Palo Verde Remembered

Excerpt from Palo Verde Remembered as told by: Eliza W. Narramore, Delbert Wood and Neva Wood. Acknowledgement page: This history was made possible by three people who have lived in Palo Verde and watched it change in the time-span of 1909 until the present 1994.

Palo Verde as it was and is now

Often people who previously lived here come back to visit and say, “Palo Verde hasn’t changed a bit.” The response if usually, “No, the mountains are like they have always been, and the Gila River is in the same location.” But those who have lived here all their lives see many changes.

Before the 1890’s a few Indian families apparently lived near the Gila River as artifacts have been found in that area. Around 1886 the Buckeye Canal was constructed, beginning at the confluence of the Agua Fria and Gila Rivers and extending to the Hassayampa River. The availability of water made farming possible, and so the homesteaders and early settlers soon began arriving.

Between 1894 and 1896, several of the first settlers arrived and began homesteading on some of the land and farming. These first settlers cleared the land of sagebrush, greasewood, and mesquite, and planted crops to feed their cattle and horses. They leveled the land as best they could with the equipment they had. They plowed by using a walking plow and four-horse team pulling. This plow would only cut a furrow 12 to 14 inches wide so it took a long time to plow a forty acre field. Alfalfa was widely grown. To harvest the hay, they would cut the hay with a horse-drawn mower, rake it and haul it to central place and stack it by hand.

Historians list the founder of Palo Verde as William Walton. Mr. Walton took ten acres in “downtown” Palo Verde and had it converted to lots, thus the origin of the Palo Verde town site. Some of the early homes were built of cottonwood logs, and had dirt floors. The laundry was done using water from the ditch that was heated over the fire in the backyard. The kitchens boasted a wood-burning cook stove, but no refrigerator. Thus the only means of having a cool drink in the summer was if there was an olla hanging under the brush shed.

Transportation was horse and buggy. Some larger families, though, would have a surrey. Whereas many people rode horseback, children often rode donkeys.

Palo Verde School District No. 49 was established in 1896. Before that time the children in the Palo Verde area traveled to the Arlington School which was located on the west side of the Hassayampa River about one mile south of the Hassayampa store. As there were many more students attending school from Palo Verde than there were from Arlington, some of the parents asked the Board of Trustees to relocate the school on the east side of the river. The trustees refused the request. The parents, however, were not happy with the refusal and decided to take matters into their own hands. So, late one night when the moon was dark, several farmers hitched a team of horses to a flatbed wagon and headed towards Arlington. In no time at all they had the school building loaded onto the wagon and were on their way back towards Palo Verde. Thus, the first school building was located on the southeast corner of the intersection of Highway 80 and Palo Verde Road.

The Arlington School District refused to pay the teacher, Mr. G.L. Jenkins since the school was now located in Palo Verde. Mr. Jenkins took his case to the County School Superintendent; as a result the Palo Verde School District became established. Mr. Jenkins continued to teach grades one through eight in this schoolhouse for several years with an average attendance of about fifteen students.

Around 1909 the school district purchased ten acres diagonally across the intersection on which to build a new schoolhouse. The new building was completed the following year and included two classrooms that would accommodate fifty students in grades one through eight. A well with a hand pump was adjacent to the building to provide the water supply for the school. There was also a belfry and flagpole placed on top as memorial to yesteryears. As there was only one telephone in the area, the school bell was used as a means of communication. Someone would ring the school bell, which could be heard several miles away, and people would come to hear the news. By 1928 enrollment at the school was in the excess of 300 students and it had become necessary to bring in additional teachers and use the church building for two more classrooms. A third building on the east side of “Old Main” was built which included an additional three classrooms and an office.

By this time the power company had also extended power lines to Palo Verde, so instead of using the well and hand pump for drinking water, a new well was drilled and an electric pump installed. Drinking fountains were located near the entrance of each building, which replaced the bucket of water and dipper for each classroom. The advent of water also improved the restroom facilities. Two restrooms were built to replace the outhouses and accommodate the boys and girls separately.

In 1956 the “Old Main” school building was demolished to make room for the another classroom building to accommodate grades five through eight and to provide an office and teacher’s lounge. At that same time an auditorium/gymnasium was built. This was considered adequate until 1993 when it was voted to build a new school once again.

While Palo Verde was growing, there was one special characteristic that was admired by everyone who lived here. That was the “community spirit”. Perhaps the readers of this commentary have noticed that all of the activities described herein were conceived, planned, and executed by the local people working together. Because of this, the community became very close knit. Things that have survived in Palo Verde are the school, church, and the post office. Over the years the survival of the people and families of Palo Verde often called for the assistance of neighbors, thus strengthening the community bonds.