Mesa

Sister cities

• Manaus
• Caraz
• Burnaby
• Upper Hutt

History

The history of Mesa dates back at least 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam culture. The Hohokam built the original canal system. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World. Some were up to wide and deep at their head gates, extending for as far as across the desert. By 1100 CE, water could be delivered to an area over , transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis. By 1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals, many of which are still in use. After the disappearance of the Hohokam and before the arrival of the early settlers, little is known; explorers did not venture into this area. By the late 19th century near present-day Mesa, U.S. Army troops relocated the Apache, opening the way for settlement. In March 1877, Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones and Henry Clay Rogers left St. George, Utah. Jones had been asked by Mormon officials to direct a party of people in establishing a settlement in Arizona. They traveled south and settled on the north side of the present Mesa area. This settlement was initially known as Fort Utah and later as Jonesville. It was located near Lehi Road. In 1883, it was named Lehi at the suggestion of Brigham Young, Jr. About this same time, another group dubbed the First Mesa Company arrived from Utah and Idaho. Their leaders were Francis Martin Pomeroy, Charles Crismon, George Warren Sirrine and Charles I. Robson. Rather than accepting an invitation to settle at Jones's Lehi settlement, they moved up onto the mesa that serves as the city's namesake. They dug irrigation canals and used some of the original Hohokam canals. By April 1878, water was flowing through them. The Second Mesa Company arrived in 1879 and settled to the west of the First Mesa Company…

Geography

Mesa stretches from Price Road in the west to Meridian Road in the east and has a land area of . Mesa employs a grid system for street numbering that is different from that used in Phoenix and other portions of the metropolitan area. Center Street, running north to south, bisects Mesa into eastern and western halves and serves as the east and west numbering point of origin within Mesa. Streets west of Center St., such as W. University Drive or W. Main St. are considered to be in West Mesa, whereas streets east of Center St., such as E. University or E. Main St., are considered to be in East Mesa. Located in the Sonoran Desert, Mesa has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh), with mild winters and very hot summers. {|style="width:100%;text-align:center;line-height:1.2em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" class="wikitable mw-collapsible" |- !Colspan=14|Climate data for Mesa |- !Month !Jan !Feb !Mar !Apr !May !Jun !Jul !Aug !Sep !Oct !Nov !Dec !style="border-left-width:medium"|Year |- !Mean daily daylight hours |style="background:#F0F011;color:#000000;"|10.0 |style="background:#F7F722;color:#000000;"|11.0 |style="background:#FFFF33;color:#000000;"|12.0 |style="background:#FFFF44;color:#000000;"|13.0 |style="background:#FFFF55;color:#000000;"|14.0 |style="background:#FFFF5D;color:#000000;"|14.5 |style="background:#FFFF55;color:#000000;"|14.0 |style="background:#FFFF4C;color:#000000;"|13.5 |style="background:#FFFF3B;color:#000000;"|12.5 |style="background:#FBFB2A;color:#000000;"|11.5 |style="background:#F4F419;color:#000000;"|10.5 |style="background:#F0F011;color:#000000;"|10.0 |style="background:#FFFF36;color:#000000;border-left-width:medium"|12.2 |- !Colspan=14 style="background:#f8f9fa;font-weight:normal;font-size:95%;"|Source: Weather Atlas |}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  38,370
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  37,769
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  32,394
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  32,029
• Gila Woodpecker

  Melanerpes uropygialis (S.F.Baird, 1854) · Aves
  31,809
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  29,345
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  29,138
• Abert's Towhee

  Melozone aberti (S.F.Baird, 1852) · Aves
  29,076

Largest nearby schools

• Primavera - Online
  Other · Chandler · 6,392 students
• Chandler High School
  High · CHANDLER · 3,597 students · 18.7:1 ratio
• Westwood High School
  High · MESA · 3,570 students · 21:1 ratio
• Mesa High School
  High · MESA · 3,475 students · 20.9:1 ratio
• Red Mountain High School
  High · MESA · 3,448 students · 20.8:1 ratio
• Mountain View High School
  High · MESA · 3,372 students · 21.1:1 ratio
• Highland High School
  High · GILBERT · 3,174 students · 24.4:1 ratio
• Sequoia Choice School Arizona Distance Learning School
  Other · Mesa · 3,083 students

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2026-03-15
  9 km SSE of Tat Momoli, Arizona
• M 2.6 — 2022-02-25
  1 km S of Roosevelt, Arizona
• M 2.5 — 2022-02-15
  6 km S of Roosevelt, Arizona
• M 2.5 — 2022-02-12
  2 km ESE of Roosevelt, Arizona
• M 2.6 — 2020-06-06
  5 km NW of New River, Arizona
• M 3.2 — 2016-12-10
  11 km ENE of Rio Verde, Arizona