Kyle Paoletta

And certainly when it surpassed Philadelphia as the fifth largest city in the country, I think that was like a watershed moment for a lot of Americans of like, wait a second, like, Phoenix is better than Philadelphia? How did that happen? Yeah. So I think the story really starts with the ancestral Sonoran peoples who first lived along the Salt River in what's now central Arizona.

And the Salt is a, unlike the Rio Grande or the Colorado, is... a somewhat less stable river there are some years where it flows you know very rapidly and is a quite impressive river and many years when it runs dry so it's a much more the salt river is a less regular companion for civilization than yeah maybe other rivers are.

And the Salt is a, unlike the Rio Grande or the Colorado, is... a somewhat less stable river there are some years where it flows you know very rapidly and is a quite impressive river and many years when it runs dry so it's a much more the salt river is a less regular companion for civilization than yeah maybe other rivers are.

And the Salt is a, unlike the Rio Grande or the Colorado, is... a somewhat less stable river there are some years where it flows you know very rapidly and is a quite impressive river and many years when it runs dry so it's a much more the salt river is a less regular companion for civilization than yeah maybe other rivers are.

So these ancestral peoples dug these irrigation canals and some kind of rudimentary dams and did a lot of these earthworks that allowed them to support some of the most vast agricultural area in what's now the United States in the pre-Columbian era. And so that was roughly 500 to 1500 CE. And so that kind of laid a foundation.

So these ancestral peoples dug these irrigation canals and some kind of rudimentary dams and did a lot of these earthworks that allowed them to support some of the most vast agricultural area in what's now the United States in the pre-Columbian era. And so that was roughly 500 to 1500 CE. And so that kind of laid a foundation.

So these ancestral peoples dug these irrigation canals and some kind of rudimentary dams and did a lot of these earthworks that allowed them to support some of the most vast agricultural area in what's now the United States in the pre-Columbian era. And so that was roughly 500 to 1500 CE. And so that kind of laid a foundation.

And then there were some climactic changes where those peoples migrated to other rivers, primarily the Gila and the Santa Cruz. And then after Guadalupe Hidalgo, You have Anglo settlers coming in the 1870s who discovered these irrigation canals. And that becomes, that is why it's called Phoenix. It's the sense of where it is a civilization reborn, where this supposedly banished people was.

And then there were some climactic changes where those peoples migrated to other rivers, primarily the Gila and the Santa Cruz. And then after Guadalupe Hidalgo, You have Anglo settlers coming in the 1870s who discovered these irrigation canals. And that becomes, that is why it's called Phoenix. It's the sense of where it is a civilization reborn, where this supposedly banished people was.

And then there were some climactic changes where those peoples migrated to other rivers, primarily the Gila and the Santa Cruz. And then after Guadalupe Hidalgo, You have Anglo settlers coming in the 1870s who discovered these irrigation canals. And that becomes, that is why it's called Phoenix. It's the sense of where it is a civilization reborn, where this supposedly banished people was.

Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, in addition to those peoples in what's now Arizona, there were, of course, the Pueblo people primarily in New Mexico and along the Rio Grande and some of its tributaries where there were dozens of villages when the Spanish first got there, when Coronado, you know, led his expedition out of Mexico into what's now the Southwest.

Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, in addition to those peoples in what's now Arizona, there were, of course, the Pueblo people primarily in New Mexico and along the Rio Grande and some of its tributaries where there were dozens of villages when the Spanish first got there, when Coronado, you know, led his expedition out of Mexico into what's now the Southwest.

Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, in addition to those peoples in what's now Arizona, there were, of course, the Pueblo people primarily in New Mexico and along the Rio Grande and some of its tributaries where there were dozens of villages when the Spanish first got there, when Coronado, you know, led his expedition out of Mexico into what's now the Southwest.

and that those people also had a very long history. And there's evidence of trade between the Pueblos, the people of the rivers in Arizona, and Central Mexico with what became the Aztec civilization and so on. So there was very much a thriving culture. And you can today visit the ruins of Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon and see these really incredible

and that those people also had a very long history. And there's evidence of trade between the Pueblos, the people of the rivers in Arizona, and Central Mexico with what became the Aztec civilization and so on. So there was very much a thriving culture. And you can today visit the ruins of Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon and see these really incredible

and that those people also had a very long history. And there's evidence of trade between the Pueblos, the people of the rivers in Arizona, and Central Mexico with what became the Aztec civilization and so on. So there was very much a thriving culture. And you can today visit the ruins of Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon and see these really incredible

cliff dwellings that those peoples developed around 1100 and see that for them living in the desert was about making do with very scant resources and many lived very communally. Many pueblos are effectively huge apartment complexes. Right. And so what happened with Anglo settlement is very much an importation of a lifestyle from not just the Midwest and the Northeast, but from Europe.

cliff dwellings that those peoples developed around 1100 and see that for them living in the desert was about making do with very scant resources and many lived very communally. Many pueblos are effectively huge apartment complexes. Right. And so what happened with Anglo settlement is very much an importation of a lifestyle from not just the Midwest and the Northeast, but from Europe.

cliff dwellings that those peoples developed around 1100 and see that for them living in the desert was about making do with very scant resources and many lived very communally. Many pueblos are effectively huge apartment complexes. Right. And so what happened with Anglo settlement is very much an importation of a lifestyle from not just the Midwest and the Northeast, but from Europe.

And this sense of we can take this place and turn it into Europe. something that's more familiar east of the Mississippi as where you get this dictum of the rainfall follows the plow, which was very popular in the Manifest Destiny era that simply by cultivating land, you would turn it temperate and you would turn it into good agricultural land.