"This community is named because it is at the point on the Gila River where the river made a
sweeping ninety-degree bend to the west, as noted by many travellers, some of whom called it
the Big Bend or Rinconada. Today's small city is not precisely at the bend referred to. Fr.
Eusebio Kino visited this locale in 1699. Here Fr. Francisco Garces in 1774 encountered an Indian rancheria which he called Santos Apostoles San Simon y Judas (Spanish="The Blessed Apostles St. Simon and Judas"). De Anza called the place Opasoitac, and Garces is said to ahve also called it Uparsoytac or Upasoitac. The Papago name Uhupat Oidak is tesota in Spanish (=Catl claw field). In 1850 there were Indian settlements on the great bend of the Gila River. They were as follows: 1. Vinyi'lkwukyava ("Where the black mountains meets"), said to have been on the west bank of the present Gillespie Dam; 2. The following were temporary sites: Kwutupara ("last", probably because it was the most westerly.); 3. Tunkuvatc ("The Middle One"); 4. An easternmost temporary settlement which apparently had no name. As is customary with Indian place names, each name is a descriptive locale.
At the original location of Gila Bend the freighting and mail station was called Gila Ranch. The name for the ranch on the site of the Maricopa Indian Village was noted in 1854 by Lt. Parke as being Tezotal, for the desert ironwood tree listed as olneya tesota in Dr. John Torrey's botanical report for the Boundry Commission.
At one time along the stream course was a South Gila Bend and North Gila Bend, about twenty miles apart. Both were probably in existence to serve emigrants. Papago Indians called the vicinity Petato, their word for the familiar vegetable green called "Lamb's Quarter", which grew abundantly in the region. In 1865 settlers drove a small community developed around the stage station named Gila Bend. In 1880 railroad tracks were completed and a station was built away from the river, although the steam engines drew water from the river until the railroad sank its own wells. When that happened, the small community began relocating near the railroad. The first settler at the new town site (laid out by Daniel Murphy, John H. Martin, and William H. Barnes) was Daniel Noonan. Noonan had been postmaster at the Gila Bend post office at the river freigting and stage station. By 1910 all that remained of the older location were eight Papgo families at Uhupatoidak. P.O. est May 1, 1871 Albert Decker first pm, disc May 26, 1879; reest at new location Aug 4, 1880 Daniel Noonan pm.
Barnes, Will C.; Granger, Byrd (ed.) Arizona's names : X marks the place
Falconer Pub. Co. : distributed by Treasure Chest Publications, c1983. P. 258
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