place is going to burn down.’ We went to the barbershop to get stuff out to save things, and everybody else was doing that, too. The street was full of people and merchandise. I have seen pictures of that. We saved most everything, but from Ramon Cruz’s store down it was all burned. That’s just about all the business that there was in town. We had a 10 bucket brigade from the old railroad tank. I guess there were 50 people, everybody who was in town, passing the buckets one to another. Throwing the water did about as much good as throwing gas on it. It didn’t do any good. They could see the smoke from that fire in Florence! It was a pretty hot fire. The water tank stood, I believe, just a little bit east of where the Cukoo’s is now. The heat broke the windows out of my theater. The butcher shop, of course, and the barbershop, too.” But rebuilding was swift; Don’s Market, the Cruz Trading Post, and Hancock Drug Store, along with the ever-present saloons rose, quickly from the ashes. A lumber company run by a gentleman named Halstead opened in the location that is now Coxon’s alongside the railroad.

Ramon Armenta recalled when the community of Casa Grande decided to incorporate. He believed it was 1915, but records show it was actually 1914. “I circulated the petition to see if there were the number of people required to incorporate. I think I got 350 signatures, but I had to count the dogs and cats to make it. It was hard. I volunteered to do it for the city. I went to every house, although there weren’t very many including the section houses.” A year later, the town held its first municipal bond election. The result was that the first water system was installed in Casa Grande in 1917. Shortly thereafter, electricity came to town.

In his oral history, Keith Carlton recalls, “Dad bought land that was already in the San Carlos Project. There were very few places where there was water off the Project. You prayed that you got some flood water during the summer. You’d work with what you had.

When Dad came, he settled in Eleven Mile Corner and cleared land there and drilled a well. That was in 1928. They cleared the land with men and horses. We farmed it ourselves. We used Indian people for help and hired Mexican people, colored, and Anglos—whatever was available. We had permanent labor that lived on the place all the time. The garden helped supplement our diets and helped the farm income. Indian families came for cotton picking and hoeing. They’d stay at home near Santa Rosa, Sells, or Topawa, Covered Wells, Quijote until they’d planted, then come here. They’d thin and weed cotton. After mid-July they’d go back home to harvest their corn. Then they’d come back in August to pick. In the last part of October, they had to go home to harvest their beans and stuff. Those same families were with us until after World War II.

When we got ready to make hay, we’d take everyone out to make hay. When we were planting cotton, we did the same thing. Back in those days you might have two crews and split them up, part living here and part there. But if it was raining here, you’d take the crew down there where it wasn’t so wet. Just surviving made people stay with it. I don’t know anyone who was farm-orientated that leased. Absentee landlords and professionals did that. I guess the thing that made it more successful than it is now was that families were more involved and they had to make it work. They grew up on the farm and didn’t have a second occupation. They didn’t have the chance to go to college to acquire a second or third trade. All they knew was farming.

Dad planted cotton, wheat, barley more than wheat, milo maze, and alfalfa. Down at Eloy there was flax grown and produce. In the ‘30s we grew melons, potatoes, some peppers and a bit of corn we’d take to grocery stores around here. We also raised turkeys. But we didn’t go into produce in a big way. Probably not more than 40 acres; twenty in melons, 30-40 in potatoes, and five in peppers all for local groceries, the Pioneer Market and Mr. Prettyman’s. We just sold locally.”

Optimism, Despair, War, and Recovery 1920

In 1920, Casa Grande boosters were optimistic. Despite low cotton prices and deteriorating economic conditions nationwide, business was good. American-Egyptian long staple cotton was grown starting in 1920 with high expectations. But by 1925, Agricultural Agent J.B. Wright, Graham County, wrote that burdensome surpluses caused farmers financial problems. After cotton had sold for as low as 4 ½ cents a pound in 1932, the government finally stepped in. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration put a program put into place whose purpose was to reduce crop surplus and raise the value of crops. By paying farmers a subsidy to reduce crop acreage, relative price stability could be achieved.

John Singh was interviewed by Sally Zink in 1993. He told her that his father came to Casa Grande in 1924. “My dad came from the Imperial Valley. Dad heard about land in El Paso being farmed by some of his countrymen. So he took the train to El Paso. But just prior to arriving in Casa Grande he saw a little patch of farming. He figured it was a new area to farm so he got off the train. He didn’t have much, just a suitcase. There was a bank about a block away near the railroad track. It must have been meant to be because there he met a man, Mr. Darling, looking for someone to farm his place. The Darling ranch is a little bit north of Eleven Mile Corner. They made a verbal deal. They honored one’s word in those days. Dad went back to Imperial Valley, got his truck and his horse, and came back. He farmed the Darling place. After a while, they signed a paper and that was that.”

The 20s was the decade when a number of interesting and beautiful buildings were constructed in Casa Grande. In 1920, the Spanish-influenced Casa Grande Union High School building was completed. Local stonemason Michael Sullivan’s work has endured in several private homes, the Woman’s Club dedicated on Valentine’s Day 1925, and the Presbyterian Church which face it across Florence Boulevard. He also built the armory which no longer remains. Casa Grande government moved into its first custom-built City Hall early in 1931. Its graceful Art Deco facade with a distinctive round window was torn down in the 1950s,

Women emerged from their homes and established themselves as powerful players in city life during this period as well. In 1925, Fanne Gaar won election to the city council. Two years later Gaar was selected mayor, the first woman to hold such office in Arizona. If one needs proof of the staying power of women in Casa Grande, the story of Englishwoman Gertie Hager proves it. She stayed on to homestead after her husband’s death and supported herself by killing rattlesnakes and using their vertebrae to make necklaces and their rattles to decorate hats.

In 1929 the Agricultural Adjustment Administration was declared unconstitutional, thus bringing programs to control acreage to an end. Pinal County farmers immediately increased their cotton production. Migrant workers earned 65 to 75 cents for picking 100 pounds of cotton. Central and southern Arizona needed more migrant workers, many of whom brought their families with them. The majority of the farm workers came from southern states where they had lived with racial segregation. African American children living in cotton camps either could not attend school or were segregated from their Anglo, Mexican American and Asian counterparts. A one-room separate “colored school” was built in town. It opened at the southwest corner of the South School (now Ocotillo) grounds, with Adolph Spangehl as the teacher. This segregation was reported in The Casa Grande Dispatch “as required by the laws of the state.”

Although the city established a much needed sewer system in 1929, the years that followed were dismal. The Arizona Southwest Bank closed in May 1931. Farmers found that credit was incredibly tight or unavailable. In 1932, Arizona Edison Company, which provided electrical power to Casa Grande, went bankrupt. A community woodpile, Red Cross flour distribution, and more than 2,300 yards of cloth were made available to the Casa Grande needy.

K.K. Henness wrote, “On June 30, 1933, a cotton ‘Plow-Up’ was announced which encouraged farmers to destroy a minimum of 25% of their growing cotton to a maximum of 50%. Cash payments and options on government-owned cotton would be received based on its estimated yield. Committeemen from the Pinal County Farm Bureau visited cotton farmers and checked on the acreage to be destroyed, estimating its yield. Out of a total of 20,341 acres planted in cotton, farmers plowed up 7,788 acres. These farmers were to receive $82,074 with the first checks arriving in October 1933.

In November, Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture, announced a 10 cent a pound loan on cotton available only to the farmers who had participated in a program where farmers provided “cotton history” of their farms (1928-1933) or acreage and production records for 5 years. A 40% cut in acreage was planned. Apparently there were some who got around the law by hauling their cotton to Maricopa not Pinal County gins where their crops should have been counted.”

Henness goes on to say “Times were very hard. All three small county banks had closed permanently. Many people were delinquent in their taxes. State, county, and other employees were paid in warrants which drew interest until redeemed but could be cashed only with a heavy discount. The government became active in farming and ranching with crop adjustment programs that were almost mandatory.”

Meanwhile, Casa Grande teachers were given a 40% salary cut because citizens were not paying their taxes. The city was delinquent on $190,000 in sewer and paving bonds. Henness said, “By 1933, residential development had slowed and, as the decade passed, availability of housing became tight. Few new businesses were built. Federal programs became a major source of employment in town. Beef cattle were too numerous, too, and prices were low. Most of the western United States was in drought. The government offered to purchase healthy cattle. Those too weak to ship were killed on the range by a veterinarian. Some were shipped to Tovrea Packing Company in Phoenix. Cattle were appraised by two cattlemen, Roland Curry of Casa Grande and Fred R. Jamieson of Coolidge. A local movement to unionize farmers arose. State administrator of the Rural Resettlement Administration James Waldron spoke in favor of this. Although local organizations soon became defunct, Waldron’s organization optioned 2,000 acres of irrigated land and was to establish the Valley Farms Cooperative Project east of Coolidge, the 11-Mile Corner Migrant Labor Camp, and another labor camp at Friendly Corner south of Eloy.”

Mickey Carlton, in recalling the period, said, “What seemed so strange is that, during the Roosevelt administration and the depression, there were people in soup lines who were really hungry. And yet there were farmers destroying animals, destroying food. Pouring milk away! There were lines of people who were hungry. But it was the transportation to get food from where it was to where it was needed. It just wasn’t there. That was part of why people turned against AAA. It seemed crazy!”

Things finally began to turn around with the invalidation of the Agricultural Adjustment Act in January 1936. Power lines began spanning the countryside and new land was placed under pump. Doctors with medical degrees came to practice in Casa Grande alongside the midwives and women who had long been the only sources of medical care. In June 1940, the Federal Land Bank of Berkeley began to make loans on both project and pump lands.

While World War II drained the community of its young and its fit, it caused the economy to pick up. Farmers were grateful for the respite as prices rose. In 1942, a Japanese relocation camp was built on the Gila Reservation. Franklin Don was drafted within months of graduating from Casa Grande High School. He flew 28 missions as a ball gunner in the European Theater and earned an Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and a Distinguished Flying Cross. “I was supposed to fly 25 missions and get to come home. Somehow, they raised it to 28. Some flew more. After the invasion when we had fighter escort, they made the fellows fly more missions.” he stated. “When I got back to Casa Grande I said ‘I’ll never leave THIS PLACE again!’”

In the early days of the war, many Casa Grande boys graduated from high school early because they were going into the service. Sammie Caywood, who was a student at that time, says, “I was surprised during this past war that there were as many people who were as patriotic as they were. The thing was to go out and win the war. The boys were going out to join the Army or whatever. Many of us used to go out to pick cotton because all the people who worked in the fields were gone. They took us out of school, put us in school buses and drove us out to work in the fields. We didn’t have to go but we got paid. Some of us could get pretty good money and we got the farmers’ cotton in.”

Members of The Woman’s Club immediately plunged into activities supporting the war effort. The club building was rented out as a Soldiers’ Recreation Center. Gertrude Hager served as hostess and mother image. Blodwen “Blodie” Thode, a Canadian nurse who emigrated to Casa Grande as the wife of world-champion cowboy and Arizona rancher Earl Thode, became active in local politics. As president of the Casa Grande Valley Cooperative Hospital board, she led the push to start building a 42-bed hospital on a five-acre site on Florence Street.

When Italy was defeated, Pinal County began to house Italian soldiers taken prisoner. Then German P.O.W.s began to arrive. Unlike the Italians, the German P.O.W.s could be used to work on farms so long as they received the prevailing wage. Abundant crops meant too much groundwater was again being tapped. Water levels continued to decline. Many wells were providing less water and the water quality was not as good on the San Carlos Project. Arizona’s Senator Ernest W. McFarland introduced more than forty measures promoting the welfare of servicemen and women. His most important contribution, the famous GI Bill, continues to help finance veterans' educations, housing, and business pursuits. He won acclaim for state issues as well, working with the senior senator, Carl Hayden, to secure funding for Arizona's ambitious irrigation projects. On the agricultural front, a newly developed mechanical cotton picker was being tested in Pinal County.

Dorothea Coxon was hired as the payroll clerk at the Rivers Japanese Relocation Center for about 15 months in 1944-45. “There were two separate camps. I was where the Japanese civilians lived. I was the cashier,” she reported. “As the Japanese families left the camp, they would come to my window and I would pay them whatever they had coming. I was told that there were 10,000 people living there. They lived in barracks. They were excellent farmers. They would come door to door and we would buy vegetables and flowers probably once a week.”

As peace was restored, people noticed that more small farms surrounding Casa Grande had been absorbed into larger farms. The result was that large scale production agriculture became commonplace. Young men like Tommy Caywood who wanted to return to agriculture found it difficult to do so without family support. “Jerry Storey, my cousin by marriage, and I had been in the Navy. After we got home, we just started working for our dads. There was no way he and I could have gotten into farming here without our dads’ help financially. They had to sign notes for us and stuff like that until Jerry and I were sound enough to borrow money on our own.

Our dads were farming a ranch about half way between Eloy and Eleven Mile Corner—the Blair Ranch, a real old ranch. They decided they’d let me lease it from Mr. and Mrs. Blair. They found a farm up close to town for Jerry to farm. It was the Taylor and Diwan farm. Jerry and I worked back and forth, sometimes on our own farms but also for our dads. We were using their equipment. So we’d drive tractors on their land and then, maybe, they’d send one of their guys over to do something on ours while we were over there. It was several years later when we really got on our own.”

People who lived in town were either farmers or providing services to farmers. The few light manufacturing businesses were connected to and dependent upon agriculture. Newly discharged soldiers and their wives settled into domestic life and increased the size of their families. Schools became overcrowded. A new elementary school was built south of Main Street and a barracks building was moved in to expand classroom space at Central School. The distinguished educator Rebecca Dallis provided education for Black children at Southside Colored Grammar School. The first municipal swimming pool opened in Peart Park. New sewage lines improved life in town and the existing system was extended. Streets that had been oil-surfaced were paved, and sidewalks, gutters and curbs were installed. Although housing was limited, new residential buyers found homes in the A.M. Ward Addition, Kimberlea, and the Second Evergreen Addition.

Part II : A History of Casa Grande, AZ
Changing with the Times - 1950

More than 233,000 bales of cotton were harvested in Pinal County in 1950. In 1951, Pinal County exceeded all previous records for cotton production. Cotton crops, despite use of mechanical devices, were still harvested in part by hand. In the Casa Grande area alone, 11,500 Mexican laborers and others brought from Oklahoma were needed to harvest the 1952-1953 crop. These laborers were paid $3 per hundred pounds picked. But mechanization of the harvesting had begun. Allis Chalmers and Rust companies opened sales offices in Casa Grande. Allied Grain and Arizona Flour Mill expanded their holdings. By 1953 Chickasha Oil Company had built an oil mill.

Progressive ideas came with the times. Charles S. Goff served as mayor of Casa Grande from May 1947 until June 1953. He was followed by Albert S. Guinn who first ran for City Council in 1955 and was mayor from 1959 until 1965. Blodie Thode was elected to the Arizona State House of Representatives in 1952 and chaired the capital campaign in town for a hospital. Hoemako Hospital opened in 1953. It was the first district hospital in the state. Casa Grande grew in size with the annexation of an additional 400 acres of land during the decade. Three new elementary schools were built; North at Pinal and Kortsen, East south of Florence Boulevard on Trekell Road, and Evergreen.

On the Saturday before Christmas 1953, a Southern Pacific train pulled by three tandem engines smashed into a parked tank car in back of the bulk fuel plants on Main Street in Casa Grande. Kerosene poured out of the tank car. All three crewmen on the train were injured. Fire Chief Nate Coxon and his volunteer firemen rushed to the scene to prevent a fire. All through Saturday night and Sunday traffic was snarled as people rushed to see the destruction. It was an event not to be forgotten.

The cost of irrigation was a continuous worry for farmers but federal help to resolve water issues was still a dream. Indeed, despite federal agreements, many farmers continued pumping ground water. In 1952 there were approximately 1,500 wells in use in Pinal County. The Bureau of Indian Affairs in Phoenix began to send violation notices to offenders. One civil suit was filed early in the ‘50s, United States vs. Paul M. Brophy, but litigation dragged on for most of the decade.

The livestock industry in Pinal County was second only to cotton farming throughout the 1950s. In 1957, the University of Arizona estimated that there were 35-40 commercial feed lots in operation. Mining, which had a long history in the county, continued to be profitable until 1959 when the miners went on strike. Although most activity was in the eastern part of Pinal County, Casa Grande saw its share of the action.

For 40 years, one of the many services provided by The Woman’s Club was a free lending library. By 1954, the City budget was $32,000 and the first City Manager, Edward M. Pederson, was hired and continued to serve in that position until 1969. Despite support of the mayor and many citizens, a 1954 bond issue to construct a library building was defeated by one vote. In a second attempt, the anti-bond margin grew. Undeterred, the Club offered to house a municipal public library in their building. The City Council agreed and the City hired the Club’s volunteer, Jane Peters, as City Librarian. This arrangement lasted until 1958 when the Boy Scouts offered the City its building in Peart Park. The building was remodeled and the new public library was dedicated on January 24, 1959.

Mechanization of cotton harvesting was a critical factor in changing Casa Grande. As the need for seasonal labor to harvest decreased, businesses in Casa Grande had to rethink their target markets. Now the issues facing City Council were different. In response, a 20-year planning and zoning master plan was developed. The local Chamber of Commerce launched a public relations campaign to attract national exposure for the town.

One of the key players in moving toward an Industrial Development Commission was Donovan Kramer, Sr., editor of The Dispatch. The commission was instrumental in creation of the Valley Industrial Park in 1963. Nate Coxon became Industrial Development Coordinator for the city, a position he occupied for the next 30 years. Coxon said, “We saw the need to retain population and to keep jobs for our young people. They’d move away as soon as they got out of high school because there wasn’t any work here. We got a lot of industry in here like the folks who build house trailers. Other industries came in and gradually we developed a job situation that attracted young people. Before we had the industrial park, a manufacturer would come into town wanting to buy land and the price would jump from $2,000 to $10,000 an acre.”

Transportation was another of Casa Grande’s stable economic engines. At the beginning of the decade Five Points, the intersection of Highways 84 and 93, brought all north-south traffic into town. Truckers on the way to California from the east took their rest stop here. All the major oil companies had service stations in Casa Grande. Eight dealerships provided the newest models and used automobiles at competitive prices. The Sacaton Hotel and four motels vied for the business of travelers. Chef’s Inn, Dillard’s Café, a Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop, Snow’s Inn, and a choice of Chinese and Mexican restaurants welcomed hungry residents, farmers and tourists.

Many businesses continued to focus on serving the local and regional need for agricultural products and services. Four aviation services provided crop dusting. The memory of the sight and sound of crop dusters spraying fields with pesticides and defoliant on cotton is well remembered even today. During this period, Elmer Gilbert’s D&PL plant breeding business provided up to 26% of all cotton planted in the United States. Cattle and feed companies, cotton gins and oil production, agricultural chemicals and implements, welding, pump and machine works drew regional farmers and ranchers to Casa Grande. Large farms prevailed over small ones because their operations were more cost-effective. The University of Arizona and private enterprises actively pursued development of new varieties of cotton better suited to the climate and water conditions in the valley. Water worries still permeated the conversations of farmers as groundwater levels continued to fall.

On Friday, December 20, 1957, The Tucson Daily Citizen ran an editorial titled “Just Take Casa Grande, That’s Example Enough.”

We’ve been looking too far afield, it seems, for example and Inspiration for Tucson’s industrial development ambitions… All we really had to do was watch our small but potent neighbor, Casa Grande, an easy hour’s drive from here, get up and go With a purpose and a program that can give Greater Tucson all the stimulus and do-it-yourself instruction it needs.

The editor went on to describe the achievements and measurable results of Casa Grande’s efforts which included six new industrial sites that employed up to 200 persons.

Retail businesses serving the needs of residents continued to prosper throughout the decade. Florence Street was a busy place. Six grocery stores, seven barber shops, three beauty salons, jewelry stores and national chain stores like J.C. Penney, Sears, and Sprouse-Reitz made Casa Grande a hub for shoppers. The Casa Grande Clinic and Collings Clinic provided medical service. Three drug stores and two pharmacies served the needs of citizens. There wasn’t much a person couldn’t find here that was necessary to everyday life.

Casa Grande originally hoped that the new interstate highway being planned would bring tourists and convention trade to the City. The Coolidge Examiner, January 13, 1961, expressed its approval of the siting of the new highway which was the closest to Coolidge of the four proposed routes. Casa Grande residents were not that pleased that it might be passing four miles east of the City. Local business owners had reason to be concerned about loss of revenue.

The small room vacated by the public library at The Woman’s Club became the home of another civic group. The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society was incorporated in 1964. Barbara Schoen explains, “We went from The Woman’s Club building to a store front at 404 N. Marshall. We thought when we moved in there that that was forever. We began getting more things in and letting people know we were ready to receive them. So we had things hanging from the ceiling. I began looking for a new building. We looked at the Central School property. Somebody wanted us to buy that. But it had been condemned as a school so we knew there would be a lot of shoring up to do and the seller didn’t want us to divide the property and use part of it to rent out to somebody else. So that wasn’t feasible for us.

One day I was driving down Florence Boulevard and saw this sign that said “For Sale’ in front of the old Presbyterian Church. The building had been a mortuary for several years. Jay Wofford was the realtor. I talked to Jay and asked ‘What would it take?’ And he said it would take something like $2,000 down to hold it until we could get the rest together. Well, a group of people rose to the occasion. A man by the name of Mel Binford, who had been a professional fundraiser at one time, helped us organized the fundraising guide. Several of us put up some money to hold the property in escrow until we could conduct a membership drive and get up enough money for a down payment. That’s what we did. It didn’t take us too long to raise $50,000. We had a lot of support from the community.” In 1977, during Barbara Schoen’s presidency, the Society purchased the church. It is located there today.

At about that time, Jimmie Kerr returned to town. Jimmie had been raised in Casa Grande and was well known. “When I came back after my Air Force service, the Council was being run by what many people thought was a clique. Over cards or coffee these four Councilmen, the Mayor not included, would discuss the business of the Council. People were unhappy with that scenario. Those folks went out looking for potential leaders, trying to find people who could beat those four men.

I was in pretty tall clover, I thought, when I was approached. The men being recruited were older and more successful in business than I was. They were very well established, respected people. Norm Bingham, Bingham Equipment, was one of the men they asked to run. Jack Foster who owned the mortuary ‘til the Warren’s bought it was another. Jack’s wife’s family, the Mauds, had owned the mortuary before that. There was a Hispanic fellow, Conrad Tapia, who was born and raised here that they also wanted. He was a hardworking man. All four of us ran and we beat the incumbents. I really learned a lot from those gentlemen.

We had some outstanding people on the Council over the years. They had the best interests of the community and we were a pretty good mesh. I saw large numbers of people and was on the firing line. I’d been in most of the homes in all sections of this town. People developed a certain confidence from knowing me.”

One of the businesses attracted to Casa Grande in the effort to diversify was the Francisco Grande Resort, spring training facility for the San Francisco Giants. According to a popular theory, Horace Stoneham, owner of the Giants, had advance, though it turned out to be incorrect, information that the interstate was to pass just a mile or so from the site. Taxpayers passed a bond to finance part of the new facility. Hopes for the location of the resort 10 miles west of town, and the neighboring residential development of Desert Carmel, didn’t pan out. In 1968-1969, when new Interstate 8 was built, the “Franny Granny” was left several miles to the north.

Casa Grande was a community with its eye on the future. Educational opportunity for its youth was among its major concerns. Although ASU was just 40 miles to the north, and The Uof A was 60 miles to the south, many young people were unable to take advantage of these state colleges. When the state approved establishment of junior college districts, Casa Grande leaders were ready to act. Once again Roland and Barbara Schoen were at the center of the action. “Yes,” said Barbara, “in 1967 a group of people met several times, sometimes on our back patio, trying to decide how to get started. The purpose of the Central Arizona College Foundation was to assist families in funding their children’s education after they finished high school. It’s been a very wonderful organization.”

In 1969, Central Arizona College opened at the Signal Peak campus northwest of town. This was the realization of the dreams of many of Casa Grande’s citizens. Barbara continued, “Location of the college was a community effort. I believe it was the Singh family that offered some property out where the first mall was near the freeway. But the people in Coolidge and Florence refused to support the bond issue if the college was placed so near Casa Grande. And they did! They voted it down. We had to start all over again and find a new location. The present location is about 11 miles from Casa Grande and 11 miles from Eloy and 11 miles from Coolidge.”

No Longer A Small, Desert Town

By 1970, Casa Grande had become the largest city in the Casa Grande Valley, larger than the county seat in Florence. Many of those who came to live in Casa Grande during this decade were seniors, people who loved the mild winters and returned to their homes in other parts of the United States and Canada during Arizona’s hot summers. They chose Casa Grande above the metropolitan areas of Arizona because the pace of life suited them better and the area was considered more economical. They clustered in RV Parks and mobile home villages, venturing out for groceries and an occasional movie but recreating, for the most part, in their own communities with fellow residents. Full time residents of Casa Grande were often heard to decry the traffic on Florence Boulevard and the lack of civility of the “snowbirds.” The City encouraged citizens to remember the benefits to be derived from sales taxes generated by these snowbirds and urged the citizenry to be patient.

The new highways sometimes seemed like a mixed blessing. Stanley Tanger built one of his outlet malls at the intersection of Highway 84/93 and I-10. It opened in 1972. Retailers downtown expressed frustration with the competition, but those who shopped at the Tanger Mall were rarely from zip code 85222. Not long after, The Casa Grande Mall opened at Florence Boulevard and I-10. Drivers on the Interstate began to refer to Casa Grande as “the place where the outlet mall is.” Proximity to Phoenix on the north and Tucson to the south meant that heavy truck and automobile traffic moving a high speeds sometimes encountered serious problems with Arizona weather. Monsoons produced blinding dust storms. With just two lanes on each side of a rough median strip, and no parallel access roads, these accidents often stopped traffic for miles as the highway patrol and emergency vehicles tried to assist the injured and re-route traffic.

There was a resurgence of mining activity in the area. Hecla Mining Company operated Lakeshore Mine south of Casa Grande on the Papago/Tohono O’odam Reservation. Northwest of town, American Smelting & Refining Company was hard a work investigating the potential for copper mining near Sacaton. These were deep open pit and underground mines unlike the mines of the late 1800’s. A spur was laid from the Southern Pacific railroad to the Sacaton Mine to facilitate transportation of ore. Work at the Sacaton mine continued from 1973 to 1978, at which time Asarco stopped underground mining there and laid off 270 employees. Hecla began laying off workers when copper prices began to fall. It shut down in September 1977 adding 1,500 workers to the roles of the unemployed.

The Casa Grande Historical Society purchased the property at 110 W. Florence Boulevard for $125,000 which was considered well below current appraisals. More than 300 volunteers had raised the first $50,000. Special note was made in the report from the Tri-Valley Dispatch of April 13-14, 1977, of the fact that the building was refrigerated. Rooms were carpeted and equipped with “optimum lighting.” On February 14, 1978, the Society opened the complex, using the church as an auditorium and the accompanying building as its museum. Later that year the “Old Stone Church” was placed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Specially honored at the debut of the new museum was a biographical exhibit about community leader Flossie W. Barmes.

Kay Benedict was one of the multitude of volunteers who had worked tirelessly to achieve this milestone event. She continued to serve as curator of collections in the Society’s new location. Meanwhile, in 1975 Kay became involved in the Central Arizona College Foundation. Her enthusiasm for the cause led her to give unstintingly of her time for the next thirty years. She joined Zonta, a business and professional woman’s club, and took on several offices. Others had taken note of her leadership abilities. Home Rule, a strategy to facilitate local control and minimize state intervention in municipal affairs, had been proposed for Casa Grande. Kay was tapped to serve as chair of the Home Rule Option Task Force.

The City annexed an additional 2,727 acres to become three times the size it was when it incorporated in 1914. In June 1976, voters went to the polls and chose a new form of government: Charter. A Charter city is allowed broader powers than a simple incorporation. The Charter—which is similar to a constitution—is a set of policies that guide a newly created governmental entity. Its most important single advantage is that it allows a city to pause and evaluate in depth its present operations, then create, by Charter, the form of government that will best serve its particular needs. Jimmie Kerr explains, “Drafting a Charter is like writing a constitution for yourself. Freeholders appointed by the City Council draft the Charter. The term limit for mayor that’s in our Charter was one of my suggestions. It’s funny because, in later years, I had to live up to that. But I had served twelve years and three months as an elected official. I thought in fairness to the citizens it was time for a change.” Casa Grande was the 15th city in Arizona to adopt charter government.

The new 10,000 square foot Casa Grande Public Library was dedicated in October 1975. It was one of only five public libraries in the state that was open seven days a week. In 1976, the Casa Grande Municipal Airport was completed. Its lighted runway was 3,740 feet long. Among the other amenities completed was the resurfacing of two taxiways, construction of additional aircraft parking and tie down areas, as well as parking and a drainage system.

In October 1975 the Census Bureau conducted a special enumeration. The final result was 13,598. In five years, Casa Grande had increased by 29.1%, approximately double the rate of the previous full decade. 47% of the population was White, 2.5% was Black, and less than .5% were considered “Other.” Median family income was $8,234.

The decade was one in which city leadership made many crucial decisions. An excellent example of the serious nature of these issues occurred in 1971 when the San Carlos Reservoir behind Coolidge Dam went dry. The problem of over-pumping ground water had at last become visible to all. The Arizona Corporation Commission designated the Casa Grande region a “critical water area.” The municipal election in 1979 was basically a referendum on Central Arizona Project water. Although the City had tentatively arranged to receive it, only two of the candidates, William Eddings, Sr., a well respected Black educator running for his second term on Council, and Amos Hawkins, incumbent mayor and successor to Jimmie Kerr, spoke positively about it. As one might imagine, the controversy polarized much of the community. Other candidates in the election said nothing.

“I was aware of my ethnicity,” Bill laughed. “I’ve always known that I was black. You know, I told my kids ‘In order for you to get as much, you have to do twice as much.’ So I was always in that particular position and I advocated that. I wanted the community to know that I thought resources should be spread everywhere rather than just pick certain places. I always needed to know where the funds were and be able to speak on behalf of obtaining those funds.”

This was the beginning of a decade of change and growth for the elementary school district that served nearly 3,000 children. Saguaro Elementary School was dedicated in 1973, replacing Central School which had been abandoned in 1970-71. Many were sad at the loss of this historic structure. Once it was demolished, the site was purchased for a million dollar Arizona Bank Plaza office complex. All of the schools in the system were refrigerated and their lighting was updated. Palo Verde, Ocotillo, Evergreen, and Cottonwood Schools were expanded. Cholla Elementary on Kortsen was opened in 1979. Longtime Superintendent John H. Bendixen was followed by Dean Skaggs.

It would be difficult to speak of the history of public education in Casa Grande without mentioning Gladys Hamilton Albrecht. Henry Dobbins, in his unpublished manuscript in the files at the Casa Grande Historical Society, cites Gladys Hamilton Albrecht as a shining example of the spirit of women in Casa Grande. Mrs. Albrecht came from Oklahoma as a child by covered wagon in 1915. She was a member of the first graduating class from Casa Grande High School, earned a life-time teaching certificate from Arizona State Normal School in Tempe, and taught Casa Grande children for 37 years. The final 17 years of her professional career were as elementary school principal. Many people recall her work and her friendship. At her death, she left a living legacy in the well educated citizens of Casa Grande.

Cotton continued to be the primary crop in the Casa Grande Valley. The amount of acreage in upland cotton was the largest in Arizona. Long staple cotton production ranked second in the state. There was some diversification of crops over the decade with wheat, alfalfa, sorghum, safflower and sugar beets predominating. Vegetables were also grown. The county took the lead in the number of livestock being fed commercially in Arizona early in the 70’s, surpassing Maricopa County. By 1979, Pinal County ranked fifteenth in the nation in agricultural production.

1979 marked the City’s 100th anniversary. Once again, Kay Benedict was asked to serve in a city-wide post. The Bicentennial Committee labored for five years under her chairmanship to bring the events to their conclusion with three days of parades, dances and parties from November 8th to 11th, 1979.

Bibliography

In Arizona It’s Always About Water

Kramer, Diana and C.T. Reinebold III, “Waters Receding: Roads Still Closed,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 12, 1977.
Water Education Foundation and The University of Arizona Water Resource’s Research Center, Layperson’s Guide to Arizona Water, 2007, Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.

Casa Grande in the Early Years of the Century

“Familiar Faces of CG: Guy Gilbert,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, September 25, 1963.
“Park T. Gilbert,” obituary, The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 17, 1997.
Smithwick, James M., “Casa Grande, Arizona: From Mining to Agriculture” Casa Grande Valley Histories, Casa Grande, AZ: 1993.

Optimism, Despair, War, and Recovery – the 1930s and 40s

“Cotton Has Long History,” Oct. 16-17, 2002, The Tri-Valley Dispatch, Casa Grande, AZ.
Tarleton, Janice, “Closing of Prettyman’s To End 63 Year Business,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, June 22, 1982.
Woods, Dan, “Fresh Produce a Delicacy at Market 50 Years Ago,” The Tri-Valley Dispatch, February 19-20, 1975.
http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/People_Leaders_McFarland.htm
http://www.azleague.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.main

Changing with the Times – the 1950s

Casa Grande: Worth Looking Into, Casa Grande, AZ: Casa Grande Chamber of Commerce, 1958.
“Damage Is Estimated at $50,000 In Saturday Night’s Train Wreck,” December 24, 1953, The Casa Grande Dispatch, Casa Grande, AZ.
Fleming, Mark, Jr., “Real Estate Craze Hits CG,” The Phoenix Gazette, July 22, 1985.
“Flood Damage to Cotton Rated in Millions: But Cattle Men Envision Benefits from Improved Range Feeding,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, November 7, 1957.
“Home Construction Booms in CG’s Evergreen Manor,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, May 20, 1954.
“Just Take Casa Grande, That’s Example Enough,” The Tucson Daily Citizen, December 20, 1957.
Kerr, Jimmie, oral history, March 27, 2004, Casa Grande, AZ: The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society, 2004.001.002.
“Lifeline: Where I-10 Went Through Impacted Casa Grande and Coolidge,” November 16-17, 1994, The Tri-Valley Dispatch, Casa Grande, AZ.
“New Shopping Plaza Uses Copper, Fountain Symbols,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, January 21, 1986.
Noel, Josh, “Lifeline: where I-10 Went Through CG and Coolidge,” The Tri-Valley Dispatch, November 16-17, 1994.
“Old Haunt No Desolate Mirage”, The Contra Costa Times, Mar. 13, 2002, Walnut Creek, CA.
“Stadium Believed Baseball Salvation,” July 8, 1959, The Phoenix Gazette, Phoenix, AZ.

Achievements and Successes – the 1960s

“Armory Ground Breaking,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, February 23, 1961. Buchen, Charlotte and Gene McLain, “Flood Devastates State Crop Lands,” The Arizona Republic, September 28, 1962.
Buchen, Charlotte and Gene McLain, “Governor Fannin Declares Emergency in Flood: Damage Estimates Hit $25 Million,” The Arizona Republic, September 29, 1962.
“Dave White, Grand Marshall, O’Odam Tash 1979,” The Tri-Valley Dispatch, February 10-11, 1968.
“Downtown CG: Where Good Things Are In Store for You,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, February 5, 1993.
“First Presbyterian Church Begins Building Program,” The Arizona Republic, June 4, 1964.
Garner, Jim, “Borrowed $500 Was Beginning of Indian Gathering in 1968,” Fall 1985, Pinal Ways.
“Ground Breaking for New Valley Industrial Park,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, January 5, 1966.
“Woman’s Club Final Meet Features Fun,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, May 25, 1964

No Longer A Small, Desert Town – the 1970s

Firch, Robert S., Cotton: A College of Agriculture Report: 1978 Outlook for Cotton Markets & Marketing, series 8-42, February 1978, Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.
“Special 30th Anniversary Issue,” January, 2000, CAC Desert Winds, Casa Grande, AZ: The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society 01.51.5.
“Library Circulation Increases,” Report to the People 1978-1979, Casa Grande, AZ: City of Casa Grande.
Levine, Alan, “Former FFA Member Part of Ag Industry,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, February 27, 2004.
Melvold, Doug, “CG’s Final, Official Census Total Set,” 1975, The Casa Grande Dispatch, Casa Grande, AZ.
Metzger, Mary, “Sam Benedicts Tour Ranches in Latin American Countries: A ‘Busman’s Holiday,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, April 8, 1970.
“National Historic Register Spotlights Woman’s Club,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, May 10, 1979.
“Santa Cruz Flood Control Plan Inches Ahead in Meeting Here: But Decision Still Years Away,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, June 17, 1976.
“Special Observance Highlights Parochial School’s 25th Year,” January 16, 1976, The Casa Grande Dispatch, Casa Grande, AZ.
Tallon, Jim, “Casa Grande’s O’Odham Tash: ‘Indian Days’ Is a Lively & Colorful Pageant,” Arizona Highways, February 1978, pp.3-9.
“Woman’s Club Gets Certificate,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, January 15, 1976.

Later

20 Years of Service: Central Arizona College, Casa Grande, AZ. 93.40.48
Cobb, Jim, “After 63 Years in CG, Serrano’s Going Out of Business,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 2, 1989.
Edmond, Susan, “Water Problems ‘Mature’ As Political Conflicts Continue, The Tri-Valley Dispatch, March 16-17, 1994.
“Emergency Loans Available,” Tri-Valley Dispatch, November 2-3, 1983.
“First Steps Taken to Make Oil Main New City Hall,” City Beat, v. VI, issue 2, July 1996, City of Casa Grande, AZ.
Flatten, Mark, “Cotton Fields Devastated,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 3, 1983.
Flood, Laura, “Benedict Feeding Company,” Western Cowman, September 1998, pp. 40, 68, 73.
“Food Stamps, Unemployment On Increase in CG Vicinity, The Casa Grande Dispatch, January 13, 1975.
“Half of Average Rain Fell in 4 Days,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 4, 1983, p. 3.
Howell, Andy, “Four Hotel Plans Take Step Forward,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 8, 1985.
“Jeffrey L. Fairman Named Top Economic Dev. For 1995,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, July 14, 1995.
Kramer, Donovan, Jr., “Chamber Recognizes 5 for Service,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, October 26, 1991.
Levine, Alan, “Feeding Cattle for 50 Years: Benedict Family Ends Era,” The Tri-Valley Dispatch, January 19-20, 2005.
“Oldest Standing Structure Demolished: John C. Loss House,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, August 4, 1989.
“Pinal County Deluged After Record Rainfall: Santa Cruz River Breaks into CAP Canal,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, January 20, 1993.
Phillips, Tom W., “Old Pioneer Market Rings Up CG History, The Tri-Valley Dispatch, April 15-16, 1992.
“Preliminary OK Given to Bonds for Plant,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, March 1982.
Romero, Christine, “’Tween Cities Score Development, Jobs: Casa Grande’s Slam,” The Arizona Republic, March 25, 2003.
“Serrano’s Closing Makes CG Less Kindly & Gentle Place,” The Pinal Pioneer, Vol. 1, Number 15, October 8, 1989.
Smith, Turk, “Arizona Storm Damage Tops $500 Million,” The Arizona Republic, October 14, 1983.
Targos, Renee M., “Residents Clean Up After Flooding,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, July 23, 1998.
Tarleton, Janice, “Francisco Grande Nearly Back to Normal,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, November 4, 1983.
“Umphred Furniture Company to Expand Plans,” The Casa Grande Dispatch, May 5, 1981.
Wallace, Steve, “A Controversial Dam Could Alleviate Some Flood Problems in Pinal County,” The Tri-Valley Dispatch, February 24-25, 1993.
“Woman’s Group Given Club History: The CG Valley Historical Society Project,” Casa Grande Dispatch, January 12, 1977.

General Bibliography

“Airport Master Plan Update Nearing Completion,” Arnott Duncan, City Beat, Vol. VII, Number 1, 1997, City of Casa Grande, Casa Grande, AZ.
Arizona Office of Economic Planning and Development, Casa Grande Arizona Community Prospectus, The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society. 79.34
Arizona State Parks, AZ Statewide Comprehensive Recreation Plan, 2003.
Arizona Town Hall Annual Report 2008, Arizona Town Hall, Phoenix, AZ.
Casa Grande Centennial 1879-1979: 100 Years of Progress, 1979, Casa Grande, AZ: Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, Inc.
“Casa Grande Community Profiles” in the Hayden Library at Arizona State University.
Casa Grande Elementary Schools: Chronological Building Record (unpublished), 75.38.1, The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society.
City of Casa Grande General Plan 2020, Casa Grande, AZ., p. 53.
Councils of the City of Casa Grande (unpublished), The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society.
Fauré-Tsaguris, A Master Plan for Casa Grande, Arizona: Basic Studies ……
Megapolitan: Arizona’s Sun Corridor, Morrison Institute of Public Policy, May 2008, Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
Sustainability for Arizona: The Issue of Our Age, Arizona Policy Choices, 6th edition, Morrison Institute for Public Policy, November 2007, Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University.
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2002.
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Census of Agriculture: 1950, Counties & State Economic Areas, New Mexico & Arizona, v. I, part 30, 1952.
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Census of Agriculture, Highlights of Agriculture, Pinal County, Arizona, 1992 and 1987.
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Census of Agriculture: County Profile, Pinal, Arizona, 2007.
United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1980-2000, Table 2-2.2.
United States Department of the Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900-1990.