The area surrounding the Rio Verde community, northeast of downtown Scottsdale, was settled by small farmers in the 1880s, who grew hay and alfalfa to provide for nearby Fort McDowell,l[4] a US Army camp (1865–1890) (now the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation[5]).

In the late 1890s, Frank Asher and William W. Moore acquired several of the small farm plots on the Verde River, combining them into what became the Box Bar Ranch; Moore later bought out Asher's interest.

William Moore's father, Ransom B. Moore, emigrated to Arizona from California in 1883 and ranched for many years on the Reno Ranch, west of the community of Punkin Center in Gila County.

Ransom Moore, the founder of what is now Banning, California also was Gila County's delegate to the 16th Arizona Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1891.

In 1954 the Moore brothers retired from the active cattle business and sold the ranch and their holdings to the Page Land & Cattle Co. (Lin Moore retained the X2 Ranch; after his death in 1960, his widow continued to operate the X2 until selling it in 1970.)

The Moores' descendants, including historian Wyatt James, still reside in Maricopa County.

A portion of Lin & Lucille Moore's homestead property on the foothills to the south, known as "The Ochoa Place", has recently been incorporated into the expanding McDowell Mountains McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

[7][8] A planned water district for Rio Verde Foothills was rejected by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in August 2022; several residents filed a lawsuit against the City of Scottsdale to resume service.

[1] Rio Verde Community Church provides both interdenominational and Catholic services.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.3 square miles (11 km2), all land.