Gila County

Gila County, Arizona
Gila County Courthouse in Globe
Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Arizona
Arizona's location in the U.S.
Founded	February 8, 1881
Seat	Globe
Largest town	Payson
Area
• Total	4,795 sq mi (12,419 km2)
• Land	4,758 sq mi (12,323 km2)
• Water	38 sq mi (98 km2), 0.8%
Population (est.)
• (2016)	53,556
• Density	11/sq mi (4/km²)
Congressional districts	1st, 4th
Time zone	Mountain: UTC-7
Website	www.gilacountyaz.gov

Gila County is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census its population was 53,597. The county seat is Globe.

Gila County comprises the Payson, AZ Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Gila County contains parts of Fort Apache Indian Reservation and San Carlos Indian Reservation.

The county was formed from parts of Maricopa County and Pinal County on February 8, 1881. The boundary was then extended eastward to the San Carlos River by public petition in 1889. The original county seat was in the mining community of Globe City, now Globe, Arizona.

Popular theory says that the word Gila was derived from a Spanish contraction of Hah-quah-sa-eel, a Yuma word meaning "running water which is salty".

In the 1880s, a long range war broke out in Gila County that became the most costly feud in American history, resulting in an almost complete annihilation of the families involved. The Pleasant Valley War (also sometimes called the Tonto Basin Feud or Tonto Basin War) matched the cattle-herding Grahams against the sheep-herding Tewksburys. Once partisan feelings became tense and hostilities began, Frederick Russell Burnham, who later became a celebrated scout and the inspiration for the boy scouts, was drawn into the conflict on the losing side. Burnham shot many men in the feud, and was himself nearly killed by a bounty hunter.Tom Horn, a famous assassin, was also known to have taken part as a killer for hire, but it is unknown as to which side employed him, and both sides suffered several murders to which no suspect was ever identified. In the 1960s, it was home of Gerald Gault, who was the subject of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in re Gault, that stated juveniles have the same rights as adults when arrested to be notified of the charges against them, the rights to attorneys, for family members to be notified of their arrests and to confront their accusers and to not be punished harsher than adults who are convicted of the same crime, especially if an adult's penalty for the crime would be less than a juvenile convict's.