In 1902 the Arizona Eastern Railway was asking for contributions of right way to build a railway from Phoenix to Florence. The railway was built and landed right on the property of William Gilbert. This property and the town that started to sprout up relied solely on agriculture and the building of the Roosevelt Dam and canals. It remained a main agricultural town and became know as the "Hay Capital of The World" until the 1920's. The town really took a shift around the 1970's when the town council approved the annexation of a big strip of land. They new our famous agricultural town was going to shift into a beautiful, neighboring city home to thousands of families. From the 1980's on, this growth began and we are still expanding and improving as a community. For more information about the coming of Gilbert please look at https://www.gilbertaz.gov/about-us/history .