Arizona Stories: A Place of Beauty, Power & Picnics

Women’s Softball

In the 1940s, women’s softball was nearly as popular as the Phoenix Suns are today. Two teams seemed to draw a larger crowd: The Queens and the Ramblers. The rivalry between these two teams went beyond the field and even extended to the fans in the stands. For just 25 cents per person, entire families would go catch a game of softball on the weekends. Rose Mofford, who played for the Queens in 1939, eventually went on to become Arizona’s governor.

La Casa Vieja

Today, Tempe is a thriving city. It is hard to believe that it all came from a humble adobe structure, La Casa Vieja.  It all started with Charles Trumbull Hayden’s arrival after the Civil War. 

Hayden built himself a home on a street that became known as Mill Avenue in the town that became known as Hayden’s Ferry. Hayden and his wife Sally built up the town, and in the 1890s their home became a hotel for travelers passing through.

Arizona Falls

Water is the lifeline of the Valley of the Sun. Canals were used for farming and agriculture – many of them were created by William J. Murphy who carved through undeveloped land.

A fall in the land located at 56th Street and Indian School presented beauty and opportunity. Many saw the land there as an opportunity for hydropower, while others saw the beauty in the area as a great place to hang out and have picnics.

The Cooley Family

The Cooley family has lived in Arizona since the pioneer days of the 1870s. Corydon Eliphalet Cooley was first sent to the White Mountains of Arizona, home to the Apache people, to build an Army outpost. Cooley married into the Apache tribe and started a family. Today, his descendants still live in the White Mountains and continue the family legacy.