Roosevelt Dam Provides Water to Arizona Homes

Without water, much of central and southern Arizona would still be arid desert, instead of home to a plethora of vibrant cities and towns where luxury Arizona homes and real estate are part of the fabric of life. Centuries ago, Native Americans started the first irrigation and canal systems, and in more modern times, the capture, storage and distribution of water has continued to play a central role in the growth of Arizona.

Roosevelt Dam is located about 76 miles northeast of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. According to Arizona Oddities, at the time the dam was built, the area had more than 13,000 square miles of watershed from the mountains and the Mogollon Rim. No other large valley in the West came close to the magnitude of watershed available, and that’s why, following the National Reclamation Act of 1902, this particular location was chosen for Roosevelt Dam. Named for President Theodore Roosevelt, construction on the dam began in 1905 and was completed in 1911 at a cost of $10 million. The debt to the federal government was repaid in full in 1955.

Roosevelt Dam was the first major reclamation project in the West and was probably the most significant event in the entire history of the Salt River Valley. Before the dam was built, settlers would often have to leave during times of drought, but the dam’s creation provided a reservoir of lifesaving water.

Once the world’s highest masonry dam, Roosevelt Dam forms Roosevelt Lake which has a shoreline of 128 miles and a length of just over 22 miles. Its capacity is approximately 1.6 million acre-feet and its surface acreage, when full, is about 21.5 acres. The maximum depth of Roosevelt Lake is 188 feet.*

The Salt River Project (SRP), a quasi-governmental agency, manages the dams and lakes. In 1996, SRP completed a $430 million modification project on Roosevelt Dam, expanding Roosevelt Lake’s storage capacity by 20 percent.

(*Source: www.srp.net)

Arizona’s Home to Camels and Cacti

If you’re interested in real estate or Arizona homes for sale, chances are you’re also interested in learning some of the history of the Grand Canyon State. Arizona is a land filled with not just magnificent scenery and beautiful homes and real estate for sale, but also dramatic legends – some based on fact, some based on fiction and some based on dreams. The story that many people have heard about camels making a home in Arizona and carousing across the desert is, in fact, based on facts.

Let’s start out in Quartzsite, Arizona, about half-way between Phoenix and the California border along I-10. Quartzsite is located about 125 miles from Phoenix and almost 300 miles from Tucson. The town is now home to a wealth of winter residents, and it’s also where numerous well-attended gem and mineral shows take place every year. But over one hundred years ago, Quartzsite was where camels met cacti.

According to Arizona Oddities, the thing most people notice right away when they enter the Quartzsite Pioneer Cemetery is a stone pyramid topped by a copper camel, and there’s quite a story behind its presence. The cairn marks the gravesite of a famed camel driver known as “Hi Jolly,” whose birth name was Philip Tedro, a Greek born in Syria. As an adult, Tedro had converted to Islam and changed his name to Hadji Ali.

Hadji Ali came to the United States in the 1850s or 1860s (various reports have different dates) to act as a camel driver for the U.S. Army which was in the midst of an ill-fated attempt to use the animals as “beasts of burden” for military purposes in the deserts of the Southwest. Once here in Arizona, the locals had a ton of trouble pronouncing “Hadji Ali” so they shortened it to Hi Jolly.

Hi Jolly served with the Army until the camel experiment was abandoned and the camels were either sold off to private enterprises or turned loose in the desert. One of camels became known as the Red Ghost, and legend has it that when Hi Jolly died, he was out in the desert hunting for the renegade animal. No one knows for sure if that’s true, but it does make for an interesting story.

Hi Jolly died near Quartzsite in 1902, and in 1934, in recognition of his service to the U.S. Army, the Arizona Department of Transportation erected a monument over his grave. His memory is preserved every year when Quartzsite stages Hi Jolly Days and Camelmania in his honor.

Apache Junction is Lovely Arizona Real Estate

Warm in spirit and generous in hospitality, Apache Junction is a lovely little Arizona real estate community nestled against the majestic red-rock cliffs of the Superstition Mountains. Located about 35 miles east of Phoenix on Highway 60, Apache Junction got its start as a mining and transportation-based town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the 1950s, this history-filled Arizona town was spreading slowly but surely, with the old Superstition Inn as the area’s chief focal point and most businesses springing up along the Apache Trail.

Over the decades, Apache Junction has continued to grow in both population as well as size. The entire area, which borders the city of Mesa to the west and extends past Gold Canyon to the east, is made up of about 150 square miles of often-rugged geography. The Apache Junction region has about 140,000 residents who call the area home year-round, with more than 30,000 “snowbirds” also flocking here each fall and winter.

Apache Junction includes the subdivisions of Gold Canyon, Peralta Road, Queen Valley, Mountain Brook Village and Superstition Mountain. Many of these communities feature luxury real estate including a number of stunning homes, villas and mansions tucked in the shadows of the nearby mountains. Horse properties are also common here and some residents own working ranches with livestock.

Although Apache Junction has enjoyed fairly rapid and consistent growth over the years, the town has managed to maintain an ambience of old-fashioned cowboy charm with plenty of wide-open spaces for everyone. Visitors often feel like they have stepped back in time to the days of the Wild West, with popular attractions such as the Goldfield Ghost Town and The Superstition Historical Museum on Highway 88 helping to add to this sense of history. If you continue east along Highway 88 (and don’t mind a lot of twists and turns and breathtaking views straight down), you’ll arrive at Tortilla Flat, an Old West stagecoach stop complete with wooden sidewalks and a candy and ice cream shop serving up scrumptious treats to hungry visitors.

There is no shortage of things to do in and around Apache Junction, for example, there are many well-manicured golf courses, campsites and horseback trails. If hiking is more to your liking, the Superstition Mountains offer trails for all ages and abilities, and who knows—maybe you’ll even stumble upon the Lost Dutchman gold mine during your outdoor adventure. The legendary gold mine has been missing since the late 1800s, and every year the town honors the mystery of its history with the Lost Dutchman Days celebrations.

Goodyear Arizona Houses Colorful History

Twenty miles West of Phoenix is the city of Goodyear, Arizona. Goodyear has a rich and colorful history. In 1916, during World War I, the Goodyear Rubber Company (headquartered in Akron, Ohio) was searching for a new location to grow cotton to help in the manufacturing of this highly versatile fiber. Their current supply was coming from Egypt and was being slowly destroyed by the boll weevil, which is a cotton-eating insect. Executives from the Goodyear Company had heard that the Arizona real estate and climate was similar to the Egyptian desert, so they sent one of their up-and-coming executives, Paul Litchfield, to scout out the area.

Litchfield, a Boston native and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had helped develop the modern cord tire and was considered an expert in the design and production of tires. Litchfield purchased 36,000 acres of sprawling real estate that stretched from Chandler to the White Tank Mountains horizontally and from the Estrella Mountains to Thunderbird Road vertically. Goodyear moved its headquarters to the area where Litchfield Park (named after Paul Litchfield) is today. Because they were growing Egyptian long-fiber cotton, the town was originally known as Egypt, but the community and cotton ranch soon became known as Goodyear Farms.

During World War II, a division of the Goodyear Rubber Company built the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation next to what had become the Litchfield Naval Air Facility. The company built canopies and other various parts for Navy airplanes, as well as the “air balloons” that led to the famous Goodyear blimps. The Litchfield Naval Air Facility housed 132 Navy blimps that were used for coastal defense, and the blimps were often used as early warning radar stations and also as convoy escorts. After the war, the plant continued to produce blimps and missile components, soon becoming Goodyear Aerospace. Through mergers and divisional sell-offs, Goodyear Aerospace became Loral Defense Systems and eventually evolved into Lockheed Martin.

In 1946, the town of Goodyear, with a population of 1,500, was incorporated adjacent to the Naval Air Facility. By 1980, the population had doubled, and in 1985 the residents voted for their town to become a city. Currently, Goodyear encompasses approximately 130 square miles of prime real estate dotted with a variety of homes and home-styles ranging from middle-income to high-end estates. Right now, over 60,000 people call Goodyear home.