A Brief History of Mesa, Arizona

First Mesa Company

The First Mesa Company, comprised of 85 members, left Utah and Idaho in September 1877. The company leaders, some of whom were polygamous, were Crismon, Pomeroy, Sirrine, and Robson. They took a different route from Jones, crossing the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry, where there is a steep cliff.

The leaders of the Mesa Company reached Utahville, as Lehi or Jonesville was then called, in January of 1878; the rest of the company came in February. Daniel Webster Jones invited the group to stay, but they decided to move up to the mesa. They marked off land and immediately began work clearing the original Hohokam canals. Water entered the canals in April of 1878.