The City of Safford was originally a village in the Arizona Territory. About the winter of 1873-74 a small party of hardy pioneers, who had been for a number of years making an effort to develop water at Gila Bend, and having their dams and canals washed away by the high water, and crops drying out in the consequence, concluded to try anew in the Valley of the Pueblo Viejo, (Old Town), as the whole valley was then known.

The pioneers made their first camp on the bank of the river near here, on land owned by the Chiricahua Cattle Company. Having been joined by a few others, they laid out the present town site under the town site laws of the United States. The town site was surveyed by C.M. Ritter during the closing days of 1874. The early settlers constructed a few crude buildings as a commencement of a town.