HISTORY
The Maricopa Museum and Visitor Center has a wealth of historical information and displays about the area.
Bryan Mordt
WWII-era AIR FORCE BARRACKS FITTING MUSEUM HOME FOR CITY ON THE MOVE
all balsa wood and a laser, so it made an exact replica of the depot. Just a few days ago, we got these photos of the locomotives that ran from here to Phoenix. These are really rare. “At the time, Maricopa was even being considered for the state capital, so this depot they built was considerably larger than the one in Phoenix. Isn’t that cool?” It took Shirk and other members of the historical society years to find items for the museum. “I am a researcher by trade, and I keep going,” he said. “Just (in early October), we were not getting a lot of information on Maricopaville because it was only there a few years.” Maricopaville moved after seven years when it was learned the junction of the Southern Pacific and the Maricopa and Phoenix lines was going to be a few miles away, so the settlement moved to what was then called Maricopa Junction, now Maricopa. “I was interested in the old Maricopaville station, so I dug until I found a Southern Pacific person who gave me a blueprint of it, and then they said, ‘Did you know that Maricopaville station was taken apart and moved to Los Banos, California?’ I said, you’re kidding,” Shirk said. “They moved it on flatcars 750 miles. I contacted the Los Banos Historical Society and got a picture of that reconstructed depot.” While the building has history of its own, there’s much more inside, with concentration on the three places that have been Maricopa in some form. “People always ask a lot of questions about that, because even people living in the area don’t always know that history, and how that came about,” Shirk said. “But the railroad was the driving force of all of that.”
M aricopa regards itself as a 21st- century city on the move. Actually, it has been on the move since the middle of the 19th century, when its hub settlements made a series of short moves to its current site. So, perhaps it is fitting its first museum also has covered some ground. The Maricopa Museum and Visitor Center, op- erated by the Maricopa Historical Society, opened in October at 44240 W. Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. It is housed in former barracks that in the 1940s was part of Williams Field, an Air Force installation in Chandler where pilots were trained for World War II. “We procured the building in 1987 when they were getting ready to close the base, and moved it here,” said Paul Shirk, president of the Maricopa Historical Society. Initially, the building was the city library. It later became a veterans center. Now, it is loaded with information and memorabilia, including a big dose from John Wayne’s connection to the area,
that tells of Maricopa’s journey from Maricopa Wells to Maricopaville to Maricopa Junction, which was the place now known as Maricopa. The city’s past is full of colorful lore. Perry Williams, the first mayor, albeit self-proclaimed long, long before Maricopa was incorporated (in 2003), had a pet bobcat he paraded around town on a leash. “It’s just a joy bringing all this stuff together so people can understand Maricopa was a happenin’ place,” Shirk said. “We want to continue to tell that story.” Shirk’s pride and joy is a scale replica of the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad Station, from which trains made their first journey to Phoenix in 1887. Fire destroyed it in 1931. Originally a school project, the replica was dilapidated and falling apart when Shirk got his hands on it, he said. “I got in touch with Southern Pacific and got their book that gave the exact colors and the way the wood was, vertical and horizontal, and I re-created this station,” he said. “I did this with
12 New Resident & Visitor Guide 2024 • InMaricopa.com/NewResidentGuide
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