How a 1922 railroad decision almost erased Maricopa's name

In the summer of 1922, the Arizona Republic quietly announced the death of a name: “ Maricopa is to be Phoenix Junction .” The change, seen in a news clipping preserved by the Arizona Memory Project , was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission to prevent confusion with another Maricopa in California.

On paper, it was a simple rename. But it also nearly wiped away the young community’s identity as its own place and not just a building, let alone one owned by the national Southern Pacific Railroad corporation. See the above image of a railroad family posing by the station, circa 1915.

Fifty years earlier, Maricopa had become the hub of movement in central Arizona.

Before the name change, before Phoenix was even reachable by rail, this patch of desert was where the world arri