A Brief History of Mesa, Arizona

Hohokam

The history of Mesa dates back at least two thousand years to the arrival of the Hohokam people. The Hohokam, whose name means "All Used Up" or "The Departed Ones", built the original canal system. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World. Some were up to 90 feet wide and ten feet deep at their head gates, extending for as far as 16 miles across the desert. By A.D.1100 water could be delivered to an area over 110,000 acres, transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis. By A.D.1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals many of which are still in use today.

• Why did the Hohokam leave? Several reasons have been advanced:
• A ring of prehistoric hilltop forts surrounding the Salt River suggests warfare between the Hohokam and other groups that began in the 1300's.
• The water table became too high, so the salts and minerals were not able to leach through the soil, preventing the crops from growing.
• A large flood is known to have occurred in A.D.1358 that may have destroyed the irrigation systems and disrupted the large population they supported.
• The land became overpopulated and could not sustain the number of people who moved here.
• Their culture did not disappear: it slowly transformed and is represented by their descendants, the people of the Salt River-Maricopa and Gila Communities.