Back when Buckeye, Arizona was called Sidney


I've lived in the Phoenix, Arizona area for a long time (longer than I care to admit!), and I've heard of the town of Buckeye, mostly because of Buckeye Road, but other than that, I really don't know anything about it, the least of which is that it was once called Sidney. I just found this out today, so I'll tell you what I know.

With the help of my number one history adventurer (who prefers to remain anonymous), I've pieced together a bit of the history of Buckeye, which goes way back to the 1800s. In fact, the plat map up there is from 1902, and if you're familiar with the Buckeye area, those street names should be familiar. First Street is now Miller Road, but the rest of them are still there. Here's a clipping from a Google map if you're not familiar with the area:


As for the rest of the story, I'm still working on it. Obviously the name Sidney never stuck, and it's not even clear where the name came from. The Post Office there was called Buckeye, and people tend to refer to a place by what the post office calls it, which just makes sense to me.


Here's Sidney on a 1938 map of Maricopa County, so at least this one map used the name. It's just south of the Buckeye Canal (which seems to be misspelled on this map), and north of the Gila River. If you're having trouble finding it on the map, look underneath the L and T of "Salt".

When I first learned that the plat said Sidney I imagined that there would be a huge controversy, and argument, about the name, maybe that it had changed at one point which always irritates people. But it turns out to not be the case, people simply ignored the name Sidney, and called it Buckeye.

1914


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