Mesa (/ˈmeɪsə/ ⓘ MAY-sə) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States.

[5] It borders Tempe on the west, the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler and Gilbert on the south along with Queen Creek, and Apache Junction on the east.

The history of Mesa dates back at least 2,000 years to the arrival of the Hohokam people.

By AD 1100, water could be delivered to an area over 110,000 acres (450 km2), transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis.

By the late 19th century near present-day Mesa, U.S. Army troops relocated the Apache, opening the way for settlement.

[7] In March 1877, Mormon pioneer Daniel Webster Jones and Henry Clay Rogers left St. George, Utah.

Jones had been asked by Mormon officials to direct a party of people in establishing a settlement in Arizona.

They traveled south and settled on the north side of the present Mesa area.

In 1883, it was named Lehi at the suggestion of Brigham Young, Jr.[8] About this same time, another group dubbed the First Mesa Company arrived from Utah and Idaho.

Rather than accepting an invitation to settle at Jones's Lehi settlement, they moved up onto the mesa that serves as the city's namesake.

During the Great Depression, WPA funds provided paved streets, a new hospital, a new town hall and a library.

[11] After the founding of the city, the elected official that most impacted the municipality was George Nicholas Goodman.

With the advent of air conditioning and the rise of tourism, population growth exploded in Mesa as well as the rest of the Phoenix area.

[14] Mesa employs a grid system for street numbering that is different from that used in Phoenix and other portions of the metropolitan area.

[15] Streets west of Center St., such as W. University Drive or W. Main St. are considered to be in West Mesa, whereas streets east of Center St., such as E. University or E. Main St., are considered to be in East Mesa.

[33] In a 2014 study, academic researchers from MIT and UCLA analyzed over a decade's worth of public opinion surveys.

[34] In 2017, the Pew Research Center also determined that Mesa was the most conservative city in the United States.

[citation needed] The abandoned Fiesta Mall is located in West Mesa and owned by Westcor.

[41] Mesa Riverview is a new outdoor destination retail center in the northwestern corner of the city, near Loop 202 and Dobson Road.

[43] It includes the Superstition Springs Center, a shopping mall owned by Macerich.

The Polytechnic campus of Arizona State University lies in southeast Mesa.

This satellite campus enrolls over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students in scientific and engineering fields.

[47] Arizona State University opened the Media and Immersive eXperience Center in the ASU at Mesa City Center complex in 2022, offering programs from the Herberger Institute for Design and Arts including a film school with media production facilities and a theater.

[55] Boeing builds the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter at a facility adjoining Falcon Field.