Tempe

Sister cities

• Zhenjiang
• Timbuktu
• Regensburg
• Skopje
• Lower Hutt

History

The Hohokam lived in this area and built canals to support their agriculture. They abandoned their settlements during the 15th century, with a few individuals and families remaining nearby. Fort McDowell was established approximately northeast of present downtown Tempe on the upper Salt River in 1865 allowing for new towns to be built farther down the Salt River. US military service members and Hispanic workers were hired to grow food and animal feed to supply the fort, and less than a year later, had set up small camps near the river that were the first permanent communities in the Valley after the fall of the Hohokam. (Phoenix was settled shortly afterward, by 1867–68.) The two settlements were 'Hayden's Ferry', named after a ferry service operated by Charles T. Hayden, and 'San Pablo', and were located west and east of Hayden Butte respectively. The ferry became the key river crossing in the area. The Tempe Irrigating Canal Company was soon established by William Kirkland and James McKinney to provide water for alfalfa, wheat, barley, oats, and cotton. Pioneer Darrell Duppa is credited with suggesting Tempe's name, adopted in 1879, after comparing the Salt River valley near a -tall butte, to the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus in Greece. From its founding in 1871 until 90 years later, Tempe was a sundown town where African Americans were permitted to work but forced to live elsewhere. In 1965, Warren and Carol Livingston were the first African Americans to buy property in Tempe. In 1885, the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature chose Tempe for the site of the Territorial Normal School, which became Arizona Normal School, Arizona State Teachers College, Arizona State College and finally Arizona State University. The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad, built in…

Geography

Tempe is an inner suburb, located between the core city of Phoenix and the rest of the East Valley. Due to this, as well as being the home of the main campus of Arizona State University, Tempe has a fairly dense, urbanized development pattern in the northern part of the city especially in relation to the Valley Metro Line. Going south, development becomes less dense, consisting of single-family homes, strip malls and lower-density office parks. The Salt River runs west through the northern part of Tempe; part of the river is dammed in two places to create Tempe Town Lake. According to the United States Census Bureau, the landlocked city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The total area is 0.32% water, including Tempe Town Lake. The city of Tempe is bordered by Mesa to the east, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community to the north, Phoenix and Guadalupe to the west, and Chandler to the south. Tempe is generally flat, except for Tempe Butte or Hayden Butte (generally known as A-Mountain for Arizona State University's "A" logo located on its south face), located next to Sun Devil Stadium, Twin Buttes and Bell Butte on the western edge of Tempe, and the buttes within Papago Park at northwest corner of Tempe. Elevation ranges from at Tempe Town Lake to atop Hayden Butte. Tempe experiences a hot-desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with a higher degree of diurnal temperature variation than neighboring Phoenix.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  55,297
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  55,116
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  49,073
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48,088
• Gila Woodpecker

  Melanerpes uropygialis (S.F.Baird, 1854) · Aves
  46,937
• Curve-billed Thrasher

  Toxostoma curvirostre (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  46,271
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  46,166
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  44,794

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
• ASU Preparatory Academy Digital
  Other · Tempe · 3,455 students
• Mountain View High School
  High · MESA · 3,372 students · 21.1:1 ratio
• Sequoia Choice School Arizona Distance Learning School
  Other · Mesa · 3,083 students
• Desert Vista High School
  High · PHOENIX · 2,964 students · 23.5:1 ratio

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