Tempe Celebrating 150 Years With Series Of Events In 2021

TEMPE, AZ — The city of Tempe is pulling out all the stops to celebrate its 150th birthday in 2021.

The yearlong celebration kicked off in January, with a video that broke down the year's events calendar.

It continued with a month-long celebration of Black History Month in February, with virtual exhibits on Black residents that shaped the city's history.

Then the sesquicentennial hit high gear in March, with the first installment of the city's scavenger hunt series.

The first scavenger hunt started on March 1, at Tempe's Butte Cemetery (2505 W. Broadway Road), with six containers throughout the site with historical items and other goodies.

The cemetery, which is the final resting spot for city luminaries like the Haydens, who were crucial to Tempe's founding in 1861, is the first of several spots to host a scavenger hunt in 2021.

Tempe Public Information Officer Melissa Quillard says the inaugural scavenger hunt has been a rip-roaring success, showing the importance of local history to area residents.

"It really has been sort of a breath of fresh air and something positive amid all of the negativity," Quillard told Patch.

"So to have this happen in 2021, as we’re starting to see some glimmer of hope with vaccines and a drop in cases, it’s definitely a positive thing."

Quillard says the initial response to the city's first scavenger hunt has been overwhelming, with more than 100 people visiting the cemetery daily in March.

"So these are kind of fun because they’re outdoors and you can do them all socially distancing and still have some fun with it," Quillard says.

"But even our social media posts, people are feeling nostalgic and happy and really bringing the community together. So it’s kind of coming full circle in a sense, having this all in 2021."

The city's yearlong celebration also commemorates those that inhabited the city limits long before the likes of Hayden and other early settlers, tying Tempe's history together.

"The area has history that goes back so much further, with the native American tribes and the ones that set up the canal system that exists today," Quillard says. "So it’s just 150 is an incredible accomplishment.

"It’s interesting to see, if you go back 150 years, to see how far we’ve come in that amount of time, yet the identity of the city has remained the same."

More information on the city's sesquicentennial can be found on Tempe's website, with a full breakdown of the events that are scheduled to take place in 2021.

Above all, Quillard hopes that residents and history buffs will enjoy the city's yearlong celebration, tying together the threads that made Tempe what it is.

"We’re really just loving the community responding to this and the nostalgia that’s part of it and the feeling of hope and coming home that’s a part of it," Quillard says. "We’re really happy with the timing, for sure."