Eloy: Cotton City That Lost Its Name

The name Eloy comes from the railroad. In nineteen oh two, the Southern Pacific built a siding here and called it Eloy, a name often explained as standing for East Line Of Yuma, though sources differ on that.

In nineteen eighteen, three settlers bought the surrounding land, planted cotton, and called their operation Cotton City. They applied for a post office under that name. The postal service refused and used Eloy instead. The railroad refused to change its records. After a year of arguments, the farmers gave up. Cotton City became Eloy.

Eloy incorporated in nineteen forty-nine and grew on the strength of its farms. Then in nineteen eighty-one, Skydive Arizona opened a dropzone at the local airfield, and something unexpected happened: Eloy became the skydiving capital of the world. Today more jumps are logged here than anywhere else on earth. It is still a cotton town with a railroad name that nobody wanted, now known primarily for people falling out of airplanes.