Mesa, Arizona

Primarily a bedroom community, Mesa is the third largest city in Arizona (and with more population than cities like Miami, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis).

About 2,000 years ago, the ancient Hohokam people arrived in the area of Mesa and built the largest and most sophisticated irrigation system in the Americas of those times. By 1100 CE, they could irrigate more than 110,000 acres of land using canals up to 90 feet wide, 10 feet deep and as long as 16 miles. However, sometime around 1450 CE, the Hohokam packed up and essentially disappeared.

Mesa City was registered as a 1-square-mile townsite in July, 1877. The first settlers were a group of Mormons who'd traveled south from St. George, Utah intent on founding a colony in central Arizona. Over the next few years several other Mormon groups also arrived in the area, each setting up their own little communities, cleaning out the original Hohokam canals and irrigating their farmlands.

The 1940's saw the establishment of several military training bases in the area. The 1950's saw an expansion in tourism and the use of air conditioning that helped to fuel population growth in Mesa. Many residents of Mesa still made their livings from agricultural pursuits up until about 1960 but continued development of early aerospace industry in the area started to cut into that.

Today, Mesa is a large suburban community offering everything from urban blighted neighborhoods to planned neighborhoods sporting middle class dwellings and some areas with very elaborate custom homes.