“PUMPKINVILLE”
By
Gerry Niskern
Do you live in Pumpkinville or is this your first visit? That’s right, Pumpkinville, as Phoenix was called in the early days of our town. Actually, the little town known as Pumpkinville has grown from the first settlers of around 100 families to the 1,625,000 metropolis that is it today.
You see, Phoenix was called Pumpkinville way back around l867 because of all the pumpkins growing along the canals. Who planted them, you might wonder? Well, Jack Swilling planted them. And who was Jack Swilling? Many historians call Jack Swilling the Father of Phoenix.
If the pioneer children of Pumpkinville had wanted to dress up on Halloween, they couldn’t have picked a more notorious character to imitate. Just about every story about early Phoenix starts with Jack Swilling.
Jack Swilling arrived in the Salt River Valley in 1867. He’s been described as a deserter from the Confederate army, visionary, Indian fighter, entrepreneur, scam artist, dope addict, and reported murderer. Some stories circulated that he had killed at least ten people in his lifetime.
He was fascinated with the ancient Hohokam ruins, especially the extensive network of canals the ancient Indians had dug to irrigate their fields. Hohokam, is a name that comes from the Pima word for “people who have gone before”, The Hohokam discovered 2,300 years ago that the miracle of water in the desert can be augmented by human hands.
The Hohokam diverted water from the Salt River through an intricate series of hand-dug canals. Using only the most rudimentary tools, Hohokam builders were able to maintain true grades within their canals. The largest engineering complex located about twenty miles from Phoenix, led from the south bank of the Salt River toward what is now Chandler. The canals along the Salt River are best interpreted at the Pueblo Grande Museum. They cultivated cotton, corn and beans in the irrigated fields, establishing more than 300 miles of canals.
Swilling returned to view the canals several times until one day he realized the farmers could use them. Shortly afterwards, he and his partners began clearing and rebuilding the long-abandoned irrigation canals of the Hohokam. He raised capitol and started Swilling irrigation and Canal Company to bring Salt River water to the valley. Within a short time, the Swilling and Duppa team had water flowing in the canals. Jack Swilling planted pumpkins everywhere he worked. These actions led to the birth of Pumpkinville in 1870. Nowadays the Salt River Project traces its origins to Swilling’s efforts.
The army at Fort McDowell had irrigated an experimental farm using a reconstructed Hohokam canal a year earlier. Later four officers from the fort staked out a water claim on the Salt River. Swilling’s area, known as Pumpkinville of over 100 pioneer homes had been built by this time.
The town may have remained Pumpkinville, but around that time Darrell Duppa, Swilling’s partner in the canal business, suggested the name of Phoenix. The early settlers like the idea of their new city rising from the ashes of the ancient Hohokam ruins, just as the mythical phoenix rose from its own ashes.
Jack Swilling died in Yuma Territorial Prison of natural causes, accused of a stagecoach robbery and murder he didn’t commit.
Due to the efforts of Swilling and Duppa, there were around 100 pioneer families growing wheat and barley in the valley. The pumpkins that grew all along the irrigation canals provided a great supply of Jack-o-Lanterns. If Halloween was celebrated it was most likely to have been a social event involving the whole family.
The goal of most social events was geared to the courting of singles. You could hear the twang of strings and the sound of fiddles sawing coming from parlors around town. Everyone joined in the dancing. Waltzes, Schotisches and muzurkas. If there were any Irish families present, you could count on some scary ghost stories to fit the occasion.
However, most children of the west were far removed from goblins, trolls and spirits from European ghost tales. Who cared about gnomes when real wildcats padded nearby? Fear of Halloween witches gave way to real life encounters with small bands of renegade Apache Indians, as children tried to manage their fright.
Arizona children, according to historian Elliot West, waited until dark to play “all the tigers are gone”, in which the tiger-child would slip off among the boulders while the others spread out through the dark, squealing, “all the tigers are gone”. The tiger, also fearful of the dark, would skulk along close to the others, selecting a victim to pounce upon and tag. Games, like frontier life, called for vigilance.
Today, Phoenix is still a work in progress. Historians are quick to point that never in the world’s history has a metropolis grown from “nothing” to attain the status of Phoenix in a relatively short time
“Pumpkinville” is after all, the world’s largest small town. Every year, in October, the vacant lots around Phoenix are stacked with huge mounds of pumpkins from which the children choose their perfect Jack-o-Lantern.
Pumpkinville has come a long way from the little settlement of 100 rugged families along the Salt River back in the 1800’s.