Tempe Today Tempe, Arizona is located in the center of the Valley of the Sun with more than 160,000 residents calling it home. Bordered by Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler, Tempe has access to the Loop 101, 202, US 60, I-10 and Hohokam Expressway making it the most accessible city in the metropolitan area. Tempe is also only 10 minutes away from the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport with taxi service and public transportation available seven days a week. Tempe offers more than 330 days a year of sunshine and it's annual rainfall amounts to approximately 7.36 inches a year.
Tempe is also a great place for entertainment, shopping and nightlife. There is something for everyone. If you like sports, you can catch an ASU Football game, run in the P.F. Chang marathon, go kayaking in Tempe Town Lake or even go hiking in Papago Park. Art lovers will be attracted to the Tempe Festival of Arts and Broadway shows at the ASU Gammage. Shopping is also popular and Tempe is home to the largest Ikea store on the West Coast and Arizona Mills Mall. Tempe has seen great changes during the past two decades: gorgeous industrial parks and planned communities have developed by the dozens in an effort to keep pace with the influx of high-tech industry, financial, insurance, athletic, academic, cultural, political and tourism operations. The History of Tempe
In 1865, the U.S. Army arrived at the eastern end of the Salt River Valley and established Fort McDowell. After the arrival of the cavalry came Caucasian pioneers including Wickenburg entrepreneur Jack Swilling, who directed the renovation of the Hohokam canals, and town "founder" Charles Trumbull Hayden, who built a flour mill and began a ferry service across the Salt River.
"Hayden's Ferry," as the city was called then, was also the name of the only vehicle across the Rio Salado. The town grew slowly with mercantiles, saloons and other businesses along the dusty main street Mill Avenue, and was renamed the City of "Tempe" Arizona (Tem-PEE) by an English traveler who compared the area to the beautiful Vale of Tempe in Greece.
In 1886, the Arizona Territorial Normal School welcomed its first class of 31 students in the structure known today as Old Main on Arizona State University's campus. The college town and farming community grew steadily and quietly until post-World War II's Baby Boom pushed Tempe's city limits against the neighboring communities in every direction. In most recent years, corporate America has rediscovered and redefined the City of Tempe, Arizona much the same way Hayden "discovered" the home of the Pimas, who had "discovered" the home of the Hohokam.
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