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Home›Small Town Scene›The Legend of How Eloy Got Its Name

The Legend of How Eloy Got Its Name

By Sam Lowe
January 6, 2015
4053
2

ELOY — Sometimes, a legend is to good to let die, even though there’s nothing to support it as truth. One of them is the story of how Eloy got its name.

EloyAccording to “Arizona Place Names” by Will Barnes, the area was named Eloy when a railroad was established but the reasons for the designation were unclear. Later, developers bought some of the land and subdivided an area and named it Cotton City. An application for a post office in Cotton City was rejected because the railroad was already using the name Eloy and since the railroad would carry the mail, Eloy became official.

But legend tells it another way. According to those who tell and retell the story, a man associated with the railroad took one look at the barren desert surrounding the area and named it “Eloi,” supposedly the Spanish pronounciation of “Eli,” as in the Biblical quotation of “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (“My God, my God, why hast though forsaken me?”)

There appears to be no basis for the story, but the legend persists, probably because it’s more colorful than any of the other behind-the-name scenarios.

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Tagseloyplace names

2 comments

  1. Ken Buchanan 15 June, 2017 at 15:05 Reply

    How about a Southern Pacific Railroad acronym “East Line of Yuma” ELOY. Grew up there.

  2. Ken Buchananan 15 June, 2017 at 15:10 Reply

    Southern Pacific Railroad acronym “East Line of Yuma” …i.e….ELOY. I grew up there.

  3. Pedro Noriz 28 June, 2018 at 12:09 Reply

    I’m from Eloy born and raised…I remember the old folks talking about the early days of Eloy during the 1920s and during the great depression…. the town was also nickname little Chicago because of the crime and the shootings that would take place on frontier street and other areas that had bars and such.

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