[3] Standish was laid out in 1897,[3] as the second development of the Associated Colonies of New York, whose job was to "create utopian communities in the West".

[4] The design of the town was supposed to model European communities which had the majority of residents leaving the village during the day in order to work in the nearby fields.

[4] When the town was built, it was expected that most of the residents would be farmers with houses separated by at least one hundred feet.

[4] In autumn 1897, the Associated Colonies purchased the properties of Edward T. Purser and his Susan River Irrigation system.

[3] This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22 °C).