Goodyear

Images of America: Arizona

by Denise E. Bates, Sally Kiko, Three Rivers Historical Society

In 1916, Paul W. Litchfield, vice president of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, purchased 16,000 acres west of Phoenix to grow long staple cotton for use in the pneumatic tires the company manufactured. With this, the Southwest Cotton Company was formed. This huge undertaking required drilling wells and building power lines, roads, canals, and, of course, housing for workers. The war years brought Goodyear Aircraft, built by the U.S. Department of Defense on land leased from Southwest Cotton Company, and Litchfield Naval Air Facility. With the arrival of Goodyear Aircraft and the navy base, homes, apartments, and basic retail services sprang up. The town of Goodyear was incorporated on November 19, 1946, with a population of 1,250. Named an All-America City in 2008, Goodyear is now a thriving community of 58,000 residents and the spring training home of Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds.

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2010

About the author

Denise E. Bates is a historian and assistant professor at Arizona State University. She is the author or editor of several books, including Basket Diplomacy: Leadership, Alliance-Building, and Resilience among the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, 1884-1984; We Will Always Be Here: Native Peoples on Living and Thriving in the South; and The Other Movement: Indian Rights and Civil Rights in the Deep South.