By John Tanet | 12 News
GILBERT, Ariz. — Gilbert residents are often quick to correct anyone that calls their town a city. Because, even with a population that almost outstrips St. Louis, Missouri, Gilbert isn’t a city.
It’s a town: the largest town in America, according to the United States Census Bureau. Gilbert was a late-bloomer compared to its neighbors, like Glendale and Scottsdale, but its explosive growth over the last 30 years quickly outsized both cities.
Previously saddled with worries of “blighted” economy and scarce investment opportunities, Gilbert managed to buck the common trappings of being a town surrounded by cities.
So how did a town of roughly 5,000 known as the “Hay Shipping Capital of the World” go from a small spur on a burgeoning railroad to the largest town in the country? And does its status as a town actually make a difference?
When the Arizona Eastern Railway sought to link Phoenix to Pinal County it needed to pass through William Gilbert’s land. Just southeast of Phoenix and surrounded by farms, the land was the prime spot for a spur where cars could load and unload their cargo.
Gilbert agreed to provide his land on one condition — that the spur be named after him. So in 1902, the company built their railroad and businesses began to crop up around the spur.
A few years later, several Mormons displaced from Mexico settled in the area, more people came to work the farmland, and by 1912 the community had its own post office. But it was World War I that really put Gilbert on the map.
“That was a war that was fought on horseback,” Denise Lopez, HD South’s President and CEO explained. “So you needed, as a cavalry war, food for your stock, for your horses, and your cattle and your mules and that sort of thing. Because this was such a predominant and productive area when it came to alfalfa, we sent more alfalfa out of here than anywhere else.
“In fact, in World War I, Gilbert was known as the ‘Hay Shipping Capital of the World,'” she said.
