GILA BEND

town, Maricopa county, southwestern Arizona, U.S., 50 mi (80 km) southwest of Phoenix. The Gila River makes a sweeping 90 bend westward at this point, hence the name. Here in 1774 Father Francisco Garcs founded an Indian rancheria, called it Santos Apstoles San Simn y Judas, and raised two crops of grain annually by irrigation. A colony of white men began a settlement in 1865 at the site of the old rancheria. The settlement came to be known as Gila Bend. The town location later shifted because a railroad in 1880 laid track away from the river bank. The river itself changed course but by 1945 gave signs of reverting to its old course. Today a prosperous agricultural town, Gila Bend relies on water stored at Gillespie Dam for irrigating its fields. Twenty-five miles northwest of Gila Bend is Painted Rocks State Historic Park where prehistoric denizens left artistic-looking imprints. Nearby is Gila Bend (Papago Indian) Reservation. Pop. (1990) 1,747.