Pinal County, Arizona

Pinal County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Florence
Year Organized: 1875
Square Miles: 5,370
MSA: Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ MSA

Court House:

31 N. Pinal Street
County Courthouse
Florence, AZ 85232-0827
Phone: (520) 868-6000
Fax: (520) 868-6000

Named: The name may have been derived from that of the Pinal Apaches or possibly from the pine groves in the lofty mountains.

State & County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Pinal County, Arizona

Pinal County underwent slight modifications in 1877 to correct a boundary error, and it also lost the Globe District of southern Gila in 1881. Its present area is 3,441,920 acres. Included in it are the Gila River (forming part of its boundary) and part of the San Carlos Indian Reservation. Pinal County varies in its characteristics from the agricultural land around its county seat at Florence to the mountains where many rich mining discoveries have been made.

In 1871, the Territorial Legislature designated 5,324 miles of some of Arizona's prime land as Pinal County. Pinal County was formed out of portions of Maricopa and Pima Counties on February 1, 1875. Florence, Arizona was established in 1866, was designated as, and has remained, the County seat. Arizona became a state in 1912. It has flown the flags of Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy and the Union. It derives its name from the Pinal Apaches or "pine groves in the mountains." There are four Indian Nations - the Maricopa-Pima (Ak-Chin), Gila River, Tohono O'Odham and San Carlos Apache in Pinal County. They occupy twenty-three percent of the counties.

This area which housed America's first civilization, the capitol of the Toltecs, the Walled Cities of the Aztecs, the father of American irrigation, and the friendly Pima Indians now has vast farming areas and grows such things as cotton, vegetables, and fruit. A lot of migrant workers made their homes in Pinal County. Also, Pinal County had a lot of copper mining but most of the mines have closed now. These mines brought in a lot of workers in the early 1920's.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Gila County
East: Graham County
Southwest: Pima County
Northwest: Maricopa County

Cities:

Apache Junction
Arizona City
Bapchule
Casa Grande
Coolidge
Eleven Mile Corner
Eloy
Florence (County Seat)
Gold Canyon
Kearny
Mammoth
Maricopa
Mobile
Oracle
Picacho
Queen Valley
Red Rock
Sacaton
San Manuel
Stanfield
Superior
Superstition Mountain
Valley Farms

County Resources:

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Pinal County, Arizona

County Resource Guide

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of our country!”

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.”

Penn Foster High School

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