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Right in the center of the Valley of the Sun is Tempe. Over the last few decades, people and industries have flocked to the area, bringing planned communities and industrial parks, along with increased academic and cultural activities.

Tempe is not the oldest city in Arizona. It began as Fort McDowell, established by the US Army in 1865 at the eastern end of the Salt River Valley. Among those who followed the cavalry were Jack Swilling, who directed the renovation of the Hohokam Indians' canals, and Charles Trumbull Hayden, who build a flour mill and operated a ferry service across the Salt River (Rio Salado). Hayden also gave the community its first name: Hayden's Ferry.

The name of Tempe is said to have come from the English Lord Darrell Duppa, who in 1878 said the town reminded him of something he read about the beautiful Vale of Tempe in ancient Greece. The city continued to grow and expand, and now it is Arizona's seventh largest city, bounded by Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler.