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Long before Europeans "discovered" the New World, ancient civilizations flourished in the Valley of the Sun, where one of the world's great deserts meets one of its great mountain ranges. These peoples were industrious, enterprising, and imaginative. They built an irrigation system made of 135 miles of canals in this parched land, turning it fertile. No one knows the fate of these original settlers; the ones who settled here next called them "Ho Ho Kam" - "the people who have gone."

In 1867, when Jack Swilling of Wickenburg stopped to rest his horse at the foot of the northern slopes of the White Tank Mountains, he saw farm land in the vast Salt River Valley, its soil dried but rich. The Swilling Irrigation Canal Company brought water back into this fertile valley, and the seeds of modern Phoenix were sown.

The colony went by several names over the next few years, but none of them seemed quite right to the inhabitants. Darrell Duppa, an English Lord, suggested Phoenix, signifying the new town that would rise from the ashes of the ancient civilization. And rise it did. Today this thriving metropolis is home to more than 1.3 million people and hosts over 35 million tourists per year. It's no wonder, considering the stunning variety of natural environments it provides for its inhabitants and visitors alike.