Park of Canals
Ancient Engineering
Ancient Engineering (Park of Canals 1710 N. Horne, Mesa, AZ 85203)
I’m always on the lookout for parks in the Phoenix area, so I was excited when I first heard about the Park of Canals in Mesa. A friend told me that it used to be the spot of extensive canals built by the Hohokam Indians for irrigation. Having grown up in the area, I was surprised that I had never even heard of this place before! I thought I had visited all the local Hohokam ruins, but apparently I was mistaken. I drove out to the park last spring, and really enjoyed my afternoon there.
The park is pretty small compared to others in the area, but still provided enough room for kids and dogs to run around. I stopped an had a conversation with a guy about the up coming Santa visit near by at the Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum which my children would love. I also saw a small playground that a few kids were playing on, but didn’t venture over since my kids weren’t with me. I mainly stuck to the Canal Trail, a big loop surrounding the canals with informational signs posted along the side of the trail. Honestly, the canals didn’t look like much. If I didn’t know what I was looking for, I might’ve assumed they were just natural formations.
Amazing Engineering in Mesa, AZ History
But the signs proclaimed that they were a miracle of engineering—the American Society of Civil Engineers even awarded them an “Award for Excellence in Prehistoric Engineering”! The signs along the trail told the story of the Mormon settlers who first came across the canals in the 1800s, and expanded upon it to build their own home grown modern system to turn the Mesa into a home for farmable land. I suppose anybody able to direct water and make the Phoenix area into arable land deserves a lot of praise.
The best part of the park turned out not to be the canal system itself, but the botanical garden just off the loop. It’s a typical Southwestern “garden”, mainly featuring cacti and other local brush. But the diversity in cacti can’t be beat: over 150 species in just one small garden! They had species from all over the Southwest, including one eight-limbed specimen that was said to be over 80 years old.
Other than a few families and a couple of people walking dogs, the park was fairly quiet for a nice spring afternoon. I got the sense that this park doesn’t get a lot of traffic, perhaps explaining why I had never heard of it despite living here for decades. Regardless, the Park of Canals is a lovely spot to enjoy a lunch break or a free afternoon in the shade of a ramada, enjoying the rugged beauty of the Arizonan landscape.