Casa Grande (O'odham: Wainom Wo:g) is a city in Pinal County, approximately halfway between Phoenix and Tucson in the U.S. state of Arizona.

[1] Casa Grande was founded in 1879 during the Arizona mining boom, specifically due to the presence of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Casa Grande grew slowly, and suffered several setbacks both in 1886 and 1893, when fires ravaged the town, destroying all wooden housing structures within it.

The first exhibition game was played in Casa Grande in 1961, with Willie Mays hitting a 375-foot (114 m) home run.

These targets consisted of concrete arrows located in and to the south of the city, which calibrated aerial cartographic cameras.

The Casa Grande Cotton Kings, who were founded in 1948, qualified to play in the National Baseball Congress World Series ten straight times by winning Arizona state championships in the 1940s and 1950s, and were reactivated in the 2000s.

[11] According to the United States Census Bureau, Casa Grande has a total area of 112.01 square miles (290.1 km2), all land.

The city experiences long, extremely hot summers and brief winters consisting of mild afternoons and chilly evenings.

Along with the rest of southern Arizona, the community is prone to dust storms and in the summer months is affected by the North American Monsoon, which brings high winds and heavy rain.

The economy of Casa Grande was historically based on rural, agricultural industries, such as cotton and dairy farms.

Many new businesses such as restaurants, gas stations, and retail outlets are opening throughout the city in order to keep up with demand from the growing population.

Built by Westcor and the Pederson Group, it is similar to Desert Ridge Marketplace (an outdoor shopping center in northeast Phoenix).

The Promenade at Casa Grande is an outdoor mall, built on a 100-acre (0.40 km2) patch of desert, and contains nearly a million square feet.

[17] According to Casa Grande's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[18] the top employers in the city are: On November 29, 2016, officials from the state and the Lucid Motors car company announced a $700 million manufacturing plant would be constructed in Casa Grande that would employ up to 2,000 workers by 2022.

In 2021-22 Chief Kean led the fight for the City to form their own ambulance transportation service and obtain a “Certificate of Necessity” from the Arizona Department of Health.

The Casa Grande Public Library provides the standard services of access to reading materials, as well as some special services, including a volunteer reading club for elementary school, internet access, and a talking book program.