Site of Hayden's Ferry

Before there was a town here there was a rope and a river. In 1871 Charles Trumbull Hayden strung a ferry across the Salt, then a flowing stream and a real barrier to travel, holding the craft on course with a cable stretched bank to bank. Hayden also raised the first flour mill in the Salt River Valley, and the settlement that gathered around his crossing was first called Hayden's Ferry before taking the name Tempe. The ferry was a small piece of iron and rope, but it stitched the desert valley into the routes that settled it.

What the plaque says

Established in 1871, when the Salt River was a flowing stream and a barrier to travel, the ferry was held on course by a wire cable taut across the river and was an important link in settling the Southwest. It was built and operated by Charles Trumbull Hayden, who established the first flour mill in the Salt River Valley. La Casa Vieja, built in 1871, was the Hayden home. The settlement that grew around the crossing was first known as Hayden's Ferry, later renamed Tempe.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Phoenix — 7.8 mi
  The fifth-largest US city, built on the canals of a thousand-year-old one
• Heard Museum — 8.1 mi
  The Native Southwest, told in the first person
• Taliesin West — 13 mi
  Frank Lloyd Wright's desert masterwork, grown from the ground it stands on

More markers nearby

• Hayden House — steps away
• Sallie D. Hayden — steps away
• Tempe Hardware Building — 0.3 mi
• The Old Church — 0.6 mi