Salt River Stories

Salt River Stories (or PHXstories) is a free mobile app that puts the history of the Phoenix-Scottsdale-Tempe metro area at your fingertips.
A collaboration between the Public History program at Arizona State University and the Papago Salado Association, Salt River Stories lets you explore the people, places, and moments that have shaped the region’s history. Learn about the region through layered, map-based, multimedia presentations, use social media to share your stories, and take curated historical tours of the desert metropolis.
Each point on the interactive GPS-enabled map tells a story about the site and includes images from the region's archives. Many stories also include audio clips and short documentary videos, sharing oral histories or expert knowledge. Perhaps best of all, Salt River Stories is a collaborative project with stories created collaboratively by teachers, students, professors, and community members. Students and faculty in the School of Historical Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University curate Salt River Stories.


If you know of a story, a site, theme, or topic that we’ve not explored, check back often because we will be adding new material on a monthly basis. If you would like to suggest a site or become involved in developing digital stories, reviewing content, or collecting regional history please contact us. 


You can find us on the web at saltriverstories.org; you may email us at [email protected], or you can find us on Facebook at SaltRiverStories and on Twitter @PHXstories. 


We are sometimes asked why we named the project “Salt River Stories,” and there are many reasons, including that our coverage is not bounded by a single political entity subdivision in the Valley. Also, and critically, the Salt River defines the valley in which Phoenix and the broader metropolis that emerged during the 20th century. The Salt River is both a watershed and valley--in which gravity forces water to flow from the Granite Reef to the East into the Valley nurturing human development in the region. To highlight the breadth of our region and the amazing ways the chose to call this historical project Salt River Stories to highlight the amazing ways that environment and human society have shaped the Valley of the Sun, we have titled our project Salt River Stories.