[4] This town and neighboring communities and landmarks with similar names were all likely derived from Spanish, specifically the records of Spaniard Francisco Garcés who visited the area in 1775–76, and described the grasslands of the area using the word sácate or sácaton: "Zácate, more frequently sácate, from the Nahuatl çacatl, is the usual name for grass such as horses and cattle eat, also called indifferently by Garcés pastos and pasturas, pasturage, forage, herbage.

[6] As a 1920 Department of Agriculture report noted, "Cities and towns in the Middle Gila Valley are few and small..."[7] Sacate was originally a station along the Maricopa and Phoenix Railway, laid out in 1887.

[8] According to the U.S. Geological Survey, "The lines west of El Paso were built in separate portions by local Southern Pacific organizations, since 1902 combined in the one general company.

[9] In the late 1800s, colonial settlement of Arizona Territory changed the hydrology of the Gila River valley, disrupting traditional agricultural and irrigation systems.

But this is passed, and now for miles the train speeds through avenues of cottonwood trees, by alfalfa fields of deepest emerald that stretch away to the very horizon east and west, past orchards and vineyards, through Tempe, a prosperous town, and across a great bridge that spans the Salt river's channel.At some point between 1906 and 1915, Sacate was the site of a gunfight in which Maricopa Slim killed two or more Mexicans.

[16] In 1936 the population was 12 people, mail would be delivered to Maricopa, and the nearest parish church with a resident pastor was 13 mi (21 km) to the northwest in Komatke.