0.1 miles away
Gillespie Dam Bridge
A through truss bridge over the Gila River, built between 1925 and 1927 and carrying U.S. Route 80 until 1956.
Gillespie Dam
A 1920s concrete gravity dam on the Gila River between Buckeye and Gila Bend, part of which failed in heavy rains in 1993.
- Rank in Arizona
- #451of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 33.9 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Landmark
The Gillespie Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Gila River in Maricopa County, Arizona, between Buckeye and Gila Bend. It was built during the 1920s, primarily for irrigation, and was key to the development of a 72,000-acre parcel owned by W. S. Gillespie of Tulsa, Oklahoma, initially allowing 10,000 acres to be irrigated. A portion of the dam failed unexpectedly in 1993 during unusually heavy rains.
Where it is
Gillespie Dam is a landmark near Buckeye, in Maricopa County. It is one of the landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
No official visitor count is published for Gillespie Dam, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.
Sources
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
Alan Stark from Goodyear, AZ, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
Marine 69-71, CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
17 miles away
Gatlin Site
A Hohokam platform-mound site near Gila Bend, home to over 500 people between AD 800 and 1200, excavated in 1959-60.
18 miles away
Painted Rock Dam
An earthfill embankment dam west of Gila Bend, in Maricopa County, used primarily for flood control.
21 miles away
Skyline Regional Park
An 8,700-acre Sonoran Desert preserve on the White Tank Mountains' southern edge, managed by Buckeye under a BLM lease.
22 miles away
Painted Rock Petroglyph Site
Hundreds of pre-Columbian petroglyphs near Theba, listed in 1977 and run by the Bureau of Land Management with a campground and trail.
24 miles away
Sonoran Desert National Monument
A 496,400-acre monument south of Goodyear and east of Gila Bend, proclaimed in 2001 and managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Landmark
- Destination
- Buckeye
- County
- Maricopa County
- State
- Arizona
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 33.9 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 20.6
- Significance score
- 45.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Coordinates
- 33.2292, -112.7690
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12