Gila Bend (/ˌhiːlə ˈbɛnd/; O'odham: Hila Wi:n), founded in 1872, is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States.

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino was the first European to visit, arriving in 1699 on his first journey of exploration to the Colorado River.

The Hohokam site along the fertile banks of the Gila River had been abandoned, and other tribes lived in the vicinity.

132 Pima people lived in a ranchería called Oyadaibuc, or as Kino named it San Felipe y Santiago del Oyadaibuc, near the modern town, and other Pima lived in three rancherias up river to the north mixed with the Cocomaricopa or Opa.

During one of his three visits to Gila Bend, Kino counted 960 Opas living in their own rancherias down river to the west of Oyadaibuc as far as a few miles beyond Agua Caliente.

[7] From 1849, what became the Southern Emigrant Trail passed through the area, which by 1854 had acquired the name Tezotal or Tesotal, from the scientific name of the desert ironwood tree (Olneya tesota), given it in the botanical report of the Boundary Survey along the Gila River led by William H.

[8] From 1857, the place at 33°00′01.87″N 112°41′55.83″W / 33.0005194°N 112.6988417°W / 33.0005194; -112.6988417 was named "Gila Ranch" and was a stagecoach water and camping stop on the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line.

[9] In 1861, the Butterfield line shut down, but during the American Civil War Gila Ranch remained a stop for freighters to and from the riverport of Arizona City on the Colorado River, passing travelers, the troops of the Confederate Army that briefly passed through and then the California Column of the Union Army that invaded Confederate Arizona and occupied New Mexico Territory in 1862.

[10] Stage and freight routes, especially from the mining camps and boom towns in central Arizona, converged here especially after the railroad arrived in 1879.

[12] On December 14, 2006, Volkswagen of America, Inc., leased 11,900 acres (48 km2) of land at a cost of $55 million for 25 years, 10 miles (16 km) west of Gila Bend, on which they plan to develop a new automobile proving ground.

In recognition of historical routes that pass through the area, the town's website refers to Gila Bend as "The Crossroads of the Southwest".

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 64.4 square miles (167 km2), all of it land.

[2] Situated at 735 feet (224 m) above sea level, Gila Bend has the lowest elevation of any city in Maricopa County and in Greater Phoenix overall.

[19] Gila Bend has an arid desert climate, characterized by extremely hot summers and warm winters.

As typical with the desert in relatively undeveloped areas, there is nothing to keep the heat continuing after the sun sets, so temperatures rapidly drop after sunset.