Throughout its 100-year history as a city, the foundation of Glendale’s economic success can be best summed up by two words: water and transport. Water actually created Glendale’s industry, rather than just supporting the city’s population’s normal needs. The Arizona Canal and Roosevelt Dam guaranteed a safe water supply and freedom from the effects of droughts and floods. Glendale became an agricultural mecca, specializing in lettuce, melons, sugar beets, and cotton due to these water sources.

A saloon brawler and drug addict named Jack Swilling, the founder of Phoenix, re-excavated a network of Hohokam Indian prehistoric canals that irrigated thousands of acres of farmland along the Salt River. His efforts have helped give birth to communities in the Southeast Valley that became the towns of Tempe and Mesa.

Unfortunately, no Indian Canals were there to rebuild the Salt River Valley’s northern and western parts. Thus, more than 15 years after the East Valley cities have already been settled, the lands that makeup Northwest Phoenix, Glendale, and Peoria have remained raw desert today. It, too, needed the all-powerful resource of water for the baren Northwest Valley to come to life.

Neighboring cities include Avondale, Sun City, Surprise, Peoria, Litchfield Park, and Phoenix.