About Mesa, AZ

Mesa is the third-largest city in Arizona after Phoenix and Tuscon, and is home to approximately 504,000 people. It is located just East of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. Mesa is bordered by Tempe on the West, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community on the North, Chandler and Gilbert on the South, along with Queen Creek, and Apache Junction on the East. Mesa covers a total of 139.42 sq miles with an elevation of 1,240 feet. The ZIP codes are 85200-85299 while the area codes are 480 and 602.

The history of Mesa dates back 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam people whose name means "All used up" or "the departed ones". The Hohokam people built the original canal systems which were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World, some as wide as 90 feet and 10 feet deep extending 16 miles across the dessert. As a result this transformed the Sonoran Dessert into an agricultural oasis, By A.D.1450, the Hohokam constructed hundreds of miles of canals, some of which are still in use today.

After the dissaperance of the Hohokam and before the arrival of early settlers little is known as the area was not explored again until the late 19th century when U.S. Army troops relocated the Apache, further opening the way for settlement.

Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones, with Henry Clay Rogers left St. George, Utah in 1877 with the intent to establish a settlemnt in Arizona. They traveled South and settled on the North side of present day Mesa, originally known as Fort Utah and later Jonesville. Located about where Lehi Road is present day.

Around the same time, another group called the First Mesa Company arrived from Utah and Idaho with their leaders Francis Martin Pomeroy, Charles Crimson, George Warren Sirrine, and Charles I. Robson. Instead of joining the Jones' Lehi settlement, they moved up onto the Mesa that serves as the citys namesake. The second Mesa Company arrived in 1879 and settled West of the First Mesa Company. This settlement was originally called Alma and later Stringtown. It was located near where Alma Road is today.

On July 17, 1878, Mesa City was registered as a 1-square mile townsite. The first school was built in 1879. In 1883, Mesa City was incorporated with a population of 300 people.  Dr. A. J. Chandler, who later went on to found the city of Chandler,  worked on widening the canal in 1895 to allow for enough flow to build a power plant. In 1917, the city of Mesa purchased the utility company.  revenues from the company provided enough capital for expenditures until the 1960's. During the Great Depression, funds provided paved streets, a new hospital, a new town hall and a library.

After the founding of the city, elected official George Nicholas Goodman, aquired land for both Falcon Field and Williams Field. With the opening of Falcon Field and Williams Field in the early 1940's, more military personnel moved into the Mesa area. 

With the advent of air conditioning and the rise of tourism, population growth exploded in Mesa as well as the Phoenix area. Industries such as early aerospace companies grew in the 1950's and 1960's. As late as 1960, half of the residents of Mesa made a living through agriculture, but this has declined substantially as Mesa's suburban growth continued on track with the rest of the Phoenix metro area.

Misc.

• HoHoKam Park
• Sloan Park
• Mesa Amphitheater

Museums

• I.d.e.a. Museum
• Commemorative Air Force (Arizona Wing Aircraft Museum)
• Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa Arts Center
• Mesa Historical Museum
• Arizona Museum of Natural History

Archeological Sites

• Mesa Grande Ruins
• Park of the Canals

Public Libraries

• Main Library (MN)
• Dobson Ranch Branch (BR)
• Mesa Express Library (MEL)
• Red Mountain Branch (RM)

Water Parks

• Golfland Sunsplash waterpark on U.S. 60

Misc.

• The only highrise in Mesa is the Bank of America near Fiesta Mall
• Organ Stop Pizza, containing the worlds largest Wurlitzer organ
• Bell Bank Park, a 320 acre sports and recreation complex

Mesa has over 2,280 acres of parkland in the city limits. Its largest is Red Mountain Park which spans 1, 146 acres. It includes a lake, playgrounds, a basketball court, and a cement volleyball court.

Golf

Mesa is home to numerous championship golf courses, including the original course in town, Mesa Country Club. This course was founded in the late 1940's by the original leaders of the town, and "Country Club Drive", the most prominent street in Mesa, was at one point the modest entrance to the club.

West Mesa

The Fiesta Mall is located in West Mesa, and owned by Westcor. Its main attractors are Sears and Best Buy. It is located near several shopping centers, Mesa's Bank of America, and other retail stores, banks, and restaurants. An expansion of the mall has been planned.

Mesa Riverview is a new outdoor destination retail center in the northwestern corner of the city, near Loop 202 and Dobson Road. At build-out the center will include 1,300,000 sq feet of retail space. Its attractors include Bass Pro Shops, Cinemark Theaters, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot.

East Mesa

Located in East Mesa is Superstition Springs Business Park. It includes the Superstition Springs Center, a shopping mall owned by Macerich. It features an outdoor amphitheater and fountain which convert to a stage. Attractors at the mall include Dillard's, JCPenny,  and Macy's. 

Pre-K-12

Almost all of the city of Mesa is served by public schools operated by Mesa Public Schools; however, a small southern portion is served by the Gilbert Public Schools and the Queen Creek Unified School District, and a small western portion is served by the Tempe Elementary School District and the Tempe Union High School District. 

Pilgrim Lutheran School is a Christian Pre-K-8 school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod located in Mesa.

College and Universities

Mesa is home to Mesa Community College, the largest of the Maricopa Community Colleges, which enrolls over 24,000 full and part-time students. 

The Polythechnic campus of Arizona State University lies in southeast Mesa. This satelite campus enrolls over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students in scientific and engineering fields.

A. T. Still University operates an Osteopathic Medical School in Mesa.

The aviation school CAE Global Academy Phoenix is located in Mesa.

After launching a higher education initiative in 2012, Mesa became home to branch campuses of five private, liberal arts insitutions: Albright College, Westminster College, Benedictine University, Upper Iowa University and Wilkes University. Two have since left (Albright College and Westminster College), while Wilkes University, announced it would move entirely online.

(ASU) A project offering programs from the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts will be located in downtown Mesa and is scheduled to open in Spring 2022