Ancient farmers dug canals that shaped Phoenix’s modern water system
Just south of the intersection of North Horne and East McKellips Road in Mesa sits the Park of the Canals. It’s one of just a few places where you can still see remnants of canals dug by the ancestral Sonoran Desert people who occupied the Salt River Valley before the time of Christ. Those ancient farmers have been referred to as the “Hohokam” but it’s not the name of a tribe or a people, and their O’Odham, Hopi, and Zuni descendants do not call them that. Early archaeologists believe the culture developed in Mexico and moved into what is now Arizona. In order to flourish, they built an extensive canal system to bring water to villages and irrigate thousands of acres of agricultural fields.