Buckeye

History

The Buckeye area was first inhabited by the Hohokam culture. In 1877, Thomas Newt Clanton led a group of six men, three women, and ten children from Creston, Iowa, to Arizona, where they settled in the Buckeye area. Early settler Malie M. Jackson developed of the Buckeye Canal from 1884 to 1886, which he named after his home state of Ohio's moniker, "The Buckeye State". The town was founded in 1888 and originally named "Sidney", after Jackson's hometown in Ohio. However, because of the significance of the canal, the town became known as Buckeye. The name was legally changed to Buckeye in 1910. The town was incorporated in 1929, at which time it included . The town's first mayor was Hugh M. Watson (1956–1958), who founded the Buckeye Valley Bank. Today, Watson Road is the site of the city's commercial center. In 2008, Buckeye was featured on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as part of a week-long series entitled "Blueprint America". A vote to designate the town as the City of Buckeye became effective in 2014. In May 2019, population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau placed Buckeye as the fastest growing city in the United States by percentage from 2017–2018, growing by 8.5%.

Geography

Buckeye is located approximately west of downtown Phoenix in the Buckeye Valley. Interstate 10 passes through the central part of the city, north of the original town center. U.S. Route 80 once passed through the city, while Arizona State Route 85 skirts what was the city's west edge. The city limits now extend to the north and to the south of the original town center. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.04%, were listed as water. The original Buckeye was built around downtown's main street, Monroe Avenue. There are currently nearly 30 master planned communities planned for Buckeye. Those communities under development in which homes are occupied include Riata West, Sundance, Verrado, Sienna Hills, Westpark, Tartesso and Festival Ranch. Other unbuilt planned communities within Buckeye include Teravalis (planned for nearly 300,000 inhabitants), Sun Valley Villages, Spurlock Ranch, Trillium, Elianto, Westwind, Silver Rock, Henry Park, Southwest Ranch and Montierre. Sundance Towne Center, a shopping center developed by Vestar Development in the Sundance community, opened in 2007. Buckeye has a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh), with abundant sunshine due to the stable descending air of the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone aloft and at sea level over the southwestern United States. Summers, as with most of the Sonoran Desert, are extremely hot, with 121.0 afternoons reaching and 181.6 afternoons reaching . The record high temperature of occurred on July 28, 1995, and temperatures above may occur in any month. Cooler weather may occasionally occur during summer, but such periods are no less unpleasant as they result from monsoonal weather, with its attendant higher cloudiness and humidity; however,…

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Youngker High School
  High · BUCKEYE · 2,099 students · 24.7:1 ratio
• Verrado High School
  High · BUCKEYE · 1,854 students · 22.1:1 ratio
• Buckeye Union High School
  High · BUCKEYE · 1,775 students · 23.4:1 ratio
• Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies
  High · BUCKEYE · 1,761 students
• Buckeye Elementary School
  Elementary · BUCKEYE · 1,038 students · 25.3:1 ratio
• Verrado Heritage Elementary School
  Elementary · Buckeye · 1,017 students · 24.2:1 ratio
• Blue Horizons Elementary School
  Elementary · Buckeye · 867 students · 23.4:1 ratio
• Verrado Elementary School
  Elementary · BUCKEYE · 867 students · 22.2:1 ratio