Whatever happened to the Las Palmas Tract in Phoenix, Arizona?

If you lived in Phoenix in 1898, you probably remember reading about the proposed Las Palmas Tract, which was to be built about four miles from the city, and filled with beautiful trees. Here, I'll let you read a bit of the article:


Sounds wonderful, right? I have to admit that it seemed to be stretching it a bit to say that the temperature in the area was 10 degrees higher in the winter, and several degrees cooler in the summer, since nowadays this area would be described as between 16th Street and 24th Street, and Indian School Road and Camelback Road, but hey, that's just marketing, right? Here's a link to the article if you want to read some more: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/az_elk_ver01/data/sn84020558/00202192622/1898032101/0648.pdf

But sadly, it never made it. By 1903, this article explains what happened:


Looks like a bunch of money was spent for improvements, grading, laying out walks, and transplanting shade and ornamental trees, and then a drought hit (I know it says drouth but I just think that it got very hot and dry and didn't rain much) and the tract lapsed back, as they say, into "its desert condition". It must have been interesting to see for a while, although sad to see the trees all die. And here's a link to the 1903 article: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/az_leopardfrog_ver01/data/sn84020558/00212476249/1903071901/0656.pdf

Yep, a lot of money was lost, and then this failure was forgotten because it was soooo long ago. Nowadays one of the most common things I hear from people is that they wished that they had invested in the land in Phoenix, especially around the Biltmore area. And that would have been a good investment, just not in 1898.

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