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Peterson

Ghost town · Maricopa County, Arizona

Mesa quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1913, 1:62,500)
Mesa quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1913, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Peterson is a ghost town in Maricopa County, Arizona. It is one of 10 former communities in Maricopa County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 6th among the 15 Arizona counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Peterson as a historical populated place on the Tempe topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 33.3770° N, 111.9576° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleTempe
Elevation1,203 ft
Nearest living townGuadalupe, AZ
Distance to it0.8 miles
GNIS feature ID25012
Coordinates33.37699, -111.95764

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Peterson today, aerial view
Mesa quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1913, 1:62,500)

Left: Mesa quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1913, 1:62,500), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Peterson is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Guadalupe, AZ (population 5,293), about 0.8 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 1,203 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Peterson?

Peterson is in Maricopa County, Arizona, at 33.3770, -111.9576.

How many ghost towns are in Maricopa County?

Maricopa County, Arizona has 10 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.